Q: I painted my BR floor and put polyurethane on it. It yellowed. I didn’t know that some finish yellows, what can I do? A: Virtually all solvent based finishes will amber to some degree. I think I would “screen” the heck out of the polyurethane to remove as much as possible and give it [...]
Yellowing
How do I get my semi-solid wooden floors to go back to their original colour?
Regarding urethane for hardwood floors, I just finished reading your oil vs. water text. I think I am partial to oil. I have new, beautiful, truly brown walnut flooring that I do not want to yellow. I cannot get my hands on the Circa 1850 Bowling Alley urethane. Do you think that the yellowing or amber-color that happens with oil-based is from the yellow in the wood? If so, I should be OK because this wood has no yellow in it. Or, do you think that the urethane itself is what ambers? If that’s the case I might have to go with the water-based, which I do not want to do.
Q: After sanding down our 50-yr. old hardwood, we put 3 coats of poly on them and they turned out great. However, we decided we wanted to put the same hardwood in our kitchen. So we bought unfinished white oak, sanded it after installing, and then put 1 coat of poly on. It does not match the colour of the old hardwood which is much more orange. Some people have said to put a 3-6 inch “border” in between the 2 such as staining a strip a darker colour in order to separate the differences. Would you recommend trying to stain the new wood a completely different colour?
I recently bought a 115 year-old house, remodelled within past 10 years, with wall to wall carpet. I ripped up the carpet on the second floor, with the intention on re-carpeting, only to find old 2 3/8″ wide strip pine floors in relatively decent condition. The carpet caused some yellow and oranging of the wood. I am now faced with needing to sand and stain (or not) these floors. This room is the TV room with floor to ceiling windows and access to the deck, so it gets sun and traffic. My hope is to put area rugs in the sitting area and at the door going outside. My questions are: Is sanding the best approach to this style pine floor? Also, is it better to leave the pine natural or attempt to stain? (I realised staining pine is a careful chore). My primary concerns are best looks for the resale of the house and durability in a high traffic and constantly sunlit room. I will be using a professional for this work.
What would happen if I wanted to sand all the way to bare wood, and then cover with a water base? Would I get some yellowing?
