best stains for red oak floors
Hi everyone! I’m having to make a quick decision on stains. I have RED OAK FLOORS and my house is pretty small. I don’t want a red or super dark stain because it will feel closed in. Some are old and some are new, they are sanding and refinishing.
What are your suggestions?? Company uses minwax or Duraseal!
Help!
Comments (16)
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missenigma
4 years agoHave you considered just going no stain? I recently did that in a new install in my kitchen. The 85 year old red oak hardwoods in the rest of the house were refinished in 1995. They've never been stained. They were finished with a water based Street Shoe by Basic Coatings.
Fast forward to the new kitchen install, I wanted them to match the rest of the house which are quite varied being a mix to straight cut, rift cut and quartersawn red oak. Here's the new adjacent to the old BEFORE the new had any coating.
Here's the new with the first coat of finish going down . . .
They blend really well and are a match to what was originally installed and finished in 1935.Related Discussions
duraseal floor stains... refinishing and staining my red oak floors
Comments (3)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....See MoreWhat's the best dark stain on Red Oak Floors?
Comments (11)Have the FLOORING PROFESSIONAL (ahem...not some 'guy' who also knocks down walls) to offer STAIN PATCHES. A stain patch is a patch of stain (usually they offer 3-5 different stains) with a SINGLE COAT of finish. The coat of finish is a MUST!!! Without the finish you are picking blind. If the builder is using red oak they are almost certainly using 'oil based' poly. Oil based poly = turns orange. And orange + red = FIRE RED. That's why you must stipulate: 1. Colour patches will be offered for viewing/choosing by the customer 2. Colour patches MUST be coated with 1 coat of polyurethane finish 3. Colour patches will be left on the floor for 24-48 hours so the homeowner can watch the stain turn colour throughout all lighting situations. 4. Customer will SIGN the stain they want and photograph for posterity before the sand/refinish is to occur. Realize that ALL of these stipulations will do two things: 1. Slow down the process 2. Irritate the Bejesus out of the Builder Be calm and firm and carry on. If the builder is cheaping out, you will know. It will be apparent in their reaction to your stipulations (put in writing of course). The bigger the negative reaction the cheaper s/he is working....See Morered oak floors weathered oak stain
Comments (1)Pictures may not accurately represent colors or finish. Your best option is to have a sample made that you can step on....See MoreStaining red oak stairs to match white oak floor?
Comments (4)Does your floor manufacturer make a matching stair cladding? If you do that, you don’t need to have oak treads. Another option is to do a beautiful contrasting color of stain on the stairs. You could pull the colors together with handrail or baluster or post colors. Adding a runner on the stairs, or painting the risers would give you more options to tie in the floor colors. If you really want to match wood, dark stain is worth a try, but lighter colors are really tough. I matched a red oak transition strip to a dark chocolate brown stone tile once. I had to keep mixing and adding stain. It worked only because it was a dark brown color. It’s hard to neutralize red and yellow tones....See More
jillybean103
4 years ago
RedRyder
4 years agoJoy Mims
4 years agomelle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoSJ McCarthy
4 years agomissenigma
4 years agoSJ McCarthy
4 years agoRedRyder
4 years agoJoy Mims
4 years agoSo update I had to do a stain because of bad stains. So I did provincial with a water based seal.
The floor ended up being streaky because it was wrong. So now they have to resand.
(Pictures show streaks in it and what had been considered finished.
What should I do?!?
PROBeth H. :
4 years ago
Connie Stackhouse
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agoWe have red oak floors that we installed DIY over 25 years ago, and we love them. We are adding prefinished red oak to 2 of the the bedrooms right now, and the finish matches beautifully. It is a natural stain and several coats of water based polyurethane. Lighting makes the floors look different, but they have held up beautifully for 25 years and have withstood numerous decorating changes as well. . Good luck!
Joy Mims
4 years agojillybean103
4 years ago
heatheron40