We've used the same process Greg uses with success. Pine is a closed grain wood that doesn't soak in stain evenly. Applying a thin coat of water before staining makes the wood "fuzzy" so it absorbs stain better. After water popping we generally do three coats of oil poly. I don't recommend mixing oil poly and water-borne poly though and applying one too quickly over the other might be problematic. Pre-stains are usually sealers that controls stain penetration. Using it on the Pine floor might make the stain more uniform but I think it would also make it much lighter.

That is their standard response to all floors. Maybe the rare floor finisher uses waterborne poly. The answer depends on what kind of finish appearance you want, what expectations for wear you have, and how "historical" you may be willing to be. The list of potential finishes, least-durable (requiring frequent maintenance, but giving a unique and more historically-authentic appearance, to hard, bulletproof plastic-y and inauthentic): Bare floor: ages naturally, but will water spot and stain most easily. wood worn away by foot traffic, especially with a very soft wood like white pine. No color will be brought out except by passage of time and whatever dirt/patina builds up and as the wood oxidizes. Wax finish: low protection from water and wear, must be renewed yearly or more, potential to bring out some color in the wood; colored waxes are now readily available. Will be a very authentic soft finish showing much of the natural wood color and texture. Wax does not form a film. Oil finish: Lots of oils out there, most oil finishes do not form a film, so the wood still looks bare/natural. Colored oil finishes are possible, but may blotch a bit at first, this usually will fade when 100% dry. Water spotting still possible, and wood can still wear down. The wood's surface is still taking the wear, but it has been fortified because the oil has penetrated it. Some harder-drying oils, like 100% tung oil, Australian Timber Oil, and I think Landark, are fairly good at hardening the wood surface and are the most durable oils. Wear spots can usually be masked by the application of more oil as needed. Shellac is called a "spirit varnish" because it forms it's protective beautifying film by the evaporation of the alcohol solvent that liquefies it. As the alcohol evaporates very quickly, shellac is a fast-drying finish. Some shellacs contain wax as an impurity. It is added as an extender, and it does help somewhat to achieve a smooth rubbed-out finish when buffed with steel wool. The wax/impurity also shortens the shelf life and lengthens the drying time, while making the finish less water-resistant. In my experience, it's the wax that makes shellac get white water spots. I only use de-waxed shellac, which can be purchased ready-mixed (Zinsser Sealcoat) or made by dissolving flakes in alcohol. I use a lot of shellac for various things, including some floors in my house (and fine furniture finishes). The formula I use for floors is to sand to at least 120, with the grain, by hand, then apply two coats of de-waxed garnet shellac (the darkest colored shellac that really brings out the beauty and gives a base color that's very pleasing on old wood/old house context) and put on 4 coats of the Sealcoat for the wear layer. Six coats of garnet to reach the same film thickness would be awfully dark IMO. Scratches in the shellac floor can be easily touched up without the need to sand the whole floor. Shellac will always bond to shellac, so there is never any problems with blistering or peeling. Because shellac has no odor after the alcohol evaporates, and you can put on 4 coats in a day, it's really great for bedrooms or people with chemical sensitivity. Old-fashion oil varnishes are sometimes used, but the reasons poly is preferred is because it has more benefits for floors because it is harder, so people don't mess with non-poly oil varnish much at all. The only benefit would be that it could theoretically be removed by a chemical stripper so future refinishing would be possible without further sanding. Oil varnish gives a deep amber color to wood, especially your old white pine. Problems include long drying time, softness, difficulty to touch up without sanding. Easier to re-coat than poly, though, because it will stick to itself with lower risk of peeling. Film-forming oil finishes, like Waterlox, are sometimes the most appropriate non-poly floor finish for historic floors. The huge selling point (what sold me) is the need for no future sanding. As historic flooring fabric is a finite resource, and can only take so much sanding until it is worn beyond use, eventually one must consider replacement vs. conservation. Waterlox makes the case that since it can be scuffed and recoated there is never any need to fully sand the wood, so a stable condition on the old floor can be maintained for a long time. Waterlox is a thinner oil=based varnish made with tung oil (I can smell it!) along with other resins and solvents. It has a _very_ strong odor when being applied, as you are getting the effect of the solvent and the material all at once. You need an activated charcoal respirator made for VOC's, or you will suffer the effects. It stinks, OK? The curing time, during which the odor can be detected, will be about a month. The bad, toxic aroma is gone in a day or two. I chose Waterlox for my old kitchen floor. It has held up pretty well; it's now been almost 5 years and there are some scuffed-looking areas where the chairs sit. It's been great for spills, water, general traffic, etc. So I recommend it unless you have chemical sensitivities for aromatic organic compounds, or nut allergies (!) Tung oil is from a nut, BTW. We then come to Polys and other hard commercial-grade floor finishes, some of which are technically difficult to apply and have severe health threats if the proper measures aren't observed while applying. I have such limited experience with any of these that I cannot comment as to any particulars, except to state that they do not have it within themselves to be touched up, and any damage to an area however small usually calls for the whole floor to be re-sanded for a total refinish, or the spot would still be visible. These finishes last an amazingly long time, requiring only cleaning maintenance, and if the floor in question were a new hard wood, it would make the most sense to use the most long-lived finish you could obtain. But in your circumstance it's probably obvious by now that I would not recommend such a finish for your historic wood floor. Sorry this was so long, but I wanted to weigh all the characteristics within your specific context. Casey

I, too, have wide old board (early, old growth white pine) floors - mine were set in when the house was built in the 1840s. But every year in the heating season they contract, opening a gap between the boards that one can loose a chopstick in. Then they swell up, reaching their maximum dimension in mid-September. So I don't think age really affects dimensional stability, particularly across the board width. What would keep them more stable would be constant temps and, probably more importantly, steady humidity, which I can not supply in a wood heated, un-airconditioned house with a full cellar located in the humid NE. However, the boards can shrink or swell, and it doesn't concern me in the least. Mine are thicker (1 3/16") than yours will be after planing, but I have reluctantly abandoned the idea of installing radiant (hydonic) heating in the floor because wood that thick will not be a very efficient transfer of heat and the heat necessary to make them warm up would be hard on them, and probably on my pocketbook as well. In my case this is exagerated because my building is so energy-inefficient and my climate so severe that my heat load would be considerable even without the issue of the thickness of the wood. The only good thing to be said for my floor in relation to radiant heating (which I crave) is that I have full unhindered access to the undersides of the boards, making retro-fitting very easy. That said I once owned a house with modern strip red oak flooring and radiant floor heating on a slab. Heat transeferred just fine, but some of the seams did open up every year. Nothing more than cosmetic issue, in my opinion, but it did raise questions at resale because one of the reasons the boards might shrink is due to a leak in the system, which was not the case. I happened to find a buyer who saw it both closed, open and then closed again, so she believed me when I said it was a normal thing not the result of a recent trouble. Other would-be purchasers who saw it in its gap-y state at the end of the heating season were more sceptical. What do you plan to use for subflooring under your wide boards? I don't meant to discourage you from using the boards, just sound a note of caution about using thick, old growth boards as radiant transfers. Unless they are severely cupped I would think about laying them without planing. How are they edged; would you have to have T&G put on them? Many of the boards in my barns and attics are apparently identical to my flooring, but usually not as nice. I have used them to make small patches or repairs, though. One other thing has to do with the varying widths. It can be a bear if you have too much variation and need to match up with an exact dimension to span the floor. Depending on the length of your boards and the width of the room, you may have an easier, or more frustrating time fitting them to the space. In my house the boards are so long they go under the partitions and span most of the rooms. Good luck, your floor sounds great and I am a big believer in re-using parts. Molly~

Jacque, I don’t know if I’ll be of any assistance but I have used and stained Southern Yellow Pine before. I used it as my master bedroom ceiling and master bathroom floor. I was going for a stain that gave it a blue/gray cast. The paint store worked with me and we made several stains. I would take them home and try it on spare boards. Within a day or two the blue in the stain turned a sickly green color. There is so much yellow in that wood and it gets more pronounced as the wood ages. It is a very soft wood and readily accepts the stain. I compensated and added a few drops of magenta to the stain to compensate for the yellow and change the green tinge back to blue. There are several grades of Southern Yellow Pine and we chose a lesser grade that would show the knots in the wood. When we were finished with the staining we covered with a water based semi gloss polyurethane. Best of luck to you.