Stain or No Stain on Red Oak Parquet Floors?
We want to sand and refinish our red oak parquet floors with the objective to get a color as close as possible to the honey-light brown original color as pictured above. In addition, we want to keep as much as possible the darker colors of the borders. It seems our options are as follows: (i)…
We want to sand and refinish our red oak parquet floors with the objective to get a color as close as possible to the honey-light brown original color as pictured above. In addition, we want to keep as much as possible the darker colors of the borders. It seems our options are as follows: (i) sand, stain and two layers of polyurethane or (ii) sand, seal and two layers of polyurethane. The stain for option one would be e.g. ‘colonial maple’ but the risk is that it may turn out to be too orange and the stain could perhaps change the color of the borders. The idea of option (ii) is that oil-based polyurethane has an amber color but the risk is perhaps that the floor may turn out too light. We are seeking suggestions based on your experience in sanding and refinishing your parquet floors.
On my red oak parquet floor, I used Minwax sealer and then polished with Minwax paste wax, the dark finish. They make a red oak stain, but I did not use it. That was over 20 years ago and it is still in great shape. I hate poly, would make me feel like I was living on a basketball court.
whowants:
Old pine is a crapshoot and you really don’t know what you’ve got until you test it. There were several major varieties of pine used in back in the latre 1800s and each stains up quite differently. Ours turned out to be what is commonly known as pumpkin pine. We sanded down and tested. A clear finish produced all these deep yellows, oranges, ambers and such. Any stain we sampled looked artificial and painted on. Pine also changes a lot based on how much moisture it has absorbed over the years. So I would advise doing some testing.
Re pine, we have white pine and Jose sealed it (very important) and stained it a medium brown Minwax color. I forgot the name. It came out very even. It was gorgeous. We applied three coats of water-based poly satin. Perfection.
In some areas we used semi-gloss as the last coat. Disaster. The pine reverted to its natural streakiness with lots of red, purple, yellow — horror.
So it really depends on the look you are after. Don’t try for anything too dark. Pine is very tricky.
If you like pine, you could go no stain and three layers of semigloss.
My floors dried to that color w/o any stain.
DIBS &mopar-
Any thoughts on old Pine? We’re redoing an old pine subfloor for the parlor level and have to lay new red oak for the garden floor.
We had planned to use satin water base for both and no stain. . . .
Jose is really great. Just don’t do two coats of satin and one of semi-gloss. Complete disaster!!!!!!!! Find a plan and stick to it.
Please keep us in mind for this project. We have experience with brownstone parquet floors.
Best,
Carlos Salazar
INTI Renovation
Office: (347) 746-8439
Cell: (646) 281-2659
Email: carlos@intirenovation.com
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I am landlord of 3 family building in Prospect Heights. We just had our 2nd floor tenants move out and we need the whole apartment painted as soon as possible for our new tenants. Inti Interior Finish made the process of the getting the apartment ready for the new tenants extremely easy. After our first initial meeting I felt very good about Inti Interior Finish. They came in finished the work with in a day, did a excellent job and I would suggest them for multiple family building owners and single family a like.
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A good floring guy will always give you the option of trying a stain first on a small section to see how it looks and if you don’t like it, that portion can be resanded.
mopar and I used the same guy. I went with a darker stain on mine but with your fireplace, i think what you are looking for is great.
Do not do them yourself. This is not an expensive job in the grand scheme of things.
We used Jose
917-355-7977
If you wish to use water based poly, as Mopar mentions, you can add tint to the poly as well, but use a tint made for water based product. Red and medium yellow tint together will produce the amber. You will need the tint as the water base poly has UV protection and does not amber.
Steve