Red oak floors look pink

4 years ago

last modified: 4 years ago

We had our red oak floors refinished last week with Early American stain and a water-based finished. A week in, they have a pink cast to them. I’ve read online the pink fades over time. Wondering if this is true, or if we should try to get them tinted somehow...

Featured Answer

SJ McCarthy

4 years ago

Do you have photos? Early American is a rather light stain. It will add depth to red oak but it will not hide any of the reddish/pink tones.

The lighting in the home (artificial and natural) can cause many changes. The wall colour in the home will also add/subtract to the red/pink appearance.

The big question, did you see a stain patch + 1 coat of the finish applied BEFORE you chose the stain?

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Comments (10)

jef22
Original Author
4 years ago
Hi-thanks for your reply. We saw a sample of the stain, but not with the finish. Here is a picture that shows the pink undertone.
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SJ McCarthy
4 years ago
Wow. Those are VERY handsome floors. I see a bit of cinnamon rather than 'pink'. Most wood floors fade a snick over time. The exposure to UV light will reduce the orange/reddish tones. You might get 1/4 step 'less pink'.

Trying to get red oak to stay light(er) like this AND stay away from the pink/cinnamon tones is very difficult. I would have required a special mixture from your refinisher. It requires a green-based stain (such as Jacobean) to be mixed in with the stain you wanted. And that's when things get tricky. Your professional would have had to offer different mixes like 50:50 Jacobean:Early American or 25:75 Jacobean:Early American.

That special mixing is not easy. And it isn't guaranteed to do what you were hoping for.

Personally I say leave it. It is a stunning floor. It really is. It looks like you wanted to keep it lighter yet get rid of the pink. I would say you have accomplished what you set out to do.

And BTW: you will need to see the floor in all 5 light settings (early morning; mid-morning; afternoon; evening; night) to see how this floor changes throughout the day. A floor in this tone is going to have 2-3 different presentations. I'm going to bet it will show very brown once the natural light goes away (evening/night) and artificial lights get turned on.

Give it 6 months before hating it. It is a very nice floor. It will grow on you very very quickly.
jef22
Original Author
4 years ago
Thank you for all of this information! Our refinisher has been awesome and gave us an option to tint the floors darker. Essentially it is another layer of topcoat that makes the floors slightly darker. Do you have experience with this?
SJ McCarthy
4 years ago
Uhhhhmmmm...It would be interesting as to how the tinting would work. If a floor stain is too light or doesn't have the right 'tone' to it, the *ideal option is to sand everything back down to raw wood and start again. This will take of a little bit of wood = lose of 'life' for the wood floor.

Going over top of a finished floor with a tinted finish is *not ideal. It is the least ideal way to go about this. On occasion it works (ie. the floor is fully protected AND the homeowner is happy) but more often then not it is a fail...a big fail.

Ask your refinisher HOW s/he intends to go about doing this.

What finish (name brand) do you have on there already and how many coats do you have?
jef22
Original Author
4 years ago
The stain is duraseal. The finish is a

proprietary water-based topcoat. The tint is premixed into it-they will not be adding stain to the topcoat.

Is the concern with tinting that it isn’t consistent? I don’t think we have the option to go back to the raw wood as we have already been out of our house for over a week.
PRO
G & S Floor Service
4 years ago
Leave it alone don’t try to tweak it. It will go down Hill.
SJ McCarthy
4 years ago
A tinted top coat is difficult to apply without puddles of colour showing up. Streaks are common.

You have a 70% - 90% chance of it not working out. And that means you SURELY be out for a few more weeks. The only option at that point means to sand it down to the wood.

Please ask yourself if you can handle the floors as they are (because you've viewed them in ALL FIVE lighting situations). Any change really should be about sanding down to raw wood.
julieste
4 years ago
Don't further mess with the floors. And, remember that when you get furniture and (eventually) rugs moved in, you won't be seeing such a large expanse of floor.
highdesertowl
4 years ago
I see warm cinnamon tones--and it looks beautiful. I agree with others to wait and live with it for awhile. Design is trending back toward warmer tones right now--you will be set :) ALSO, paint your quarter-round to match your white trim. You can also experiment with cooler spectrum lighting. ie. If your current lights are 2700K, test out 3000K or 3500.