I just called a few pros to price out finishing 500 sq ft of white oak. They told me that it HAS to be sealed before applying any finish. They also said that RM and all hardening oils are a waste... and that OMU is hands down more durable than Streetshoe... I digress. Anyway... do I have to seal the white oak before using Monocoat?

I have not used Rubio Monocoat yet.TO my knowledge , no sealer is needed.So if you use that product , simply follow the manufacturers directions. Other contractors on this board use Rubio and say it is very simple and effective.


As for Street Shoe versus OMU, no OMU is as hard as street shoe.If you use street shoe with the included hardener, it will be significantly harder than OMU. Keep in mind that lots of contractors screw up water based coats , put them down much too thin and sometimes choose not to use hardener so as to not have any waste , which is a disservice to the customer.

I don’t know if you have your monocoat yet, but you should look at some of the Hardwaxoils from Ciranova...

We are the North American suppler of this product. We have had people rate this higher than the monocoat from rubio, have a look at the products here:

ciranova-na.com/collections/02-02-finish-protection-oils

We are shipping out in march if you are interested.

Daniel