Im having my oak floor re-finished. It's 6 years old and I want it to be a Med- Dark brown. They can't seem to get it dark. Is there any way to do that? They have tried Bona Jacobean. It will not get dark. HELP!!!

Scott
Cedar Hills Utah

they have the floor sanded too fine. they need to pop the grain to open the pores back up so the stain can penetrate down in the wood and not just float across the top.

One other issue I can tell right away is that Bona stains are not nearly as dark as Minwax . I use and like Bona stains but their version of Dark Walnut and Jacobean are much lighter than the Minxaw counter parts.I had a Bona rep tell me this wasn't possible so I had him stop by the job and I put it down right in front of him so he couldn't deny that Bona stains are lighter . Then we used his stain and got the same result. So Bona is aware of this too. One double edged sword with Bona stains is that they are great to work with but have limited penetration ability and this limits the dark color range.

Another possible issue is if your contractor buffs on the stain.This is a great technique and i use it myself but the buffing process (of applying stain) also burnishes the floor a bit and causes the stain color to go on lighter than if it were to be applied by hand or lambswool.

Another possible issue might be if you are comparing an old existing floor to the new sanding. A brand new floor cannot be made to perfectly match an older existing floor due to the natural aging process of natural products .We call that "gaining a patina"

Basically, it's hard for any of us to say exactly what is going on without knowing your specifics but these are general guide lines. If you end up going with Minwax stain, only buy the old formula in quarts. The new VOC formulas are bad news.