Pallmann’s WhiteSeal is a white wood finish with a very specific purpose.

This a waterborne wood floor sealer – which is just a fancy word for primer. This means it is the coat you put on the wood FIRST and its main purpose is to provide a bonding surface for your topcoats. But Pallmann’s WhiteSeal contains just enough white pigment to camouflage the pink in red oak floors, or to give a subtle bleached look to white oak or maple. It isn’t as white as a true white stain, but it has more pigment than its cousin, Pall-X NatureSeal.

WhiteSeal is particularly effective on southern red oak, which are the most pink-looking wood floors out there. If you house was built in the 1950s or early 60s, it is more likely that you have a lot of red in your floor. If you are trying to calm that red down and make it look more like white oak, this is one of the easier was to achieve it.

This is not a stand-alone product. It requires at least two layers of topcoat over it to truly protect your floor. The obvious choice is to stay within the brand family and use one of the three Pallmann topcoats: Nexgen, Power, or Gold. But this also works beautifully under our PolyWhey line of polyurethane, which has the lowest VOCs of any polyurethane we sell.

That said, we do have to warn you that all white wood finish, no matter what the brand, has a reputation for being a little difficult. Any time you try to suspend pigment in a clear finish coat, it is prone to leaving lap lines and skips in the finished coat. Even the smallest spot with a little bit of extra product thickness will look whiter than the rest.

Apply carefully! It does not say this on the jug, but Pallmann recommends apply this product with a 3/8″ microfiber roller (using a paint pad to cut in your edges) and to roll from a tray. Do no pour the product directly on the floor as you would a normal floor polyurethane. Pallmann also recommends that you apply two very thin coats instead of one regular coat. So, two coats at a coverage rate of 600-700 sqft per gallon, rather than one coat at 400 sqft per gallon. This decreases  puddles and laps, and if any areas are skipped, the second coat will fill them in before they become more apparent once the topcoat is applied.

Applicator: 3/8″ nap microfiber roller, foam paint pad
Coverage rate: 350 sqft per gallon
Dry time: 4-6 hours above 65 degrees with appropriate ventilation.

Learn more about Pallmann Waterborne Polyurethane for first-time coaters and learn how to apply Pallmann Waterborne Polyurethane finishes.