Help! My son is having a white oak floor installed. Stained them with Old Master special walnut. Looked good that evening, gave go ahead to proceed with varnish. 2 coats of varnish down and they are getting lighter/pastier instead of darker as we expected. Can the next coat be tinted with something to darken and warm up color without making them muddy? I have done a fair amount of decorative and faux finishing on furniture and know it would work on that, but have no idea how it would work on a floor with traffic. What type of tint/pigment would you recommend?The floors are his big "splurge" on his new house and hate to see him so disappointed with very ordinary looking floors.
Thank you,
Melissa

you can tint Oil based polyurethane, to >10% I have never done it except on first coats (because the stain absorbs into the grain) once a finish is down I dont think it would work the same.

Also if it was finished with traffic (waterbase), you need to wait to apply an oil based product over it. I want to say 60 days (but dont quote me on that) could be a bit more or less

The only reasonable way to darken the wood flooring is to stain the wood.
Topical colorations I've seen attempted simply did not work. Scrathes magnified and mixing oil/water finishes is NOT suggested by NOFMA or the NWFA, even though it is done. The Good Floor Guys seem to know how to make this work.
My suggestion is to finish the floor, put the furniture in and enjoy the floor. Oak darkens a bit with time, but not very much.
I like Natural Oak Colors better than dark colors because everyday use is not as visible on as darker colors. If he has a family he will appreciate the natural color compared to dark colors that show everything and every scratch.
This is wood, and the surface will scratch if you live in a home. The only difference is how visible the scratches are.

If you tint the finish you comprimise the strength of that coat i have done this and seen the finish flake!!!

Interesting that you bring this up. Just inspected a coating failure where the tint was in the finish.. It looked beautiful everywhere except where it was peeling of the surface.