Thanks...I think. What a mistake. We have the rift cut white oak island only with white cabinets. We were leaning towards a darker stain for floors and changed last minute. The sample that was applied looks nothing like the floors do now. We have not applied the poly yet, so I know they will change again but from what I understand it will only get worse. I guess now is the time to re sand and stain or hope I like it with the poly? I am so confused at this point

Pictures?

Thank you designer kitchen and bath, special walnut my initial choice..ugh. We are currently working with our flooring guys but they said they can’t re sand and stain for 4-6 weeks. That’s a lot of hotel living with 2 kids! Pictures are difficult to see true color because they are through windows because we can’t go in yet. The photos don’t show them as pink as they really are but here you go!

Photos don’t do justice to the overall pink/mauve appearance

I see what you mean. They are beautiful floors but there is a visible pink/mauve tint. I can offer more anecdotal support for special walnut; we used it on our red oak floors and it did a very good job minimizing pink tones.

Ugh I see it even in the photos. I’m sorry

Can you simply paint the island? I know that would be a disappointment. I'm sorry you find yourself in these circumstances. Wood can be quite a chameleon, color-wise. Something that most of us learn the hard way.

You should be able to live on the floor until they can come back to sand and re-stain. Have them put down paper to protect the floors in the meantime.

Huge disappointment if we have to paint the island, so that would be the absolute last option. Does anyone have a photo of special walnut on red oak floors with oil based poly? I am leaning towards resanding. They are coming out today to let us know our options.

Aquebogue new construction - 3 1/4" Red Oak installed / stained Special Walnut - Traditional - Staircase - New York - by Valenti Flooring, Inc. (houzz.com). Here's one from Houzz. In search bar above type red oak floors stained special walnut in photos

sorry. meant to add that you can type in the same words and look under discussions. This has been an oft encountered issue. I personally love red oak stained red oak but the pink not so much

Amy - I may have the perfect solution for you!

I just bought some Ciranova Pink Blocker to use on red oak! There is a time-lapsed video on Facebook/Ciranova website which shows how it works. I read about it here on Houzz - G and S Floor Services has made several comments about Ciranova and their reactive stains. This ”pink blocker” is another one of those stains apparently. Also, there is a user here on Houzz who had her red oak floors refinished using the pink blocker and then finished them with Ciranova products. Her floors do not look pink!

I purchased some red oak today and will be trying the blocker out tomorrow. If you would like, I will let you know if it worked. Fingers crossed!

Oh - I guess this isn’t the “perfect” solution - it will cost $$ to re-sand your floors and to purchase the blocker. Good news - Ciranova is currently having a sale on many of its stains and finishes (water based and HWO).

This is the floor AFTER using the two part pink blocker and RIGHT BEFORE adding finish

Right after finish applied:

I couldn’t get a very good screenshot of the video after the finish had dried. Kinda blurry. Apparently, once it’s to this stage, it’s similar to when people bleach their red oak floors. G and S Floor Services said that Ciranova’s pink blocker is EASIER TO USE and MORE PREDICTABLE than using bleach.

I will try to find the post where the person added a photo of her finished floors here on Houzz

If you can “fix” it without sanding, that would be an easier (and less expensive) fix. However, my understanding (from reading discussions on Houzz) is that you shouldn’t put on more than one coat of stain.

. @sjmccarthy - just thought I’d tag you on this issue since I learned this from reading your posts!

Amy - I absolutely LOVE your herringbone pattern floor! Also, I would be devastated if I had to paint my white oak island. There has to be a better solution than doing that!

Sorry for so many posts - this is just a topic that I’ve done A LOT of research on because I’m getting ready to refinish my floors in a little over a week.

If you want to try some other stains vs. spending $$ on the Ciranova product, here are some red oak stains for you to try:

1. Dark Walnut:

2. Classic Gray:

3. Bona Driftwood and Bona Traffic HD in satin:

4. Another Driftwood stain - not Bona:

Here are some more stains:

5. Jacobean and Ebony (50/50):

6. Classic Gray/Jacobean (75/25):

7. Classic Gray/Jacobean (66/33):

8. Classic Gray/Jacobean/Weathered Gray (25/50/25) - this is from a user on Houzz:

9. Classic Gray:

10. Espresso/Weathered Oak/classic Gray (50/25/25):

11. Weathered Oak:

12. Weathered Oak/Classic Gray (66/33):

Wow, she much great information. We have decided to go with the resanding option and will then sample more colors. Perhaps a special walnut as recommended or maybe a dark walnut/classic grey mix. I will also be using water based finish. I’m so glad I posted this. I can’t be the only person to run into this problem, hopefully someone can learn from my mistakes too!

Any updates? how did it go?

Stay away from 'white' of any sort and you will be fine. Remember Kindergarten painting lessons? White + red = pink.

Remember: Gray = white + black.....there's that word again, "white". Keep out of the grays and the whites and you should be fine.

I have learned so much. We ended up adding a coat of special walnut on top and that was that...we loved the color. After living with the floors for about 2 weeks, the top coat of poly started to peel and chip....never do 2 coats of stain. We are resanding and staining today. We tried to color match but 11 samples later nothing came close. We have just decided to go with a Jacobean or Jacobean/Special walnut stain. Here’s to starting over!

Amy - Wow. Sorry to hear about the peeling and chipping. Kinda thought it would happen due to the 2 coats of stain. I wouldn’t have known that if I hadn’t read several posts by S J McCarthy explaining all of this in detail.

I’m sure that either Jacobean or Jacobean/Special Walnut mix will look beautiful!

This is special walnut on old red oak. It's my favorite stain.

IMG_1026.MOV · More Info

We went with Jacobean/Special Walnut mix and I love the color…so much better than the first. It was almost worth all the frustration, moving in and out of the house multiple times and having no furniture down for almost 2 months…I said almost LOL! Thanks everyone for the advice and hopefully someone learns from my mistake.

Finished product!

Are you happy with it?

@amyraz1820 your floors look GORGEOUS!!!

I think they came out great. Love the herringbone.

amyraz1820 what ratio of Jacobean / Special Walnut did you do?

Was this on red oak floors?

There’s a stain by Olympic they sell it at Home Depot and it’s called driftwood gray it’s actually the best color I have found this far to put on red oak floors. I’m sure your way done with your project right now but what was the answer that you came up with

Jnakos79 do you have any pics of this?

Can we have an update & picture of results, please?

@amyraz1820 do you have a photo of your floors and kitchen cabinets that are white oak?

Thanks for this discussion. I’m in the medium of a kitchen renovation. I have red oak floors that I have decided to sand and stain in hopes of minimizing the orange and pink hues. I am looking for a stain/brand that can offer that solution and complement white oak cabinets 🙈. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated!

We went with natural red oak - we love the lighter flooring throughout our home - and a contrasting stained white oak cabinet (I think it’s with special walnut). Contrast is more restrained in person and cabs are darker than we envisioned - originally we were thinking less contrast - but we’re very happy with how it turned out! We also have a good amount of white in the kitchen.

Looks beautiful! Thanks for sharing.