Changing stain from a dark stain to a light stain

Q imported from our old site, Face Lift Floors:  When I brought my house, it had dark stained hardwoods in the foyer and hall. I am not a fan of dark flooring so when I had hardwood put in the formal areas I went with a lighter stain.

Can the dark stain be stripped and then the floor stained to match the lighter floors? Also how common is it to put hardwood in common areas and laminate which matches it in bedrooms?

A: Providing you are talking of changing the color of the stain on your floors to another brown tone sort of color, then yes, you can change the color to a lighter shade. I mention this because if you were thinking of going from, for example, ebony to white, it could be problematic.

It is impossible, at least on very grainy woods such as oak to get all of the stain out of the heavy grain. This would not be an issue if you were changing the color from ebony to chestnut, for example.

The bigger issue, in my mind, is whether the type of hardwood floor you have is able to tolerate another sanding. If it is the traditional 3/8 thick strip flooring, then the answer quite likely would be no. If it is 3/4 thick, I have to believe you are very safe to go ahead.

I would not say it is common to have laminate mixed with solid hardwoods. I have to ask what laminated product you are using that could “match” a solid wood floor?

Original / moved link https://faceliftfloors.com/q-and-a/brown.php

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