Hi everyone. I jumped over here from Knots.
We’re thinking of installing hardwood floors throughout the first floor of our house. It’s a traditional suburban, three bedroom, two story house. The living room and kitchen have a fairly open floor plan.
Right now most of the first floor is wall-to-wall carpeting (not the kitchen), about 17 years old and looking really bad.
We’d like to replace with hardwood this summer. It’ll be a DIY.
Here are the questions: my wife wants a very light stain applied to the floor to bring in light and “open up” the rooms. Almost like a whitewashed pine. Is this something we should hire a professional to do? Second, will applying an unusual stain reduce the $$ value of the floor (and possibly the house?)
TIA!
Edited 1/8/2008 10:20 am ET by gj13
Replies
How much wood finishing do you do at Knots? Think of it as nothing more than a really large table top. Except that you can't move it to the finishing room to keep dust off the wet finish. Whitewashed finished can be nice ... DW has mentioned it in the past. I remember going into a clothing store (Gap?) and they had whitewashed maple. I thought it looked sharp.
What you might do is have the floor laid and sanded, then you apply the stain so you can get it just like you want it, than have the finishers come back and apply the poly. Or just move out to a motel for a week and let them do their thing. Before you start, you might get a couple of scrap boards and experiment with stain colors. If you just tell them "give me a nice whitewashed finish" you will probably regret it.
What's under the carpet now?
"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
Edited 1/8/2008 11:39 am ET by FastEddie
>>Is this something we should hire a professional to do?
Maybe -- most fairly experienced DIYers can apply the finish. Its the prep thats dicey for flooring. If you have no experience with a floor sander, then hire it out.
Also note that the quality of the finished job can be affected by how clean the house is in general. Dust, dander, and pet hair are enemies.
>> Second, will applying an unusual stain reduce the $$ value of the floor (and possibly the house?)
Unless the "odd-color" that you choose starts a style trend, then you will be reducing the percentage of potential buyers who like your house. A smaller pool of potential buyers equals a lower price (generally). That is simple supply and demand.
Politics is the antithesis of problem solving.
My only caution is to choose a hardwood that stains well. Maple, in particular is really difficult to get an even stain....it can tend to be blotchy unless your prep is absolutely perfect. If you do choose maple, I would have a really good floor finisher do it.
Others, like Oak and Hickory take stains pretty well and a competent DYIer can experience success.
Maple is hard to stain, but unstained maple with water-based poly may be close enough to what you're looking for, and not too unusual in the eys of the next buyer...
natural Beech may be a way to go to...
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming<!----><!----><!---->
WOW!!! What a Ride!Forget the primal scream, just ROAR!!!
gj13
My sister wanted a whitewashed floor in her bedroom.. they did the bedroom and hall themselves and while it was well done it lost all the wood grain look and due to the changing styles in interior design already looks dated.
I suggested that they put a coat of shellac down first so the whitewash could be removed when they tired of it but they didn't and now sanding is required deep heavy sanding and still there is no promise that some remnants of the white wash won't be in the pores of the wood in places..
Whatever you decide to do make it easily reversable.. Wood is a timeless look but various colors and styles quickly date the look..
One easy way yo make it quickly reversable is give the floor a quick coat of shellac. Then stain or color as you see fit. The shellac will seal the wood beneath and aloow easy reversal of finishes..
Frenchy, is there anything that wouldn't benefit from a coat of shellac? ;o)Jeff
Ever hear of a "one trick pony"? -:0Remodeling Contractor just on the other side of the Glass City
Jeff Clark
A lot of things don't need shellac and somethings which shellac hurts or messes up but when we are speaking about wood, I can't think of anything. I don't use it as often as I should particularly when the wood is going to be outdoors.. I just put extra layers of varnish on rather than give it a seal coat of shellac..
That's just lazyness on my part.. I could put the black walnut up with one seal coat of shellac and two coats of varnish instead of the three coats of varnish I normally use. It would be slightly cheaper and slightly more durable.. however the big advantage would be that it would only take me two days to prep a board rather than the three that three coats of varnish need..
Shellac dries in 15 minutes and then you could put the first coat of varnish on and apply the last coat the next day.. three coats of varnish require one full day per coat to dry.
I'm with Frenchy on a first coat of shellac. I've whitewashed and then sanded years later to bare wood and he speaks the truth. I'd go with a lighter wood and a water white finish. Maple is a good choice but ash right now is very cheap.
Great responses, and thanks everyone.
I'm a little reluctant to go with engineered only because what I've seen doesn't quite look or feel real enough. It's fine in many applications, but to my tastes it's not an equal substitite. Like sucralose instead of sugar. If you like sucralose, great. But it ain't never gonna taste the same as sugar.
I've not had the best experience with pre-finished. Our sunroom was done in prefinished maple, and thus there's no sealant in the seams between the boards. Water has gotten in between some of them and caused them to gap, just a little.
In the end, I'm not sure what we're going to do yet.
"I'm a little reluctant to go with engineered only because what I've seen doesn't quite look or feel real enough. "Are you sure that you are not confusing laminate flooring with engineered?Looking or touching engineered flooring how can you tell the difference between it and solid wood flooring?.
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
Why yes, I guess I am. I was thinking engineered was pretty much the same as laminates like Pergo.
thus there's no sealant in the seams between the boards
I hope you don't think you're going to get joint sealant with a site finished floor."Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
No. What I mean is if I finish the floor, won't the varnish bridge the seams between the boards?
gj13
NO!
Please NO!!!
those are individual pieces of wood. wood shrinks and swells a lot based on how much moisture is present.. No moisture it shrinks a lot, heavy moisture it swells a lot..
Do not varnish the floor!
Several things wrong with varnish.
The major one is that anything happens to that floor the only solution is to sand it all down and revarnish it! Hardwood flooring only has so many sandings in it before the spline starts to show (and before that happens it will start to break off and need replacing.)
Traditional finish for centuries was Shellac. Shellac is what is used on all fine antiques because of it's beauty. Unlike most floor finishes it doesn't ever look plastic or dull. Instead it has a deep rich beauty that other finishes attempt to recreate but never succeed.
Shellac is also insanely easy to do, mistake proof, and safe! It's environmentally safe and renewable.
(you've been eating shellac all of your life, assuming you eat candy and take pills)
OH, and it's cheaper and massively faster to shellac than to varnish!
Plus scratches etc. can be repaired so easily and so invisably you will deliberately scratch the floor just to show off!
Shellac is durable and most of the myths you've heard about shellac are simply wrong..
Ask and I'll walk you through the steps involved. (It takes 2 hours from start to finish and most of that time is spent waiting)
Shellac? I've used it for woodworking, and I'm a fan. Didn't think it would hold up on a floor. Another option to consider, then.
gj13
It's hard, harder than most floor finishes. I've got it on some parts of my floor and my 150 pound dog can't mark it.. If it did get scratched all you do is take a rag soaked in denatured alcohol rub for a few moments and scratch- be- gone. Once really cured (a couple of months typically ) it can take water and spilt booze without damage as long as it's wiped up reasonably soon.
It goes on so easy and so fast other finishes seem to take forever comparatively.
Honest it takes about 2 hours to do a typical room and at that point it's ready to walk on..(walk soft) If you splash some on your clothes just run them thru the washing machine,... shellac-be-gone.
Typical room costs about $50.00 to do and I've heard of it lasting over 90 years..
won't the varnish bridge the seams between the boards
Yes, for about the first 24 hours, until the first time the wood moves for any reason. And it will move because of humidity changes, and peopl walking on the floor causing very slight deflection, etc"Put your creed in your deed." Emerson
"When asked if you can do something, tell'em "Why certainly I can", then get busy and find a way to do it." T. Roosevelt
In that case, I stand corrected. :-)
By far, the most beautiful hardwood floor I've ever seen was a whitewashed one.
They also sanded it with some sort of soft pad that brought out the grain. The soft grain sanded faster.
Between the grain and the whitewash it was beautiful!
I'm thinking it wasn't a typical crew that did it. It was in beverly hills.
If you go with pre-finished you will know the color as soon as you see it. On site finishing is tough to do great due to the lack of control with dust, fluff, kids, cats ,dogs etc.
If your moving in 5 years or less then go mid/light brown. If your staying pick what you want!!
That's not easy. It is the easiest finish system to screw up while applying. Red oak can look pretty good though because of it's grain, but it takes an extra cut with the next finer grit while sanding.
Someone mentioned prefinished engineered flooring. That would be my recommendation. You could be sure how it came out. I never thought I would recommend that stuff but it's gettin' pretty darn good and easy for a DIY-er. Economical too.
Just another idea, DIY-friendly, and also easily reversible, are cork floors. I have hardwood floors now. My next one will be cork. <G>
http://www.hardwoodinstaller.com/hardwoodinstaller/cork.htm