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Ugh! HW floor stain disaster!

emaxxman | Posted in General Discussion on September 28, 2005 04:04am

Disappointment doesn’t even begin to explain how I feel. I spent over five hours on Saturday cautiously sanding down my white oak hw floor to a nice smooth finish (36, 60, 80, then 120 grit.) It was a big, dusty mess but the floors look great…until I went to stain them last night.

I used a wool applicator like the directions stated. For some reason, the stain set so fast and didn’t seem to absorb into the wood. it was oil based Minwax Sedona Red. It now looks like someone slaughtered a cow in the room…the floors are an intense, bright, blood red with all the grain hidden. At certain lighting angles, the floor even looks black.

So what went wrong? Why didn’t the wood seem to absorb any of the stain?

I’ve got some professionals coming in 2 weeks to resand and put a natural finish on the floor. I’ve decided to leave this excercise for the pros. I told my wife that I wanted to give it a shot…just wish it didn’t turn out so badly. I have a new oak handrail for my stairs that I stained the same color and it looks great. That’s why we decided to match the floors to it.

UGH!!!!

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  1. cynwyd | Sep 28, 2005 07:37am | #1

     

    Well obviously this is from afar, but it may be that the final stages of sanding were done until the sandpaper was dull which can burnish the wood fibers and not allow absorption.

  2. Piffin | Sep 28, 2005 12:22pm | #2

    for staining, the sanding has to be perfectly even or it will affect the way the wood takes the stain. I would maybe have taken oak to 150 grit.

    I never would have expected a red to look good ona floor. Remember the main piece of advice wioth something like this is to try it out on a small sample spot first

     

     

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    1. emaxxman | Sep 28, 2005 06:16pm | #7

      It's a red that slightly less dark than the red mahogany color. We did do a test on a spot that would be covered by a rug. The difference was that I sanded that spot down with a handheld random orbit sander and applied the stain with a brush. It came out exactly as I wantd. I'm guessing the combination of the floor sander and the wool applicator was the difference. However, I just didn't think it would be this big of a difference.---
      Edited because my grammar sucked the first time around!

      Edited 9/28/2005 12:51 pm ET by emaxxman

  3. paperhanger | Sep 28, 2005 01:41pm | #3

    Ditto to what Piffin said, always do a sample brush out on a small piece of wood that has recieved the same prep as the finished surface. And remember, it alwys looks darker on a larger surface. Did you finish it, or did you just left the stain finish? You might put a couple of coats of poly on a small section, just to see it it lightens up. The refraction of the poly might make the grain a little more visible.

       Good Luck, Jim Z

  4. DonCanDo | Sep 28, 2005 01:49pm | #4

    I don't understand something.  If the wood did not absorb the stain, where is the intensity of the color coming from?  Minwax is not my favorite, but I've used it.  If it does not absorb, then most of it wipes right off.  You said it "set" too fast.  Does that mean that you actually have a built-up layer of stain on the floor?

    Depending on how much actually absorbed, an awful lot of sanding may be required.

    -Don

     

  5. Danno | Sep 28, 2005 01:58pm | #5

    If you dampen a rag with mineral spirits, can you rub any of the stain off? A light sanding may also help. To de-intensify the red, you could try going over it with a stain containing green, though if what you have looks black in places this may make it even darker. (Also I don't know of green stain, but there must be some somewhere!)

    1. emaxxman | Sep 28, 2005 06:25pm | #8

      I did a test rub last night with mineral spirits and a rag. It was almost like a layer of paint being rubbed off. It doesn't look like it soaked in much.

      1. Danno | Sep 28, 2005 11:09pm | #9

        I suppose since you've decided to let pros come in and re-do it, you're probably not really looking for fixes right now, but going over it with mineral spirits (maybe roller or lambs wool applicator) and wiping off the excess might help. The mineral spirits may help the stain penetrate too. There are some solvents that are formulated to evaporate slowly--a paint store could probably tell you what to use (you may try telling them about your experience; they may have some good advice). Adding even green oil-based artists' paint to the solvent might help too. (Just add the same amount each time or it won't look even--and I'd start by erring on the side of "too little.")

        Running over the whole floor with a random orbit sander (depending how big an area you're dealing with) might work, followed by wiping with very dilute green stain if needed. (If complementaru colors are mixed, the result is brown, so when a little complementary color is added to a color, it reduces the intensity of the first color.)

        I'd probably try one of these fixes in a place that won't show and see what happens. If it doesn't work, the pros will take care of it when they re-sand.

  6. shtrum | Sep 28, 2005 02:47pm | #6

    Misery loves company.  Just so you don't think you're the only one . . .

    Our office relocated a year ago and I built the shelves, walls, built-ins, etc..  Am not a professional by any means, but it all turned out well.  Everything was wood, with various thicknesses of veneered plywood surfaces.  Bought two different colors of stain (a dark blue and something called "driftwood," meant to be a light greenish-gray color), and applied them.  Should've thinned them out first, the coverage came out like paint.  No grain see-thru, nothing.  Fortunately everything still looks good, just not the finish I initially wanted though.  Still don't know why it didn't soak in more.

  7. 4Lorn1 | Sep 29, 2005 01:11am | #10

    Any chance the stain had iron in it? Iron might react with the tannic acid in the oak to form a dark stain. This is a shot in the dark but I once saw a guy purposely stain oak by brushing on a iron oxide solution to get the color he wanted.

    1. TRIGGER | Sep 29, 2005 02:04am | #11

      I think you need water in there someware to make the iron react to the tanic acid.

      Edited 9/28/2005 8:37 pm ET by TRIGGER

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