Q: We are refinishing our fir floors. We have used a dark stain called jacobean. The color looks great. Now we have put a satin polyurethane on, and it has appeared to make the tone more of a red color.
The stain was a darker brown with a slightly grey/charcoal tone. Is there a reason for this? It is a clear coat.
Will it take time to get back to the color, or will it still have red tones now? This is after one coat. Will it get further away from the color the more you put on? Also, do you have to put polyurethane on?
A: Apparently fir can be a fussy wood to stain. I did some steps not long ago and none of the stains I tried looked as I would have expected if I had used them on another wood.
Why this didn’t become apparent before the poly was applied, I do not know. I think what you now see is what you will have. There is another “better” way to stain soft woods. Mix the stain into a tung oil based product called Waterlox at a ratio of 4:1 and mop on. Don’t wipe off. Let dry and continue to apply 3 more coats of Waterlox or apply the finish of your choice. www.waterlox.com
This won’t work now that you have applied a coat of polyurethane. As a real “old timer” often says: test test test.
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