wood filler and clear finish for oak floor?

adjason

I am about to complete my 400 square foot oak floor installation. My question is,is there a particular type of wood filler I should use to fill nail holes and small gaps? I really don't want to fill the entire floor. I'm thinking of getting something locally from big box reatailers. Also is there any reason to stain a floor with minwax natural colored stain or should I just go right to poly? I want an unstained look. Thanks as always for your sound advice!

Just Bill

There should not be many nail holes, just up against the wall. Minwax colored putty goes in after all is done, not intended to go in before finishing, see directions. But it is a usually a good match, and you mix colors for s perfect match.

Using stain is a personal choice. It highlights the grain, which you may or may not like.

tacomahardwood.

Go Get some latex base red oak floor filler And trowell fill the whole floor , I am A pro tacomahardwoodfloors.com have a look , Heres the deal if you don't trowel the whole floor you won't have as good a chance to see how it sands out , The filler will remain in low spots and show you rough sand paper marks , And why would you skip a step in the process ,
Are you useing a professional hardwood floor belt sander ? Or what ?
You should be roughing off with 36 grit , then 50 grit to get the 36 marks out , then full trowel fil then 80 grit to get the filler out then vibe sand all the edges with 80 grit and hand sand where you can't reach ,then get a 500 watt light and shine it acroos the floor from a low angle and get in front of it and look for sandpaper marks and fix as necessary then Vac , then go clean the vac and vac again , then just go with polyurethane , Natural stain sealer can be put on but why waste your time if you want the natural color , Poly will build a little finish up on the first coat , and sealer stain won't it will just seal the wood a little , so just go with three coats of poly , Buff between coats with a 180 screen