Staining Regular Oak Floors Dark
Hello, I want to stain my floor dark brown. I know many people had issues with achieving the right color and success depends on many things. I wonder what color stain combination worked best and is it a requirement to wipe off the stain after it is applied. Also, what do you recommend for top…
Hello,
I want to stain my floor dark brown. I know many people had issues with achieving the right color and success depends on many things. I wonder what color stain combination worked best and is it a requirement to wipe off the stain after it is applied. Also, what do you recommend for top coat?
Thank you
Hey all, if anyone is still reading, I saw the stain samples today. Our floor guy sanded the pine, then sealed it with something to even out the coloration slightly, then painted five samples.
He tried Minwax Early American, Golden Oak, Pecan, Cherry, and Natural. Early American was the darkest and Natural was the lightest, and they both showed the most contrast — the highest mix of lights and darks. Natural gave a real “pine” look, if that’s what you’re after. We nixed both of those because the contrast was so extreme.
Cherry and Golden Oak had the most even tones of all, and I happened to like the Golden Oak color, so we went with that. You have to try the samples on your own floor, because the colors will be different, but on our floor, Golden Oak was a nice warm light medium brown with no red, orange, or yellow tones. Cherry and pecan also looked nice, but not as close to the color we were looking for.
Gosh, thank you so much!
***Pardon the fragmented posts. I wanted to add that shellac is a very good sealer coat, both water base and oil base adhere superbly to it: but make 100% certain you are using DEWAXED shellac. It will not likely give you the problems that staining pine will, do some tests though.
I would not recommend shellac as the TOP COAT however, as it can be damaged by alcohol and also can be affected by water. It will perform excellent as a sealer/toner coat. You may find one of the darker varieties of shellac will darken the floor up sufficiently to your tastes and with a vintage feel….and shellac is an old school wood finish, used for centuries in very high end furniture making. The freshly sanded pine will also naturally darken up a little on its own over time as it ages and is exposed to light. If you want to go darker still, yet stick with waterbase topcoat, you can tint the topcoat a bit with a colorant to shift the tone/hue a little deeper.
…..
“Bysakhi Button
Rich Brown – Warm Cast
A Deep Rich tone for woods like Walnut, Antique Pine, Older or Aged Fir.
Also used to intermix with other button lac to adjust the tone and color.
Buttonlac is a unique shellac product preferred by restorers
and those looking for a very protective shellac finish.
It is superb for French polishing because of its hardness.
The processing of buttonlac polymerizes it, resulting in a very tough material.
Button Lac is the prefered choice for finishing floors, tough & moisture resistant.”
You need to be careful with staining pine. Pine generally doesn’t accept stains very well…it gets blotchy.
Possibilities;
Either consult with your floor guy or If it is DIY, consider a toner coat or maybe shellac for underneath the finish. You could seal the wood (for example with a darker variety of dewaxed shellac, this would add a deeper tone than the fresh pine Shellac comes in dry flakes, you add denatured alcohol and mix it fresh yourself, it comes in many grades and tints from blond [‘clear’] to brown). Then, you could also add colorant to your top coats, either oil or water base, to tint them so they would act like a glaze further darkening the floor. A professional will likely have some other ideas.
http://www.shellac.net/BysakhiButtonPic.html
“Bysakhi Button
Rich Brown – Warm Cast
A Deep Rich tone for woods like Walnut, Antique Pine, Older or Aged Fir.
Also used to intermix with other button lac to adjust the tone and color.
Buttonlac is a unique shellac product preferred by restorers
and those looking for a very protective shellac finish.
It is superb for French polishing because of its hardness.
The processing of buttonlac polymerizes it, resulting in a very tough material.
Button Lac is the prefered choice for finishing floors, tough & moisture resistant.”
“This is made from seedlac of Bysakhi origin (summer season from Palas and Ber trees, an April – June/July crop). Bysakhi is a hard resin, warm brownish in color, & prepared in the Hand made process by heating the seedlac in a cotton tube. The resin secretes through the pores of the cloth and the molten shellac is formed into buttons. A good choice for floors.”
You need to be careful with staining pine. Pine generally doesn’t accept stains very well…it gets blotchy.
Possibilities;
Either consult with your floor guy or If it is DIY, consider a toner coat or maybe shellac for underneath the finish. You could seal the wood (for example with a darker variety of dewaxed shellac, this would add a deeper tone than the fresh pine Shellac comes in dry flakes, you add denatured alcohol and mix it fresh yourself, it comes in many grades and tints from blond [‘clear’] to brown). Then, you could also add colorant to your top coats, either oil or water base, to tint them so they would act like a glaze further darkening the floor. A professional will likely have some other ideas.
http://www.shellac.net/BysakhiButtonPic.html
“This is made from seedlac of Bysakhi origin (summer season from Palas and Ber trees, an April – June/July crop). Bysakhi is a hard resin, warm brownish in color, & prepared in the Hand made process by heating the seedlac in a cotton tube. The resin secretes through the pores of the cloth and the molten shellac is formed into buttons. A good choice for floors.”
Also, I’m sure you already know this because everyone does, but don’t leave oil soaked rags balled up, make sure the room has plenty of ventilation and don’t smoke. The Daily News had a story in the last six months about some guy who created a fireball by not ventilating the basement unit he was refinishing.
Any thoughts about what to do with old pine floors from the 1890s? The floor guy told me they will be very light with water-based polyurethane. I was planning to stain them a medium to dark brown walnut type color.
But now that I’m reading these posts I’m wondering if that’s a good idea. Is it tacky to stain old pine floorboards? The house is full of very dark (painted) woodwork, so I think light floors will look very weird.
Probably originally the house had wall to wall carpets and linoleum.
Thanks!
Stain may not be the right product. For dark, rich, vibrant floors evocative of 19th Century use an aniline dye. These dyes, though dark and potent, are very transparent thus allowing the grain to shine through. An experienced flooring contractor, such as Norwegian Wood, will be very familiar with this type of application. Ed Kopel Architects, PC