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Refinishing dark hardwood to natural

5 years ago

Hi, we are wanting to refinish our coffee stained white oak to Loba Invisible or Bona Nordicseal. The guy that came out to look at the job said he could do it but the grooves would stay dark. Is this correct ? Is there no around that ? If not, will it still look alright in a natural finish ?

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User

5 years ago

Buy a new floor. Unless you like stripes.

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Comments (10)

User
5 years ago
He is probably going to try to strip/sand off the stain/finish. Oak has grooves in the grain. The stripper/sanding will not remove all the stain/finish in the grooves. I guess it would be possible to sand enough off to sand past the existing grooves. Probably up to 3/8" or more.

As to how it looks---up to you if you like it.
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OK...the solid hardwood is factory finished. That's fine. It means that you can choose a solid factory finish so that EVENTUALLY you can get all of this refinished at the same time AND STILL end up with the same floor throughout. What you do is find the SPECIES of the hardwood and the width (and the thickness)...and if you can find the same grade/cut. Sure you can run it perpendicular to the hallway...so long as you are NOT on wood joists. If you have wooden subfloors the direction of the joists will dictate the direction of install. Regardless. So long as you get the same species in solid, you can always sand/refinish everything at once = same floor throughout the home. You do not have to do it today...but it gives you the BEST option to do it later if you want...or just before you put the house up for sale.
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G & S, Thank you. When we were talking color, I specified that I didn't want red/orange (or as little as possible). He recommended the Natural Seal saying that it would cut down on the red/orange showing through. The color I chose was a mix: 50/25/25 Jacobean, weathered oak, classic gray. He did samples with natural seal and classic seal and the natural did make a difference in that regard. Of course I had no idea it would cause this issue. The stain was lighter and with more red than the sample demonstrated. So now we're expecting that it will have to be completely redone. Given what you've said, I really don't know what to think about the stain color, now. I don't want a lot of red to show through, and I don't want a super dark floor. Even though the stain was lighter / more red than expected, I would have been okay with it if not for all the other problems going on. Now I am unsure about stain color. Without that natural seal, the floor will look even more red. Thank you again for your help.
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I would get rid of all the dreary gray before deciding on the floors. Beyond that, the finish appears to be in reasonably good condition. Personally, I would be loathe to change the finish before it really needs it...which reduces the usable life of the floors. Maybe large area rug/s instead? Which leads to the question: Is this engineered flooring or solid 3/4" tongue and groove? If engineered, the wear layer thickness may limit you to either no chance of refinishing or either 1 or 2 refinishes at most. If anything goes wrong with the stain color on a refinish, you may have to either live with it or tear out and replace.
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SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
Are you describing bevelled edges as "grooves"? Are the existing floors factory finished or are the site finished hardwoods? A photo would be helpful.
Chris Jones
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank everyone for responding. I believe they are site finished 2 1/4 white oak.... I’m talking about the joints. It looks as though they are beveled. It’s a very small and very shallow bevel though. It seems like he would sand it flats since it’s so shallow. Would natural wood filler cover up any of the stain left behind in the gaps ?

Here are some photos from when the floors were refinished a couple of years ago. Right after staining they were a perfect combination of black and brown but the flooring guy accidentally put oil sealer under the Bona Traffic and we do not like the red and orange tone it created. We would just prefer a natural color floor now. These are just too orange
Chris Jones
Original Author
5 years ago
Chris Jones
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago

A dime will not fit or stand up on the majority of joints. This is one of the wider ones.
PRO
Johnson Flooring Co Inc
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
We often field requests to make dark floors light, and vice versa, mainly from people who have bought a new home and don't want to replace the floor. In this situation we sand the floor to the desired color. Your bevels appear to be so small that many will sand out leaving a flat floor. Before applying the final coat of finish we coat the remaining dark bevels with paint tinted to match the floor color as closely as possible. It may take a couple of coats of paint to cover all of the old color. It can't be done until after a form filming finish coat is applied so floor can be worked over without damaging it. As with your current color, you don't see the end color until after the first coat of clear is applied. If you're the type of person that would be disturbed by small lines of paint that match the floor color, you can possibly have all the bevels sanded out or replace the floor.
PRO
G & S Floor Service
5 years ago
I agree the bevels will sand out. Prior to the final sanding pass, have the floors trowel filled. That will address any unwanted gaps.
SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
Agreed.
Chris Jones
Original Author
5 years ago
Thank everyone ! This really helped me out.

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