Wax or varnish on the old floor ?

[Peterthepole]

Hi all, need a a bit of advice.
I’m on the middle of renovating old wooden flooring in 1960s house on the first floor Already sanded, I used lecol 7500 to fill all gaps and sanded again.
Now is the question:
What is better to use wax or vanish.
What is more flexible?
My concern is the floorboards have some movement obviously and some gaps between the boards are vide .
What is better to use wax of varnish to prevent cracking?
Thanks

[OchAye]

I would not use varnish although you and I may mean different things by the word "varnish". Wax could be fine and keep the wood looking natural but if you buff it well it may be slippery and you will need to reapply and buff again (once a year?).

What I would rather do. As it is a pine floor, it will naturally darken and look like antique pine in 1-3 years, you have to accept that. Look at OSMO and/or Liberon oils (usually referred to as hard wax oils for floor use and will come in matt, satin etc finishes). Further, off the top of my head I think it is OSMO who do a UV first coat oil which may protect the colour of the floor for a bit longer. I have never used it as I was not sure of the instructions for applying it.

What you need is a coat system that will resist the best way possible spills (wine, cat hairballs if you got the 4 legged ones, babies spilling all sorts of their own hairballs etc). Varnish will be fine until it decides to crack and start peeling off and then you are back to where you started (sanding the floor). However be prepared to reapply oils.

That's my 2 pennies of thoughts, and if I am wrong I blame it on red wine.

[Peterthepole]

Thanks for the answer! Wax then.
The floor is in the kids bedrooms I hope for not wine spills in the next good few years:)

[OchAye]

Just use clear wax, rather one that does not add any colour. No need to help the pine darken any faster than it will do anyway.