Hello Folks, We are testing out some hardwood floor stains & finishes on a section of our white oak floors before embarking on the larger project. In the first photo below, we applied 1 layer of Minwax pre-stain wood conditioner followed by 2 layers of Minwax oil-based stain (natural 209), let it dry for 3 days then applied 2 layers of Bona Traffic HD in satin and left it to dry overnight. In checking on it in the morning, we noticed areas that became "dandelion yellow" (circled in the photo below) as noted by SJ McCarthy and wanted to know if this an artifact of not applying a sealant after staining/prior to adding the Bona Traffic HD. Any thoughts on how to avoid this? Would applying a sealant prior to the water-based Bona Traffic HD prevent the yellowing? If so, what Bona sealant would you advise using? The second photo underwent an identical process except we only applied 1 layer of the Minwax oil-based stain (natural 209) and observed minimal yellowing. Don't know what to make of that. We'd like to use the combination of the Minwax product and the Bona Traffic HD so any advice on how to prevent the yellowing would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance. Cheers, Anthony (Apologies if the photo quality isn't great)

I have a similar situation as OP we used Nordic Seal followed by MegaOne finish. We definitely were misinformed about the Nordic Seal applicaiton and did not put on enough sealant the first time around. This left us with some nasty patchy spots here and there. Fortunately the majority of the floor turned out really nice, but we are not very excited aboiut the pictured spots which unfortunately ended up right in the middle of the hallway and super noticable. Our sealant is the white tinted seal. We have tried to lightly scuff the finish and then reapply some white sealant to match the color but we are having a tough time blending it in. The white seems to need a lot to look the same tint and if you overlap any spots where the white is already fine then it keeps getting whiter and you can tell its layered up. Given the cost to rent the machines again, re-doing the entire floor is something we would like to avoid at all costs. I have read the above comments about sanding down to wood, but should we be concerned about potentitally damaging other parts of the floor that area already in good shape? Any advice would be much appreciated! thanks.

Ciranova ? Pink Blocker can be used with any competitors brand stain. I have not experienced any issue. You do need to buff with a maroon pad prior to applying a stain with other manufacturer's WB PU. I have not applied any other WB except for Ciranova's own WB PU over Pink blocker. No time for experimenting. Pink Blocker is a reactive stain. It is water soluble. Ciranova has a binder in their invisible line finishes : Ecofix plus, Woodlook Plus and Oculto. It helps prevent reactivating the stain and moving the color around. Reactive stain can be applied after pink blocker. Still needs buffing with maroon pad. You can use the regular reactive stain on red oak. It will not be as intense as if, it was applied onto white oak. Aquavintage is a two part reactive stain. hardwax oil , oil poly or wb poly can be applied. If, using WB poly, use one of Ciranova's invisible poly. Ecofix for light natural colors. Woodlook for whites and grays and Oculto for dark tone reactive stains. It is water soluble, competitors WB PU will move finish around. If, you want a WB system that looks like a oil finish. Ciranova's invisible line is what you want. It will look as natural or raw as can be with the protection of a WB system. For added protection, you can do two coats of their invisible finish and two coats of Fortico. Fortico is comparable to Bona Traffic HD and Loba's Supra AT. You can top coat Ciranova's invisible finishes with competitors WB finishes. That will help keep cost down. Only downside, if, you run into issues. The tech support will not help you. Use your own discretion. Unico is the same as RMC. It's a single coat oil system with the added benefits of being able to apply a WB PU over it. It's soft, top coat with one coat of Titan or two coats of Fortico for the added protection. Titan is better than RMC. Note: every manufacturer alters their binders slightly in their finishes to make it unique. It creates issues with other manufacturers products. You would need to test samples to make sure there are no finishing issues. I have used Ciranova's reactive stain with RMC and Pallmann's oil with no issues. I have tried applying a competitors WB PU over Ciranova's reactive stain with no success. It moves the color around. But when used with Ciranova's invisible PU, no issues. You can apply dewaxed shellac over the reactive stain and apply a competitor's WB PU or just apply oil base poly. Keep in mind oil base poly will turn yellow. For aged look, it does not look good. If, you want the aged look use Ciranova. you won't be disappointed, unless your guy does not know how to use it. For a stained look, you can use any other brand. The colors are all the same, besides Duraseal, which has more colors available than anyone.

On the above red oak flooring we used: -Bona Red Out (two step) -One coat Bona NaturalSeal -One coat Bona Traffic HD Here’s another residence where we used a different recipe (this was white oak flooring and didn’t require Red Out): -One coat DuraSeal Country White stain -One coat Bona NaturalSeal -Two coats Bona Traffic HD This white oak flooring looks a little glazed over in white (in certain types of light). Still nice but just slightly less natural looking. I believe I used a satin finish on both floors.