If you’ve lived in your Perth home for more than five years, you might have noticed something happening to your beautiful timber floors. That once-pale Blackbutt is starting to look orange, or your rich Jarrah is taking on a muddy, yellowish tint. This phenomenon—timber floor yellowing—is one of the most common complaints we hear at Ryan’s Flooring.
But why does it happen, and can it be stopped? In this post, we’ll look at the “Yellowing Test” results from real Perth homes and explain how we help our clients restore their floors to their natural beauty.
The Two Culprits: Wood Oxidation and Coating Chemistry
There are actually two different things happening when we talk about timber floor yellowing.
1. Natural Wood Oxidation (The UV Effect)
Timber is an organic material. Just like a cut apple turns brown when exposed to air, timber changes colour when exposed to oxygen and UV light. In Perth, our UV levels are some of the highest in the world. Even through windows, the sun’s rays are constantly interacting with the tannins and oils in your wood. This is why the floor under a rug often looks completely different from the floor exposed to the sun.
2. Coating Yellowing (The Solvent Problem)
This is the most common cause of that “ugly orange” look. Traditional solvent-based polyurethanes are naturally amber-toned. As they age and are exposed to Perth’s heat and UV, the chemicals in the plastic coating itself break down and turn yellow, then orange, then eventually a dark “toffee” colour. This layer of yellowed plastic sits on top of your wood, masking its true beauty.
The Perth “Yellowing Test”
We’ve looked at hundreds of floors in suburbs like Dianella and Booragoon. In our experience, floors coated with solvent-based products 10-15 years ago are almost always significantly yellowed. We recently performed a restoration on a Marri floor in Subiaco where the homeowner thought the wood was naturally orange. Once we sanded back the old coating, a stunning, creamy-pale timber was revealed underneath.
How to Prevent Timber Floor Yellowing
If you want to avoid that yellow/orange look in the future, the solution lies in your choice of finish during your next floor sanding and polishing project.
- Choose Water-Based Polyurethane: High-quality 2-pack water-based finishes are “non-yellowing.” They are completely clear when applied and stay clear for the life of the coating. They act like a window to your wood, showing the actual colour of the grain.
- Consider OSMO Hardwax Oil: While oils do “wet” the timber and add some depth, they don’t contain the yellowing chemicals found in solvent-based poly. They allow the wood to age more naturally and gracefully.
- Use Window Treatments: Even with non-yellowing finishes, the wood itself will still oxidize. Using UV-filtering window films or keeping blinds closed during the peak of a Perth summer day will significantly slow down the natural colour change of the wood.
Restoring a Yellowed Floor
The good news? timber floor yellowing is rarely permanent. Because the yellowing is usually in the coating, a professional sand-back will remove the old, discolored layer and reveal the fresh timber beneath. We specialise in timber floor restoration and can help you select a modern, non-yellowing finish that will keep your floors looking fresh for another decade.
We’ve seen this transformation hundreds of times across WA. From Fremantle heritage boards to modern Floreat extensions, removing the “orange” is the single best thing you can do for the look of your home.
Conclusion
Don’t settle for orange floors. If your timber has lost its spark, it’s probably just the old coating talking. By choosing the right floor finish, you can enjoy the true, natural tones of Western Australian timber without the fear of yellowing.