A finishing coat of clear sealer offers excellent protection for painted or unpainted surfaces. Most are surface-specific so make sure you have bought the right one before you start. Modern product packaging has excellent instructions so please read them carefully. We have grouped our stock into stone floor sealer and stone floor cleaner, finishes for paint effects, such as scumble and decorators varnish and clear sealer for general use. Clear wood varnish and clear coats for wooden floors are in our Wood Finishes section.
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Water based clear coats are generally formulated on either an acrylic or a polyurethane resin. They tend to be milky white-ish when wet but dry completely clear. The solvent-based ones do smell of solvent and always have a slight golden-syrup tone to them which does not disappear when dry. Water based acrylic varnish is highly transparent, and in the case of Polyvine Matt Decorators varnish has a such a low refractive index you can hardly see that it is there. Water based polyurethane varnishes are more expensive than acrylics but are higher build, tougher and more scratch resistant and so tend to be used in wooden floor varnish.
Liberon describe their solvent-based clear coats as "colour enhancing". However, remember that even if the contents look golden brown in the can most are ideally applied at about 40 microns thickness. The full system might be thinner than a sheet of printer paper so any colour is very stretched out over the finished surface.
All clear coats will enhance the appearance of an un-coated surface. To give you some idea of the effect imagine a dry pebble on the beach - often not much to look at - and then think what it looks like when it is wet. All the colours spring to life and the colour contrasts are much greater. This is what will happen with a clear coat. The dry surface will look wet when the clear coat is first applied, and then the "wet look" will dry down - but never completely to where it was before the clear coat was put on. Check with plain water what the effect might be or do a small test patch of the sealer in an unobtrusive place to avoid any nasty surprises.
