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August 1, 2008
Is there a difference in floor stain brands?
My husband and I are planning to have our floors sanded and refinished in the next few weeks. We've hired a contractor to do it, but now find ourselves faced with having to decide how to finish them.
The apt is pre-war. The floors are probably oak and currently have acrylic poly on them.
Our contractor recommends that we use an oil based poly, which I'm fine with. But we also need to pick a stain. My cousin, who is an architect, seems to think that Minwax stain is terrible, and that we should use some high end stain that she uses for her clients. Our contractor uses Minwax, but said he'd use whatever we wanted to. I feel torn between the ease of Minwax (which I've never heard anything negative about up until now) and trying to find another brand which is supposedly better.
Does anyone have experience (negative or positive) with Minwax or other stains? Since this is probably our only chance to redo the floors, I'd like to it right.
Comments
Just asking, are you sure you need a stain at all? A floor that old will have darkened a bit, even under the sanding. I hate staining hardwood myself. You could do a test piece before you stain the whole place is it comes out darker than you want.
Posted by: denton at August 1, 2008 2:25 PM
1st Minwax is awful.
Second: I agree with denton, no stain just an oil based poly. The floor will amber beautufully.
Posted by: SenatorStreet at August 1, 2008 2:29 PM
At the moment our floor is so badly finished that a clean, beautiful floor is hard to imagine.
The thing is, I'm a little worried about it being too light. I'd like it to amber, but wish I could see what that would look like before committing to it. (Unfortunately we'll be out of town while the floor is being refinished.)
How long would it take to amber?
Posted by: elisbrown at August 1, 2008 2:40 PM
Since we're on the topic...
Does wood filler take stain? I have a few minor spot on my floors that someone had previously puttied in with what I imagine to be wood filler.
If I go to refinish/stain them would I have to dig that out and repair the floorboards first or would those spots also take the stain?
You wouldn't notice them now unless they were pointed out but the floors do need to be refinished at some point and I'd like to go darker than the light honey color they are now.
Posted by: TownhouseLady at August 1, 2008 2:51 PM
I never had any problems with minwax stain.
Be careful that the color you pick is not to dark unless that is the effect your looking for.
After spending all that money to have the floor sanded it would be a disaster if you did not like the stain after the floor were sealed.
By the way make sure you see a floor or two that the contractor has redone.
There correct way to redo a floor is rarely done by contractors or floor refinishers.
The floor is first sanded with a ruff sandpaper followed by a fine sandpaper.
Then the nail heads are counter sunk and then the floor is sealed, which fills all nail holes crackes lines etc.
Then sanded one more time before the stain to finish is applied. Three coates of finish is the bare minimum if you want beautiful floors.
Posted by: bgross1065 at August 1, 2008 2:58 PM
Minwax is fine
Buy shades lighter than what you think you want and test them first. Two coats of a lighter might be more of what you like than one coat of a darker color. Test them on the actual floor and then resand the test spots
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at August 1, 2008 3:06 PM
Thank you for all of your advice.
One more question: are all oil based polys created equal? Should I request that the contractor use a specific brand?
And how long would it take to amber, if we didn't use a stain?
Posted by: elisbrown at August 1, 2008 3:57 PM
if you aren't in a rush, consider a coat or 2 of garnet dewaxed shellac. It looks great on oak, and you can poly over it provided you used the dewaxed kind. You'll probably need about 2 pounds of flake, which you'll need to mix yourself with denatured alcohol. You can buy a test kit of flake from a number places; mix a small batch and test in a corner if you can. if you hate it, just spray with alcohol and wipe up.
Posted by: Bolder at August 1, 2008 4:36 PM
Immediately upon sanding our oak floor, I was terrified that it would be too light. Once the poly was applied it was immediately beautiful.
Email me and I'll send a pic that was taken a couple of years after it was refinished. ronrite1 at yahoo.com
Posted by: SenatorStreet at August 1, 2008 6:42 PM
I'm surely in the minority, but I think a floor can't be too light. Light floors brighten up and refresh the room and fit better with strong accent colors (if you have them.)
But then, I love bamboo floors as well.
Posted by: cmu at August 1, 2008 6:46 PM
There are good reasons not to stain a floor.
Staining means it will be virtually impossible to do repairs later. If an unstained floor starts looking a little dull and scratched you can screen (not sand) it and lay down more urethane.
Stain is also a sealer, which means that the urethane will sit on top of the stain, not soak into the wood fibers which is how you get a tough finish. Stained floors scratch and scuff more than unstained ones.
Stain will highlight imperfections in the floor, particular sanding mistakes. A bad stain job can also cause breed-through, where the stain backs up out of the wood when urethane is applied, leading to a blotchy finish and shortened finish lifetime.
On the "best urethane" question, you won't find it at the Borg. Their DIY consumer crap stuff is dreck. Go to a real flooring store like Premium. Professional floor finishers often use Fabulon urethane. That's what I've got here. It's far outlasted the Minwax that some idiot (me) used on the stairs.
Posted by: Steve at August 2, 2008 12:44 AM
All of the aforementioned problems are typical of Minwax stains. They are not well suited for professional use, but good enough for hobbyists. The biggest problem with minwax is the drying time (72 hours)and adhesion of the binders.
The type of stain or dye that will work best for you depends of many factors such as color, clarity and specie of wood.
Tung oil is an excellent finish for floors as the dye is added to subsequent top coats, thus giving you full control of the tone. sutherlandwelles.com
Posted by: southslope at August 2, 2008 11:21 AM
Avoid staining it as so many have already commented.
Posted by: Iknow at August 4, 2008 10:59 AM
Try Mohawk brand stain. Its far superior to Minwax. Its available at a painting supply store in Sunset Park in the 40s off Third Avenue - sorry I forget the name of the place. A Google search on Mohawk stain will probably show it. I used Van Dyke Brown on my oak floors and am very happy with the results.
Posted by: fexleycb at August 4, 2008 11:42 AM
Mohawk oil-based and alcohol stains are excellent products.
Abbott Paint and Varnish moved from 40th street to Eagle Street about six months ago. They have plans to re-open a satellite store in sunset industrial park soon.
Posted by: southslope at August 4, 2008 1:33 PM
We stained our pine sub-floors with Jacobean Minwax and then polyurethan. The wear and tear is horrible and although we should probably lift the floors and put down new ... we would like to avoid it for another 5 - 10 years. What options do we have? Can we sand and then restain/poly? Help.
Posted by: 107 at October 6, 2008 8:42 PM
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