I need advice asap! My husband and I just installed beautiful 4 inch red oak hardwood floors in our kitchen and den. We sanded with 80 and then 120 using an edger. My husband used a slightly damp cloth instead of a tack cloth to wipe up the excess sanding dust after vacuuming. I did not water-pop the grain. If you are a hardwood pro, as you can imagine, after I began staining (Minwax Jacobean/Red Mahogany 4/1 mix) the wipe marks from the rag began to appear and very noticeably. I had already done about 100 sq.ft. of floor before I realized and then I stopped. So the next day we go back and rent the sander again. We sanded the entire floor over again to remove the stain, and wiped this time with a dry cloth.

Then I start over with the stain. This time it's coming out beautifully and the rag marks where the grain had popped were gone. I finish about 200 square feet and my husband takes his shoes off and walks across the unstained portion in his socks to come check the progress. It didn't even cross my mind that his feet would have been sweaty enough to pop the grain. Sure enough, as I continue through the room staining where he walked, dark size 12 footprints begin to show up. I could have cried. There was about 11 of them, and of course not in areas that would have been covered by furniture.

So we called a few hardwood floor places around us and did some research online. The winning vote was to sand the areas where the footprints were and very carefully blend the stain back in with the surrounding areas. We re-sanded using the same grit as before (80 then 120) but used a hand sander instead of the big machine. When I first applied the stain and blended it into the surrounding boards, it was almost impossible to decipher the "fixed" areas. But then as the stain began to dry, noticeable patches began to show. Now we have 3 big patches on the floor that are darker than the rest of the floor. When looking at it eye-level, the patches do not have a sheen like the rest of the floor, which is adding to the discoloration. I am thinking that even though we used the same grit of sandpaper, we used a different sanding method which resulted in a different finish.

I guess my question is - will the polyurethane make the patches less noticeable since there will be an even gloss on the floor? Or could it make it worse? I just want to know if we should take on the task and expense of re-sanding the entire floor before I start the poly process.

Thanks everyone. Sorry for the winded post.

the stain shouldn't have a sheen to begin with.

poly may help it come together..if the areas are darker then you sanding approach was rougher than what you did to the rest,,if it were lighter it was to fine a sanding.

try a higher grit paper ..it really shouldn't be that difficult to blend a foot print especially when no finishes have been applied.

You should be sanding the floors 3 times each w/ finer grits before adding stain. This is what will make the stain most even. I'm not surprised at all that it is blotchy given what you described above as well as your missing step.

The poly will probably smooth things out a bit, but given above, it will probably still show.

Debbie Gartner aka The Flooring Girl
http://TheFlooringGirl.com
Westchester County NY