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
Unorthodox as it may sound of course there are a few precautions in finishing a floor yourself if that’s what you are still thinking. The floor I finished this way was new white oak flooring. Yes, the proportion of linseed oil to the other ingredients seems like a lot, but I did not soak the newly sanded floor with it, I applied it very, very sparingly which is why the color had to be what I wanted the first time. I did a dozen color tests before I was happy. I did not flow it on thick like I was painting woodwork. It was more like a wipe application. I did let it dry for a few days to a week, I had that option, I didn’t need to walk on it that day. So now, I gather that was the most important thing to do was to let it dry throughly, which it did. I didn’t get any cloudy, milky, hazy spots when I applied the water based finish.
The water based finish worked great. Again, a nice thin painterly layer, twice, like the product recommended, not a glob it all on in an hour, I took my time. I did it last summer and the only defect I can find so far is where my son’s toy truck made a nice scratch, so yes its not like iron.
I decided to do this after seeing cape cod floors that get a lot of sand abrasion and asked some flooring guys there how they prefer to finish them, that’s where I got the Linseed oil and turpentine recipe, very of the earth, blah, blah, blah.
Their final finish was wax though, which needed to be reapplied every other year, which I did not want to have to do. I did ask them (4 different floor people) about sealing in the oil and turps and they all said as long as it was really dry, it should be okay.
So that was their opinion.
I’m not trying to sell you on my method, it seems to have worked for me and several people now have asked me about it when they see the floors – Will it last a hundred years? was it correct?, will it chemically breakdown over time? I don’t know.
My advise really is ask a floor expert what you should do, not a blogger. Oxygen’s information sounds solid. I’m not a professional floor person, just a talented amateur who has an interest in doing things myself because I can’t really afford to pay the extortionist prices trades people are charging these days. I’m sure they are worth it but, I just can’t do it so I have to use plan “B” most of the time.
I also don’t think a picture on a monitor will give you the information that is the most value to you in order to make the kind of decision you need to make before embarking on a project that you will see for a long time to come. If you make a mistake, its a big one. I’m not trying to hide anything, I just think you should consult the flooring experts.
I agree it sounds unorthodox. Regular linseed oil isn’t a particularly fast dryer. With only a cup of turps and pint of stain, the majority of the mix was pure oil. If it was brushed on and not wiped off, it will perform perhaps less like a stain and more like a toner glaze with a thin barrier film on the wood? Usually, stain is vigorously buffed off the floor so as not to leave a film coat, but just so it penetrates the wood pores and seals them (even when straight oil is used as a final finish for furniture, it is applied and wiped off…oil isn’t a varnish and doesn’t harden like a film finish). If you can’t get as dark as you want, try reformulating the stain and/or water popping the floor.
The point of wiping off the stain, particularly for a water base topcoat, is you want the stain to penetrate, color, and also seal the wood….that is, to prevent the waterbase finish from soaking into the wood and from raising the grain. However, traditionally, you do not want a thick oil film layer on the floor as that can create adhesion issues for the waterbase topcoat…check with the manufacturer if they recommend that. Long term durability will be the acid test.
Also, plain linseed oil isn’t a particularly fast dryer. Make certain the stain is dry before a waterbase top coat is used. You do not want the oil/solvents off gassing underneath of a dried/drying water base topcoat. Again, it could lead to compatibility adhesion issues. Time will be the true test: if it works, it works.
If you are experimenting, best to consult with the technical department/chemists of the brand of top coat you are using.
A Leonardo DaVinci masterpiece, The Last Supper started peeling apart and falling off the wall not long after it was painted…he was experimenting with a new technique, but apparently he didn’t do enough testing for bonding issues before committing.
Thanks everyone, all your comments are very helpful.
The instructions by Longstreet sound unorthodox and the easiest? Do they really work? Longstreet, do you happened to have pictures?
Thank you.
I did my floors myself and used this formula. A gal. Linseed oil, cup of turpentine, (not brush cleaner) and Dark Walnut oil base stain, I used a pint. That will make enough to do the whole house every floor. Created a perfect darkish brown (not orange or red) color. If you want a darker color mix in some Jacobean or Ebony stain in addition. You’ll have to figure the right recipe. Thin coat with a foam brush or an applicator pad, like a swiffer. No wiping required just let it dry good. I’d do a test before doing the whole floor.
and the color is in the mixed color not more layers of the color – does that make sense?
I then sealed it with water based Nano Shield Commercial grade satin. Dries in two hours, only needs two coats and looks great – to my eye.
The other benefit of waterbase is floor color.
With oil, you get a nice popping of the grain when the oil saturates the wood, it makes the grain look rich. However, polyurethane darkens radically with age to an orangy amber, some like it and some find it somewhat gross. It can obscure the beauty of the wood as it darkens.
With waterbase, the finish is crystal clear generally and does not darken. Thus, you can show off the natural beauty of the wood if you have a fine wood species with lovely color and/or you can stain the wood to the exact hue, saturation, and tone you want. The color you get is the color the floor will always be (accept for slight changes in wood lightening/darkening/oxidation in time after it’s been sanded, this is species dependent) and the clear varnish topcoat will not be obscured through time by orangy opaque darkening. Many people are used to old dark ploy floors, so they think that is what they like…but once you’ve seen nicely stained wood against old darkened polyurethane, the old poly can look quite gross and dull. You can have a floor of outstandingly beautiful wood and grain in a variety of colors that will compliment your décor.
With waterbase, you stain with an oilbase stain, so you get the oil popping effect of oil in the grain, but the stain doesn’t sit on top of the wood’s surface and form a thick film which darkens. The watebase film goes on clear and stays clear, protecting the wood and giving clarity to it’s beauty, color, and tone.
My floor guy said water over oil so I listened to him. He has been doing this for over 15 years so I decided to go with his advice. I liked and still like the end result a lot.
Depends on the quality of the waterbase finish and the application…you get what you pay for. There are cheap water finishes that offer poor durability and there are expensive finishes that are state of the art and where the industry is going.
My apartment floors have very old oil modified polyurethane finish. I am refinishing several room and I am using Bona Kemi’s Traffic, a clear high end, durable, waterbase finish that costs about $100/gallon. Since my floors are newly finished I cannot comment, but I selected Traffic because of the feedback from professionals and it’s durability.
More durable = more $$$.
You need to wipe off excess stain…you apply it so it soaks into the wood, then you wipe off the excess: do not leave it on too long. Generally, whether you use an oil or waterbase topcoat, the stain is an oil base. Usually stains made for floors have driers in them to speed the dry time…you apply, leave on for 5 minutes, then wipe off the excess.
You can go darker by ‘water popping’ the floor, by raisin the grain.Wood is a fibrous and has a grain to it…it soaks up water which makes the fibers expand. If you wet smooth, freshly sanded wood you will find it is rougher when it drys…the grain has expanded. Different wood species do this to different degrees.
Water popping opens the grain thereby allowing more stain to penetrate which equals darker stain. This is done after the final sanding of the floor…the floor is uniformly wiped with a wet rag…the grain raises. However, you do not want a rough floor, only opened grain, so one method is to VERY LIGHTLY(!) scuff sand the floor at this point, which has the effect of knocking of the small wood fibers that now protrude from the floor’s the surface which were making the floor feel rough. Sand too much at this point, and you effectively have re-closed the wood fibers defeating the purpose of the water popping.
Key is to wet-wipe the floor uniformly…do it as if you were applying stain…if some areas are dryer/wetter than others the floor may not accept the stain uniformly.
Allow the floor to thoroughly dry before any scuff sanding. Vac or wipe all dust off the floor. Make sure it is really dry and preferably wait 24 hrs before applying the top coat (different seasons/temps/humidity will effect dry time…you can use fans at this stage to dry the stain). Wipe stain on, let penetrate, wipe off…do NOT allow it to site on the surface for a darker effect…you may have issues with the bonding of the finish. The stains made for floors generally are formulated as a seal coat, so you do not have to put on a separate coat of sealer.
You should do tests on spare wood flooring sanded like the rest of your floor, or in an area like a closet where you can make mistakes. If it is STILL not as dark as you want, either reformulate the stain, sand it all over again, and start from scratch….or try another wipe on/wipe off pass of the stain, mindful not to let it forma surface film. These floor stain/sealers are generally made to be one shot deals.
Speaking of oil vs. water, any more opinions on this? My floor guy says water based is more durable, but this seems exactly the opposite of what I always thought. I know it’s easier to put on, dries faster, and is less combustible, so therefore easier to work with, but how is it in terms of staying power?