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Refinishing pine floors.

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Refinishing pine floors.

#1

Refinishing pine floors.

Tara Desmond

Hello all!

A friend of mine is hiring me to help him finish his pine floors. There is and entrance, staircase and landing to complete.

He has so far done a great job sanding but was having problems to find someone willing to complete the job in their desired finish.

They want to go for a darker look to match the current banister colour.

The problem most of the finishers cited was that the stairs wouldn't take the stain evenly and sanding Marks would be obvious. They all recommended a natural finish. My first thought and plan would be to first sand well to whatever grit stain requires, then stain, then a washcoat of clear and stain to tone on top followed by 3 more layers of varnish.

Just a couple questions:

1. Is this a good plan??

2. Do you have any tips/general advice for finishing pine floors?

3. Is sealing the knots with shellac necessary?

4. Should I go for waterbased finish?

5. Instead of a coat of stain first, should I do a coat of varnish then stain?

Thank you for any advice and experience you may have!

Re: Refinishing pine floors.

#2

Re: Refinishing pine floors.

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

I would have to be unemployed to take this job. Pine will darken over time. Varnish will darken over time, a lot. How to compensate for these facts when finishing a freshly sanded floor? I don't know. And neither did the finishers that ran from the job.

Staining pine. Legendary for staining to look ugly from lack of uniformity in stain take up. Pretreatment with a sealer designed for this task will help.

What is the banister wood and how was it finished? Probably pine with varnish and both darkened over time to now look the way it looks?

Re: Refinishing pine floors.

#3

Ellis Walentine

My 2¢

Ellis Walentine

It's possible to overthink this.

We lived in a 1781 stone farmhouse with pine floors for over 40 years and refinished those floors a couple times. When staining was required, I used a water-based dye stain followed by three coats of oil-based polyurethane varnish (two gloss and one satin), simple as that. It did a nice job.

I have no doubt that there are some excellent waterborne floor finishes out there, and you can probably get your hands on catalyzed varnishes that are even more abrasion resistant than regular poly.

Once, we had our living room floor refinished by a young professional outfit, and they talked us into some proprietary system -- stain and finish -- that did a wonderful job. If I knew where to find my records of that contract, I'd tell you what it was, but it sounds like you're going to be doing this yourself.

Ellis Walentine, Host

Re: Refinishing pine floors.

#4

Re: Agreed

Henry (Raleigh NC)

Lot's of options, as Ellis is suggesting.

Color matching is at best 'a point in time' affair, as Bill suggests, because of the variations over time (especially in pine).

So of course test your system before committing to it all ( that is stain and finish). I hope this is a well paid work - as Bill suggests, it would not be my choice to do unless the price was premium.

Henry

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