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Flooring Design Dilemma

hardwood floor- previous dark stain seeped all the way down

5 years ago

I put down red oak hardwood floors 10 years ago and stained them a really dark brown (and was immediately upset that they were so dark). Now I am doing construction and we have added red oak to the new areas and are ready to sand it and seal it with clear coat it but it appears that the dark stain seeped all the way down and when we put a clear coat or bleach on it you can see dark brown lines between the short ends of the planks. A cross section shows that further sanding wont help. Anyone have a miracle solution to this problem? thanks~

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Comments (5)

PRO
JAN MOYER
5 years ago
Yes. Rip the floor. Or try wetting the floor ( water pop) and bleach again. But my guess is it is still there.
Lauren Stern thanked JAN MOYER
Holly Stockley
5 years ago
Stain soaks into the end grain more than the surface grain. It is what it is. You'll either need to restain or replace. :-( You MIGHT be able to restain with something not quite as dark as the original that you so disliked.
Lauren Stern thanked Holly Stockley
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I pulled up very old carpet in my parents old home, which was laid over pet-stained hardwood floors that looked just as bad as yours currently do. I was rehabbing the house to sell it (my parents had died) and a home with hardwood floors in my area sells better than a home with carpet in it. I talked to a competent floor refinisher who told me exactly what yours did - that he could make it better, but it would likely not be "perfect." I decided to give it a try and I'm so glad I did. When he was done, it looked great. Some spots he was able to make completely disappear. The worst ones were still visible, but over all it looked (to me) exactly like an old floor in an old house should look....if that makes any sense at all. It fit with the patina of an older home way better than a perfect/new hardwood floor would. Buyers LOVED the floors. So my advice is that if you can find a really good floor person who knows what they are doing, AND if you have reasonable expectations you should be fine. You're in the same boat I was. Your house is not new construction so as long as you don't expect perfection in the floors, I hope you're as happy with them as I was with mine.
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The stain pen IS the fix. It is literally some guy with a pen on his hands and knees putting blobs of colour over top the 'white' dots and then wiping away the stain to make it blend in. That's it. Nothing more. A stain pen can be purchased at any home depot. It can be matched to the stain you have on your floor. It is always nice to have one ready should a chip come out of a floor or some little accident happen that causes some discolouration. A stain pen (for the homeowner) is a great way to DIY a colour issue....like little drips of paint. Again, there is nothing 'wrong' with the floors. They are full protected and fully functional. The issue is little bubbles (issue #1) and they left in little paint spots that didn't come out when they did a quick buff and final coat of finish (issue #2). You can DIY your own stain pen touch up for $15 (for the pen) and 2 hours of your personal time on hands and knees ($0). I would NOT let these guys back on my floors. I would take the money and put it in the bank. It should be a nice chunk of change (much more than $15 + 2 hours of labour).
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queenvictorian
5 years ago
Yeah stain permeates, much like water damage. My neighbor had this problem trying to refinish an oak mantelpiece - she stripped the paint off only to find that in the past someone had stained it some garish mahogany red. She ended up going with a darker, cooler brown stain to try to counteract the red.
Lauren Stern thanked queenvictorian
SJ McCarthy
5 years ago
As everyone here suggests, you will have to find a complimentary stain that will camouflage the end stain rather than match the stain. There are ways to do this. You can work with a stain in the same colour range....just a mid-tone version of it. But be prepared for the results. You will not get perfection. You will get "good enough". I highly recommend you ask your floor refinisher to offer MULTIPLE stain samples for you to view. Then "live" with the patches for a few days (yes...that probably means sending away the flooring guy and waiting for a while). You can then choose the stain that does the MOST WORK at hiding the end staining. And I recommend your flooring professional write up a caveat that s/he is not responsible should this "fix" go sideways (not to your satisfaction).

A full removal/replacement is probably the only way to achieve "excellent".
PRO
G & S Floor Service
5 years ago
Rough the floor and trowel fill, prior to the final sand. Stain seep down the side will not be visible on the surface.

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