Q: Can you restain after you have used one application of polyurethane / Poloplaz? A: No. The stain won’t penetrate through the finish into the wood.
Staining
Q&A
May 212013
Apr 102013
Q: I just had red oak floors water popped and stained dark, then 3 coats of oil based poly applied. There are many areas where thin grains or raw wood edges are showing, the stain stripped off, 100+. My installer is going to fix it by coloring each with a permanent marker? Is this the [...]
Feb 062013
Q: We have a dark bamboo floor. It shows too much dirt! It’s impossible to keep clean. Would an extra lacquer top coat help this? A: Dark wood floors do tend to reveal house dust, etc., more than lighter colored floors. Applying another coat of finish won’t change that. If you do apply another coat [...]
Jan 182013
Q: We are currently refinishing our white oak floors. Four rooms are completed after sanding (with 36, 80 and 220 grits), staining, and sealing with water-based gloss polyurethane. Three rooms look great and one room looks tie-dyed. The floors are blotchy with light, dark, and milky spots. The stain dried for 48 hours before sealing [...]
Q: Our stain is too dark all around the perimeter, but the middle is perfect… A: When a mistake like that happens it is almost always the opposite, with lighter perimeters. It is caused by unequal preparation. The main area is smoother than the edges hence takes less of the stain than the edges. If [...]
Q: Is it okay to use a Polystain when refinishing a hardwood floor? A: I wouldn’t recommend using Polystain on hardwood floors, because you aren’t getting even penetration of stain into the wood first and it’s integrity will be directly linked to the integrity of the coating itself. Best results come when steps are not [...]
Mar 132012
Q: I am refinishing our floor. I sanded several times, cleaned, stained. Found several places stain did not take at all. I have done this floor before and several others in our other homes with none of this. Please give me a clue why the wood stain did not take. A: My guess is you [...]
Feb 082012
Q: I have a prefinished maple natural color hardwood floor. I had it professionally sanded and stained to try to match the rest of the house. Even though it was sanded, every old ding in the floor the stain saturated at. Now I have spots all along edges by the kitchen cupboards. Also, the stain [...]
Q: I have a 100 year old house. We just pulled up the carpet and found the oak hardwood had some water damage. So we have pulled out all the bad spots, and are replacing with new unfinished oak. Once the whole floor is sanded, will the stain on the old floor be darker then [...]
Before the floor guy puts the varnish down, is there anything he can do to “yellow up” the non yellow part of the floor so they are a closer match?
Trying to get an exact stain match for two different species of wood
July 20, 2011
Staining Comments Off
Should we go for 2 coats of stain instead of 1 to get the deeper stain colour that is closer to the colour of the stairs?
Q: My husband and I bought an old home (over 100 years old) and it has all original hardwood floors (this is the subfloor). There were a lot of gaps and nail holes where the boards were facenailed. We decided to fill in the gaps and holes with woodfiller. We sanded the woodfiller down and [...]
May 262011
Q: I have a professional refinishing my solid oak wood floors. They have been sanded once and then stained. It’s been over a week and the floors are still tacky. Also there are still stains, and I noticed some bad scratches. I know he’s not finished, but I would have thought that after the initial [...]
May 262011
Q: I just finished sanding my floors, and a little water got on my foot and I walked on the bare floor. The water dried, and I stained over it. Now you can see about 3 footprints in stained floor. How do I fix this, before I put poly on the floors? A: The water [...]
Q: We have been told by a flooring company that they can change the color of our oak hardwood floors from a natural to a dark walnut without sanding the floor. I believe they called it screening. Is this correct information and should we be concerned? The stairwell would be done also. I should mention [...]
Mix an oil based stain with a water borne finish? Change stain/color without sanding?
May 26, 2011
Staining Comments Off
Q: My family room contains lots of oak (woodwork, windows, bookshelves, TV cabinet built in). It’s a beautiful medium color oak. I would like to replace the carpet with hardwood floors. I feel oak flooring might be too much for the room. Is there a rule about whether the floors should be a darker or [...]
Q: How do we blend stains? We are planning on staining 1 room at a time do to our work schedules. If we do so will we have lines in our hallway where the recent stain and previous stain meet? If so how do we blend these? How do we go about blending stain on [...]
May 202011
Q: I have bleached oak floors / white stained hardwood floors. Will I be able to have them sanded and stained a cherry color? A: You can change the stain colour but you need to be aware that it is usually impossible to remove every single trace of stain from some parts of heavy grain. [...]
May 202011
Q: Can I poly my new oak hardwood 3/4 inch floors that I just put in, without staining first? We like the light color, and the natural stain is too dark for us. Is it wise to poly without staining? what will happen if we do not stain? Thank you. A: Staining wood floors is [...]
Q: I’m getting ready to install some white pine flooring. I’m going to use Waterlox to finish it. I was wondering what stain combinations you have used. I’d like to get a light amber brown color. I’m thinking of using Early American or English Chestnut. Any thoughts? A: I’ve only used the Waterlox/Min Wax stain [...]
