Rachel Lower – Ask the Wood Flooring Guy

Best finish for Douglas fir

Q: We milled second growth Douglas fir in 2016. We are sorting through the pile of full dimension 1×6, to send 2000 away for kiln drying, planing, and t&g’ing for flooring. It is not all edge grain, but a mix of edge and face. We’re wondering about a finish.

Finishing multiple rooms individually

Q: When finishing multi rooms and wishing to do them individually, what do you do where the rooms join each other? So you don’t have an overlap from one room to the other?

Linseed oil as a blocker

Q: Is it wise to wipe the freshly sanded hardwood floors down with linseed oil before the polyurethane? The floors had a lot of stains and several different chemicals were used to remove them. I was told by using linseed oil that would seal the wood so there would not be any chemical reaction with the polyurethane Is this the solution to do?

Is a rag, brush or sponge best for applying stain to pine?

Q: You say for pine it is a good idea to apply quickly from one end of the room to the other to prevent excessive blotching. I wanted to know if it is best to use a rag, a brush or sponge for that. I want to wait a few minutes after I apply the stain in order to get a darker color from it. I also plan to water pop before. Can a rag put a sufficient amount of stain on the wood to let it sit there and absorb? Or will a brush or foam sponge spread more stain evenly on top of the boards until I wipe off?

Brown paper floor

Q: I am doing my craft room floor with the brown paper. I applied stain on part of it but today it is still tacky. I may not have waited long enough to wipe the stain off. Maybe because of using Elmer’s glue and water? It looks great, just tacky.

Satin topcoat too dull looking

Q: I recently sanded the finish off of my hardwood floor (red oak). I did not take it down to the bare wood so the stain remained. I applied one coat of Masters Gloss Polyurethane. After 48 hours I sanded with 220 grit paper, cleaned it thoroughly and applied another coat of Masters Gloss Polyurethane. I waited 48 hours and sanded it with 320 grit paper, clean thoroughly and applied one coat of Masters Satan Polyurethane (well stirred). I loved the clean, clear look of the gloss but feel the satin is dull looking, almost fake.

Filling up a warped spot in subfloor

Q: I have older 2″ wide flooring on 1 x 6 sub flooring running diagonally on joists on a 2nd story. In one area, where a HVAC duct runs between joists, the sub floor has warped and dried out leaving a void in between the two. You can feel a soft spot when walking over it.

Black discolorations in tongue and groove

Q: I professionally installed a engineered maple floor on cement slab, which was tested for moisture before laying. The floor showed no signs of green or dark wood in the tongue and groove. Six month later I pulled down from my attic, (no leaks) my 2 open left over planks and 2 new boxes of maple flooring wrapped in it’s original plastic to repair 15 spots throughout my home that have black discolorations. The old and new flooring was very black in the tongue and groove.

Professional floor finisher made a “blotchy” stain job

Q: We had our floors sanded, stained grey and polyurethaned. The stain did not come out even. When I asked about the blotchiness the professional said it was primed and some wood takes color better than other planks of wood. Is this true? If not, can I mix grey stain and poly to go over the areas that need more grey?

Green painters tape left whitish line on floors

Q: We had taped (using green painters tape) Ram Board down onto oiled hardwood floors to do some drywall repairs. One area was taped down for 5 days and the one section for 3 hours. It didn’t matter 3 hours or 5 days, when we pulled the tape off it pulled a slight finish off the hardwood. so now there’s a faint whitish line where the tape was. And it’s not tape residue on the hardwood. The hardwood is White Oak, Smokey Mountain, the oil is Woca Oil.