We are in the process of having our floors refinished. They are old floors, some oak (either red or white - the owner of the business says white, but the sander said red??) Anyway, we told them we wanted to avoid red and orange tones as much as possible and settled on special walnut. Well, the floors are VERY orangish. Brown orange, yes, but undeniably orange. I ended up liking it on the pine because a lot of dark brown and almost black came out as well. Overall, there was a mixture of the black/brown color I love and an amber from the pine. However, I just dont like the color on the oak. I approached the floor guys about what I could do from here before putting the 2nd of 3 coats of poly. Well, the owner was totally upset with me even though I told him it was my mistake. I thought I would like the color but do not. He suggested tinting the 2nd coat of poly with Jacobean. We did this, but honestly it did not do much of anything to rid of the orange. The guys who are actually working on the floor said they could tint the final coat with ebony. Is this actually going to help stomp out the orange??? Or are we wasting time. Honestly, its only 2 rooms and a small hall with oak. I would just have them re-sand but the owner of the floor business said the floor was thin and could crack if we sanded again. Am i destined to live with a color that I really don't like?

Tinting poly is tricky but possible.The best way to do it is with tints , not stains. Adding stain to your poly can easily create a delamination problem because the carriers in the stain compromise the urethane.I use transtint dyes which can be bought or ordered through www.woodcraft.com.

You can add a lot of brown color to a urethane this way without compromising the urethane . Also, tinting is not easy as too heavy of a tint can make the finish appear streaky.I sometimes tint the poly heavily but still apply a fairly thin coats .And usually, multiple coats are needed to get the right effect. I rarely would try to get a lot of color out of just one coat.

Thanks for your reply. I will have to think about where to go from here. The color really looks more chestnut and I do not like it. I guess it is the natural color of the oak that made the color turn out this way? Or is minwax special walnut really an orangy color? I will suggest the possibility of using a transtint dye to my floor guys and see if they have any experience working with it rather than darkening the poly with stain. I guess if they don't have any experience working with the dye, I could end up with a color I like better but with streaks. Anyway, thanks for the input. Gives me hope that I might end up with a floor color I can be happy about.

never had anyone say Special walnut looks orangy...but red oak will always some tint through it.

I have heard it said about early american..

are they using poly or waterbase?

poly may help.

or start over...there are few floors, unless this floor is 1/4" thick, that ate "too thin" to sand..

but if they sampled and you approved color, you will have to pay again..

Maybe consider Rubio Monocoat. It comes pre tinted in about 40 different shades.

We did approve the color. It didn't look orange to me then. Of course, the sample was only a 3 by 4 inch area and not in direct sunlight. It was minwax which I read some people really don't like because of the color results.

The floor is about 1/4 inch thick. It's a very unique flooring and was laid over another wood floor many years ago i imagine (house was built in 1935). The floor panels are no more than 2.5 inches wide. If we really had the money to re-sand, we could just rip up the oak and use the wood floor underneath. It is also a nice floor and flush with the pine in the kitchen. Perhaps we will try using a tinted poly and if we still hate the color after some years, we will rip up the oak and use the flooring beneath. Next time I will spend a little more time deciding on a color.

So bummed to hear the special walnut does not usually look orange, but is looking orange on our floors. Especially when I ended up with exactly what I was trying to avoid. As you all know, having your floors redone is expensive and unlike a piece of furniture cannot be returned.

its probably the lighting as well as the wall color at play here.

in your defense a 3 x 4 inch swatch certainly is not enough..a bigger area is alwasy best and in areas if light and concern..

we often do right under windows and if need be, in areas where people may have a funky color on the walls.

this all comes to play in the final cast of a color.

i know the type of flooring you are talking about..

If it s a solid finish nailed through the tops of the boards..you can sand again.

if they are finish nailed tongue and groove boards..then chances are they are done..

this type of installation was done many time years ago.. i am unsure the reasoning as 3/4 thick floors were available..
maybe it was height build..maybe it was cost factor..
the flooring underneath is probably Fir..