Now You Know. Water soluble aniline dye will work for maple. Now it’s time to water pop the wood. With many of those early products being so forgiving, most of the problems encountered by floor finishers were procedural. We have two types of aniline dye here at CFS. and,"Why do we have more problems with maple floors than we have with oak.". Water popping maple will help raise the grain and make the wood is more receptive to the stain or dye. The strength and consistency of oak measures up well against maple … We recommend you use a water dye system. We highly recommend a stain conditioner to control the evenness of the application. Along with maple strip flooring, more maple plank is being installed, and in areas where maple was not prevalent in the past. Show the customer a variety of wood tone stains reduced with neutral stain. When staining a hardwood floor, it's crucial to make sure the stain is dry prior to applying the finish. How do I find someone who can do a good job. The second is to screen and then "pop the grain" with water and allow to dry overnight before staining. However, with enough delicate and meticulous care, it can be done and done well. The floors have what is called a dog-finish. Whether or not you decide to screen, it’s important that you don’t close the grain of the wood. In the 1950s and '60s, most final sandings on wood floors were done with 60- and 80-grit sandpapers. This comes from either trying to avoid an extra sanding or a fear of being too aggressive. The kind of hardwood floor you have will also factor into what type of finish will work best for you. In my opinion, a classic American maple hardwood floor is best left in its natural state, with a clear sealant finish to allow the pretty grain and buttery tones to shine through. What Kind Of Finish Is Best For Hardwood Floors? Staining maple is not an easy proposition. That means that you have to change color somehow. It's tough enough to handle constant traffic and is resistant to almost everything. Most residential floors were oak. Bringing out the best in hardwood floors. These can include sandpaper lines, abrasive selection, screen or swirl marks, wavy grain appearance, stains not taking uniformly, debris in the finish between coat abrasion and uneven sheens in low sheen finishes. Maple is known to stain blotchy or patchy. We carry solid maple flooring in hundreds of options. We recommend you use a traditional resin stain over your dye to lock in the color and this will also create good protection from fading. Screens were not yet invented. Take care when abrading between multiple sealer and finish coats. Prior to the introduction of sanding screens, all floors were drum-sanded, edged and the edges hand-scraped and/or hand-sanded. Many finishers then think that the material was bad or that the flattening agent was not mixed in sufficiently. The most popular finish for hardwood is polyurethane with a base of water or oil. Use a high powered light to investigate your sanding to make certain you do not have sanding marks . Thanks for sharing. Step 2: Fill Gaps and Cracks with Floor Putty. Woods with open, porous grain, such as oak, can hide a small amount of these imperfections, but they stand out on maple and other dense woods. Many times on these old maple floors, there is a type of coating that … What Does ‘Baseline Moisture Content’ Mean? Click here for great deals on hardwood floor stains and dyes. Using a powder dye that mixes with water can be tricky but can be done. Work from one end of the room to the next going with the grain cut as exactly as you can on a board edge. Secondly, a maple floor, if … If you decide to screen your maple floor or use grits finer than 100 you will need to pop the grain. How can I remove the stain? Since maple is so dense, you need to open up the grain as much as possible. Once the sanding is done then you need to thoroughly clean the wood. This was because every sanding and application imperfection tends to show up on dense, light-colored woods such as maple, and applying finish across the grain was, and still is, a challenge. In the 1950s and '60s, most final sandings on wood floors were done with 60- and 80-grit sandpapers. Staining maple shows all sanding flaws quickly. Trans Tint is a liquid concentrate and Lockwood is a powder mixed with water. The most commonly used finishes were shellac, varnish and seal-and-wax. This finisher has been in business for many years and in recent years has found customers are becoming more critical. There is no magic solution or tool for sanding and finishing a maple floor. Take note that any areas of overlap will result in a patch of darker color. The safest approach is to first ... Tim Nathan, market specialist/upper Midwest regional manager at Basic Coatings, shared this tip: Stick with semi-gloss or gloss topcoats and use care when coating. Inexperienced floor sanders attempt rough-sanding with a grade of paper too fine to effectively flatten the floor and remove the overwood. This step pays dividends. Best when professionally applied, acid-cured finishes are the most durable and expensive of all hardwood floor finishes. "Our customer... Everything from basics on running the big machine to detailed buffer techniques and more are in these wood floor sanding articles. This procedure is still recommended for many floors, and especially for floors being stained. Satin can look like semigloss; semi-gloss can look like gloss. The floor was to be sanded, stained a dark brown color and finished with four coats of a leading waterborne finish in a satin sheen. Required fields are marked *, [gravityform id="4" title="false" description="false" ajax="true"],
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