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Red oak flooring stain help!

5 years ago

Hi All - building a house with red oak floors. Want a rustic modern look with classic gray but likely some combo with weathered oak, provincial, or walnut. Any advice on which stain to use and if you have a pic? Very hard to find proper pictures....

Appreciate the help

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Comments (5)

blondelle
5 years ago
There are tons of photos online of sample stains on all wood flooring. Just google stained red oak wood floors or Minwax stains. Grey stain on red oak results in a multicolor effect that's not attractive. Greyed floors are also out. Red oak does best with natural wood color medium to dark stains. Lighter floors in red oak tend to go pinkish.
SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
Well said blondelle. I would stay away from gray on red oak. It can be done....but it takes an expensive professional to get it to the level you are looking for. It would be cheaper to spend more money on WHITE oak (as much as $2/sf more) and have it stained gray then try to reverse the reds in red oak to look 'gray'.

If it were me, I would look to a lighter stain that has a GREEN base to it. The green will counter act the red to offer a COOL tone brown (like a mushroom brown). Turning red oak to a cool brown is much easier and often gives the homeowner the same CONCEPT (cool toned flooring) without stretching the talent of the flooring professional.

And yes, gray as a design concept is at it's end.
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If you like your current colour then go ahead and put down a new version of it. If you want something different then I would go lighter. I love the look of red oak in the 'buff'. It is a pretty wheat/sand coloured wood. So long as you work with a high-end water based polyurethane that does NOT yellow, you will have a very pretty 'pale wood' floor without much effort. Your existing finish appears to be oil based (or oil modified) which makes the floor yellow. The strong gold tones in your wood right now = the finish. Did your refinisher apply a coat of FINISH over your colour samples? If they did NOT....then you are picking BLIND. And I mean screaming and crying and tearing your hair because your beautiful gray floors turned to a muddy orange mess. Not good. Do you see the pale colour of the raw wood? You can keep that colour (very close to it) with 3 coats of water based polyurethane like Bona Traffic HD. Keep the gloss level a snick on the low side (satin is a nice low-gloss option) and you keep that pretty 'swedish blonde' look.
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blondelle
5 years ago
I believe the Provincial stain might have a green base. I know that Minwax recommends it when people call in to ask how to tone down the red. They sell small 1/2 pt. cans on Amazon you can test on your sanded floor.
Sunil Tan
Original Author
5 years ago
Makes sense. And wasn’t planning to do a full gray look, but brown with a tint of the gray wash. Appreciate the feedback
PRO
G & S Floor Service
5 years ago
Use a 4:1 ratio of classic gray and jacobean. Allow it to dry completely, this can take up to two weeks, depending on the drying conditions. The paper towel will need to wipe clean in several areas. You will need to use a universal sealer if, applying a different brand water base polyurethane to prevent adhesion issues.

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