Staining white oak floors with dark cabinets?
sue_ct
15 years ago
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edlakin
15 years agoUser
15 years agoRelated Discussions
Please help: dark stain for solid quartersawn white oak?
Comments (5)glennsfc, we are on a timeline to get the kitchen done.... so I didn't push for popping of the rays with danish oil, or even water popping. Gotta draw the line somewhere! This flooring guy seems to know his stuff. Thanks peytonroad! Your pics are wonderful ---and your floors -WOW! We did a sample of the jacobbean and it was beautiful, but a little too brown for the cherry w/ dark stain cabs. So after looking at what others have used, we did a sample with 50-50 ebony and red mahogany, and finally went with a mix of 75% red mahogany, 25% ebony. It was just enough black to take the pink undertone out of the red mahogany. So the floors were stained today, and I love the 'custom' shade. It's perfect with the dark cherry cabs!...See MoreIssue staining Red Oak hardwood floor (Dark Stain)
Comments (4)What you have in your pics is a factory finished floor. It is difficult to get that kind of consistent look when staining unfinished, especially if the unfinished has boards with mixed sawing characteristics. The face sawn material will take up and hold the least pigment and will be the yellow boards you are seeing. We can sometimes get a more even look by using a sand grit sequence to allow more pigment to be deposited on the floor and by doing what we call waterpopping; you may still get variations, but it will look as even as it's going to get. I don't do this...but some of my colleagues will first use an analine dye and then, when it is dry, will follow that up with a pigmented stain. Talk with your finisher....See MoreDark stain oak hardwoods and "White Line Syndrome"
Comments (4)Ok..."True" white line syndrome is referred to as White Line Syndrome #1 (WLS#1). It is RARE. So rare that an inspector will see it a few times in a LIFE TIME of inspections. This is when the polyurethane is WELL BONDED but the wood underneath is MOVING sooooooooo much that the seams start to show WHITE. It ONLY happens and the seams. It does not show chipping or lifting in the CENTRE of the plank. If you think of a rubber band that is stretched ALMOST to the point of breaking you will see it turns WHITE! Then it snaps. THAT is what I'm talking about. The polyurethane is STRETCHED SOOOOOO TIGHT that it turns WHITE just before it snaps. This is more a "living condition" issue with SUPER LOW HUMIDITY and wood that is losing size/shape SOOOO quickly that the polyurethane cannot keep up. Again this is SUPER RARE. You do not have WLS#1. You have the "other" one. White Line Syndrome #2 (WLS#2) which is 98%-99% of the white line syndrome we see. WLS#2 is a BONDING issue. The polyurethane (as seen in your photos) has a problem with the finish "grabbing" the wood. This will first show on the seams because the most amount of CONTAMINANTS will show at the seams....and then it LIFTS away from the CENTRE of the plank. This is what you have. The bonding issues of WLS#2 is almost always an installation/application issue. Almost always. The problem is, you guessed it, CONTAMINATION. Yep. Something is sitting on the wood and PREVENTING the polyurethane from grabbing. The fact that this is happening over both the OLD floor and the REPLACED WOOD means this is probably due to installer error. How do you deal with the "fake" white line syndrome (WLS#2)? You need to contact the GC who allowed the "guys" to do the floor. This is his/her mess. You need to TRY to get hold of him/her. The legal community needs to see that s/he had a chance to "make it right". Only after they either A) refuse to engage in the conversation or B) attempt the repair and then botch that job, can you/should you move towards the legal side of things. Contact the GC and let them see the problems. And then let them know the NWFA Inspector is in YOUR corner. Then you negotiate as to how the fix occurs....See MoreDark stains/marks on our new white oak floors
Comments (7)To add to G & S's comment above: Windex Original = 5% ammonia. The Bona Mega is NOT the top of the line Bona. It is the entry level. The scratches are hard evidence to prove this. And I do NOT like how white/deep those scratches are. That's not a great thing to see on a fresh finish. If MINWAX was used, the dry-time between stain and seal/finish can be 72 hours (that's 3 days....hmmm). Bona can work nicely with Minwax or it can have issues. Bona does not allow (officially) another stain brand to be used with their finishes. Bona Mega has a slightly longer dry time than Bona HD. The Mega can require 7-10 days to cure. That means the time that you can COVER IT is 7-10 days. So if we do the math, you need 3 days for the Minwax stain to dry before the coating systems is used. You need 2 days for 3 coats to be applied = 5 days into the process. Then we need another 7-10 days BEFORE we can COVER the floors with Ram Board. Now we are at 15 days. I think this job has been rushed. I do NOT like fresh floors covered up on day 4. Even Bona HD requires a full 5-7 days before they should be covered. Now for the stains. These are DEFINITELY man made (or should we say maid-made). I agree there is a sponge mark on the floor. That's the sold black mark. The 'bottle' outline, you will find, is an IDENTICAL shape to a Windex spray bottle. And the wrinkly brown stains are rag marks. If this floor was FULLY cured BEFORE the cleaning occurred, then it had a better chance of surviving these events. To be clear, a DAMP CLEANING on a wood floor is allowed after 2 weeks of FULL CURE. Your floors were NOT fully cured before the Ram Board was put down. You have ACTIVE chemicals that are curing on that floor. The maids should not have had anything 'wet' on that floor for another 15 days (you have to add another 10 days because the floors were covered up and therefore had not cured). There are three issues here: 1. Refinishers mixed their chemicals and used low-end Bona (HD is more expensive and offers MUCH BETTER protection). 2. Cure times were NOT respected and floors were covered too soon 3. Maids were allowed in (without specific instructions) and allowed to wet clean these floors before the floors were ready for it. That's a WHOLE LOT'A finger pointing going on....See Moresue_ct
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