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 wasn't correcting that. I was making sure you know that Bona Naturale needs to have a sealer underneath. I've seen others here claim it was used AS a sealer. Having the name Naturale is a bit confusing when Bona has a Naturalseal, and natural is a generic term for a wood floor finished clear. It looks like I was mistaken in that Naturalseal is between Nordicseal and Classicseal. I had Bonaseal (since changed names to Classicseal) and Bona urethane on my master bedroom White oak for many years. It's a nice background color but it isn't exactly warm or overly interesting. That can be a good or a bad thing. In my case, I wanted a background floor that didn't clash with anything, allowing me to decorate as I wished. Since you've seen the lightest option and the middle option, perhaps it would be smart to see the Intenseseal or Amberseal. OTOH, if you really like the Classicseal, maybe you should stop looking. It seems like things were easier to accomplish when there weren't so many options.

Your flooring contractor can make up samples for you. It's no different from making stain samples.

Can anyone speak to whether or not you can (or even should) just do three layers of the bona HD finish on raw maple or if that impacts the integrity of the floor and you need to use a seal (irrespective of stain) because it’s maple and doesn’t really take stain anyways. I’m just asking more as a matter of durability and function - does the raw wood require the seal for protection in addition to the finish???