I apologize for posting in 2 different forums but my original post should probably go here.

I just had a new white oak hardwood floor installed (select and better grade) then had it sanded by a professional hardwood floor finisher (3 passes with different grades; 120 screen was the final grade).

The stain -- Sherwin Williams Wood Classic Stain Weathered Teak (a pretty dark brown color) -- is coming out blotchy and uneven. The second problem is that it's not coming out with the depth and richness of color that it should be. A second coat of the stain on a test board looks much closer to the way it should look (and the desired finish as well) but everyone including the NWFA strongly recommend NOT putting a second coat on.

We tried a different brand of stain (MinWax) to see if the stain was the problem but the MinWax turned out blotchy too. We also tried staining another area using MinWax Wood Conditioner first but it didn't seem to make any difference.

it's a little hard to see but here are a few pics:
http://flickr.com/photos/13752607@N06/s ... 793463312/

Obviously I don't want to go ahead and finish the floors only to have a blotchy floor. Has anyone else experienced this or does anyone have any suggestions as to what may causing the problems and how to remedy it?

Any additional advice would be greatly appreciated.

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It could be many things.

He may be sanding with too fine of paper, and causing a surface tension. Basically burnishing the wood, so it won't absorb the stain.


When staining, 80 grit on your last cut, and then water popping the wood surface, for the stain to really absorb, into the wood cells.

A second coat of stain, is a NO-NO. After the first coat, the wood will absorb all it can. The second coat just sits there, and makes top coating adhesion concerns.

To be honest I had a difficult time discerning the blotchiness in the staining from the pictures.

I have experienced some "uneven" appearance in some of the stained floors I have done. The uneven appearance though would present after staining but only when looked at under certain lighting situations. I proceeded with finish since when the floor was looked at directly not allowing any reflection of light there seemed to be no "blotchy" appearance. Once the finish was applied the blotchy appearance was no longer visible. I believe that this appearance was visible due to a differing luster in the stained floor and not in the stained color of the floor.

Just thought tat you might possibly be experiencing a similar type situation.

Now that I can see the pictures, that floor doesn't look bad, from the pictures.

Doesn't look horrible to me either.

I just stained my 70 year old heart pine floors with Minwax oil based stain and preconditioner. I applied two coats. At first, I was having a panic attack because of how blotchy they were. Pine is known for not staining well. After 24 hours they were better and the variation was drastically reduced after applying OMU semi-gloss poly over top. My floors now have a decent stained finished, but I was really scared at first.

Hope things turn out well for you.

I think the floor looks fine also.

But I think I understand where you might be coming from. My Dura-Seal stain sample swatches provided by Dura-Seal do look darker then the floors I stain with their respective colors. If you water-pop the floor, as Gary suggested, prior to staining you'll get that deeper darker color. Machining to only 80 grit sandpaper helps as well, but unless you've had A LOT of time behind your floor machines you'll have a hard time not leaving any edger zingers, drum marks, rigdes, and other unwanted machine marks in the floor.

I've stained floors more than once to achieve the proper color even though everyone warns you not to. I've had to coat a floor white probably three or four times to get the right shade. The last coat I let sit on top like a coat of finish without wiping it off like you would normally do with a penetrating stain. I did let it dry a week before I coated it with Traffic finish.

I think your floor looks fine though.

sorry didn't spell check

they don't look as bad in the photos as they do in real life.

i don't think i am being overly difficult; i just want a good job. certainly all of the professionals on this forum have seen good quality and poor quality work out there.

anyway, i think i will try having the floors resanded with 80 and then water popped.

one last question: should i use the same finisher to complete the job or should i hire someone else? (of course i would pay him for his work). it just seems to me that the i shouldn't be the one calling the stain and hardwood distributor, searching the internet and posting on forums; my professional should have been the one coming up with these solutions.

what do you guys think?

By looking at the photos ONLY, the floor looks fine. It looks like an oak floor stained an antique brown or similar color. It looks fairly even. The only "splotchyness" I can see from the photos has to do with the way oak naturally stains. I think once a finish is applied, the appearance would be greatly improved. It is hard to judge quality by a photo, especially regarding finishing. You say it's worse in person. I have found that statement to often be true; that a camera does not pick up the flaws in finishing very well. IMO, you are obligated to allow the original contractor the chance to improve things. If, in his opinion, the finishing is fine, then I suppose an independent assessment will need to be done.

Seeing that I am not happy with the floors as they are now and would have sanded them down I went ahead and applied a second coat of stain myself. The color is both a little more even and much closer to the color they are suppose to be (a dark walnut versus a medium pecan).

I have the luxury of time to allow them to fully dry and then i will put on 3 coats of poly (sanding lightly in between coats).

Do you really think i am obligated to the original contractor? After all, he really did nothing to find a solution to the problem -- or to help me get what i wanted. His response was "this is about as good as I can get them." It's not as if am the first person to have their floors stained a dark color. And he will be paid for his work in full.

What I meant is a customer/consumer is obligated to allow a contractor to repair and/or improve a job before the customer withholds money or hires another contractor. Since you are doing neither, then your obligation is voided. You say you intend to pay the contractor in full as he has already said that is the best he could do and he does not intend on doing anymore work on the floor. So you did give him an option of improving the job but he declined by saying it was the best he could do. At that point, you can either pay him for his services and accept the work as is, not pay and get caught up in a legal hassle of whether the work was within industry standards, pay him then hire someone else, or pay him and attempt to improve it yourself. It appears you have chosen option four. I hope everything works out well in the end.

Correct! double staining does one thing (blocks up the pores)where the first coat of finish should be,just as bad as putting a first coat of finish on a stained floor that's not completely dry

My dislikes for polyurethane are varied. When we were in business our goal was to do a job that would last a long time. We didn't want the same piece in to re-do, but to do the kind of job that would make people bring in other pieces to have done.
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Hi,

I know this post is old but I'm literally having the same issue. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Did the original poster have success?

Thanks

Yes I did. The original finisher disappeared. I guess he didn't want the challenge. Which was fine by me cause I wasn't going to accept a medium brown color by default. I found another floor guy -- one working on multimillion dollar homes -- which to me meant that he probably knew what he was doing. You don't last long in the high-end market if you are a f.up.

He did the job and it turned out beautifully. A couple of things to note:

It's been a long time but if I remember correctly, he misted the floor with water before applying the stain to get the stain to penetrate better.

Also the stain pre poly still didn't look as dark as i was hoping for so I was still a little worried but I let him do his job. Once it got the 3 coats of poly it was rich and dark.

Last thing: Rethink dark walnut. It's really beautiful but every friggin little fleck of dust shows so it always looks dirty. We have to vacuum everyday. Next time I'm going with a medium tone. This is the same reason my car is silver and not black!!