I am refinishing part of a red oak floor, but it isn’t taking the dye the same way as the rest of the floor.
The smooth parts took the color correctly, but the porous grain pattern is much too dark. I don’t know why it is absorbing differently, as it is on the same pieces of flooring as the existing finish (it’s the section that was exposed when I removed old shoe molding).
The sudden change in grain color is very noticeable, so I have to resand and restain. Is there a way to prevent the grain from absorbing as much stain? (I tried Minwax Pre-Stain Wood Conditioner, but that didn’t do it.) If necessary, i’ll use an artist’s paintbrush to paint a sealant on the grain!
Janet
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Floor
Are you sure your dye doesn't have any pigment in it. Pigment will lodge in the coarser gain and make contrast - you can't much change the figure or grain in a board.
It's easier to darken the lighter boards if you need to tweek the overall look.
SA
Always practice on a scrap before trying to match a stain. A hardwood floor supplier will probably give you a few boards for free if you ask nicely.
There's a good chance that the original stain is mixed in with the polyurethane so it goes on more evenly and doesn't get really dark in the pores of the wood - at least that's how a floor refinisher would normally do it to avoid exactly what you're running into.
After sanding you'll most likely have to fill the grain of the wood with a trowel grade filler, and sand off the excess to match the existing floor. Then you'll want to seal the wood - the amount of sealer will affect how the stain looks since it fills the pores. With enough sealer the stain won't highlight the grain and will essentially be a very thin pigment layer under your top coats. The second option is mixing various colors of pigmented polyurethane to find a combination that more closely matches your exisitng floor.
Regardless of what combination works out the best color-wise, don't practice on your floor and let any stain dry for at least 24 hours before adding additional coats of stain or top coats since it will tend to darken when fully dry.
If it helps you feel any better, what you're doing is one of the most dificult types of stain matching since any mismatch stands out so much against the existing floor. I'll tell clients the only way to get it perfectly even is to resand and finish the entire floor. If it was my personal floor I'd probably just match the stain to preserve as much wood as possible since there are only so many resands in any hardwood floor before you get down to the tonge and groove and need to replace the floor.
What is "trowel grade
What is "trowel grade filler"—can you tell me what you use, and also the sealer you use?
I can always give it up and put the molding back, if necessary. I don't like shoe molding in general, but this installation is particularly annoying, as there is a stack of them. Each time the floor was refinished, another molding was added to hide the edges.
If I ever have the floors refinished, I'll remove the baseboards first, and put new ones in when the floor is done.
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