It's been a few years since I've been on this forum and done a floor. The last floor I installed turned out awesome thanks to many people's advice on this forum. I've since moved, and need to do some refinishing of about 2000 sq ft of maple. I don't know what's changed in the industry in the past few years and if there are better products or procedures out there now. My plan to do this floor is:

- Face nail any squeaks or other areas that need it
- Fill any gaps with Woodwise
- Sand
- Stain/dye
- Bona sealer and 2 coats of Traffic

I love the look of clear maple. However, I have one room that is a library, and I want to give it that late 1800's/early 1900's feel. Which means I need something dark. Also, in the rest of the house, I'm throwing around the idea of coloring the floor kind of a barnwood grey. A few years ago, some people on here were experiementing with dyes instead of stains. What's the general consensus on dyes? I bought some black dye a few years ago and mixed it with SLX to get a nice grey color. It worked well on the test piece I did, but I don't know how it would hold up over time. Is it going to fade from UV or otherwise degrade? Should I stick with a stain?

I'd suggest using a stain instead of a dye if you aren't experienced with dyes, as they are tough to get perfect. You can find a couple grey stain color options at Sherwin Williams and I have found that their stain works well on maple. I prefer to stay away from thinner watery like stains for maple, like Minwax. Another option you might consider to color and finish the floors in one easy application is Rubio Monocoat. They have several gray colors. They also have a newer product called pre color easy that is like a dye but easier to use. With this product their is unlimited ways to get the floors any gray color you could possibly want. Also, when coloring or staining maple it is very very important to get a perfect sand job, I always use a palm sander on the edges of every maple floor we stain, it helps ensure that the edges are perfectly sanded. It's also important to water pop maple when staining as well. Hope this helps. Good luck with your project!

Hope your project turned out well, if you've finished it by now that is. If not, I can only advise against dye stain as it generally only lasts 5-10 years. It's not colorfast like pigmented stains.

Water popping will help open up the wood and allow the stain to take more evenly if you are using a penetrating stain. Sometimes a second coat of stain will help tremendously , especially if you are using a lighter stain.

Rubio is expensive, but certainly a great option on Maple and will probably be the more even color option and it can be coated over with polyurethane if you chose to, or you can leave it as is...it's supposed to be easy to fix as well.