Hi all,
My bamboo floor is about 8yrs old, and it still in great condition. It was prestained in light honey color out of the box. My wife wants to restain it even lighter color. She wants to have that white-washed look that you see in many beach houses. Does anyone know if this is possible on bamboo? If so please advise the steps to get finish.

Thanks.
Roger

I have not stained bamboo yet but it certainly is possible.I don't know yet if bamboo stains evenly or if it appears blotchy like maple and pine do.Seeing as how your bamboo floor is prefinished, you have to hire someone to sand it first.If it has micro bevels, this might be a problem because few floor contractors are willing or able to completely scrape these by hand so the only realistic option is to hope they are sanded out quickly without cutting through the wear layer of the flooring.

If you manage to get this far, there's two methods for staining flooring white. One is to simply apply your stain of choice to the wood like any other stain would be applied..The second is to evenly wipe the raw wood with water.This pops the grain and makes it stand up giving it a pickled look .This is actually what pickling refers to according to an old timer floor man that I spoke to.

If you pop the grain, this allows the flooring to absorb more of the white pigment and appear much whiter. Should you do it or choose not to, you will want to proceed by finishing the floor with a water borne finish as using a oil based finish will yellow or brown over the white color.