I just had 600 square feet of knotty pine flooring professionally finished. Three coats of Rustoleum water based, satin finish polyurethane were applied. A fine job was done, however the newly sanded floors are now several shades lighter in color than before, and no longer match the same-pine siding on the walls. The floors are now simply too pale. Questions:

-Will the newly finished pine floor darken with time to the degree that they apparently had darkened before? I know pine will darken with age, but I have read several references to the fact that water-based poly will not darken like oil-based will.

-We realize that we made the mistake of not having the newly sanded floor stained to better complement the existing wall siding. Is there anything that we can do short of refinishing again to darken the floors? Will a poly mixed with stain work on top of the existing three coats of poly?

If the pine will definitely darken as it apparently did originally, that would be an acceptable option for us. If the water-based poly will keep the pine from darkening, then more drastic measures need to be considered.

Thanks for all your thoughts and we welcome all advise.

The water based coating that was used will prevent the finish itself from gaining a golden or amber patina . It will likely yellow a bit over time but simply not to the degree that oil based poly will. At this stage , all you can do is tint a new coat and then put a final coat on top of that .

I would avoid products like minwax polyshades .I have seen it many times and it tends not to stick very well and seems to lack durability. In the times where I have sanded it, it seems to flake right off of the floor .

For more info on tinting, check out this thread :

new-red-oak-flooring-how-finish-t9675.html

I agree with Paul. To achieve the best match it would have been best to test different sealers. It sounds like an oil sealer would have probably been a closer match.

Just did a knotty pine- we used waterlox mixed with General Finishes Salem stain.
Best way to get color to the pail woods IMO.