I recently installed a red oak hardwwod floor. I stained it and once it dried the coloring was uneven–some dark and light spots. I have not yet applied any polyurathane and was wondering what my best course of action would be???
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Two reasons for differing colors are 1) that the floor has areas that were not sanded as well, so the areas sanded to a finer grit aren't absorbing as much stain as the rougher portions and 2) you've overlapped the stain when making passes with it, so some areas dried and were over-stained. If the first, you need to re-sand to an even scratch pattern all over and restain. If the second, you can saturate an applicator with mineral spirits (if a solvent-based stain) and go over the dark spots to reactivate the stain and spread it around more evenly.
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