Hello,

I'm having my floors refinished that were in pretty rough shape by a professional who has great reviews and has been in doing this for 20 years. After staining the floor in a room that was normal looking after sanding. It has very distinct pathways of lighter stain. The dark stain is what it should look like. It's not fully dry yet, but very concerned. Any ideas? https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share/jIgApY44kH7Zbr3kiEplosUEQMy2D1x_SrpGHQk8XUs

Don't accept that floor. He can fix it even if it has to be sanded again.

Oh he's got a few ideas and will definitely fix it, but I was curious if anyone knew what would cause this?

is this a Joke?

my best guess is he used a shellac sealer because it looks like ample floor..some do this as it "helps maple and pines stain more evenly..i have yet to see that ever go well on a floor..

my thinking is at what point do you start staining and continue staining as this is occurring.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'll know more tomorrow after he tries a few things (been in the business for 20 years with very good references). I should mention these are very very old maple floors. The house was built in 1905. He water popped the floors before staining. Just have no idea what would have caused this.

It looks like he didn't wipe off the excess properly.

it has noting to do with "not wiping excess" chicken salad..way off base there..

there is an old saying..,20 yeas of crap is 20 years of crap..there i nothing to "try"

the job needs to be sanded properly and prepped properly.

that is an abomination and the only cure is to start over from scratch,.most likely with a qualified contractor..

water popping didn't do that but may be a place to start as he obviously doesn't know how to water pop..

tell him to use a spray bottle as deck stainer type or weed killer bottle..spray the floor and let dry til next day..no buffing..no creative liberty..go in and stain and the job will be fine..after full resand and prep.

Do you think it could be some chemical that was used on the floor in a past life? That seems like too fine of a line to be an error he made. I saw the floors the night before and they looked great. no strange lines like that. Something is repelling the stain in those spots and i don't know what.

Floors have been fixed! Had to apply more water to the lighter spots to get the grain to raise more. Thanks for the input.

how did he add more water to the floor without sanding? and discoloring the stain?

stain would have sealed the pores and caused more issues trying to use water after the fact.