I’d like a dark stain. Is there one you can recommend?

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Q: I’m about to stain a redwood floor I have just prepped. I’d like a dark stain. Is there one you can recommend?

A: Colour itself is a matter of personal taste. As to stain brands, I’m not all that fond of some of the MinWax stain colours. They can be somewhat slow to dry. Circa 1850 stains are nice to apply but smell really bad and they have a limited colour line. Dura Seal has a decent fast dry stain in all the MinWax colours, but I have had some difficulty with antique brown in particular, not flowing very well off the cloth I was applying it with. Poloplaz also has the same colour line up in a fast dry stain. Very nice to work with and good spread rate. But you only have 10 minutes work time, so you have to move with it. Benjamin Moore stains also spread and cover well and smell awful.

Here is something to consider. There is a tung oil based product called Waterlox. You can mix stain with it at a maximum ratio of 4:1 and apply with a lambs wool. Just apply it and leave it. No wiping off. I did almost 4000 sq. ft. of pine with this method, using a MinWax stain, and it could not have been more even or easier to do. I suggest this, because softwoods can be quite difficult to stain evenly. www.waterlox.com

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