Spots On Hardwood Flooring

banctecbobn

Several small water spots showed up once I applied stain to newly installed red oak flooring. Actually I beleive the spots are from me sweating when I installed the flooring in one room. How can I correct/remove these spots????

I stained the floor with Varathane Early American, a dark stain, but the spots are much darker and look like #%&@. I thought I sanded these spots out when I sanded the floor but I guess not.

Joining_heads

are you water popping your floors to raise the grain?

You are going to have to slightly sand and feather the areas and reapply stain with out darkening the existing.

Joining_heads

are you water popping your floors to raise the grain?

You are going to have to slightly sand and feather the areas and reapply stain with out darkening the existing.

How are you sanding that won't remove sweat? seems fishy

Grainywood

Try a higher grit screen then the floor was screened with to sand out the area and ease the edges. Then apply the stain again.

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"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

Teetorbilt

If it was sweat, or any other water and you were using water-based stain you're in a hard spot. The sweat/water presoaked the area and allowed the stain to penetrate deeper into the wood. IMHO, enlarging the area, sanding and attempting to match would only make things worse.

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OCRS

Had one job, just before staining, while we were at the truck having lunch, someone with sweaty socks walked across the hardwood from one end to the other. After stain had dried you could see every footprint. We did manage to sand out the areas and re-stain. This was a bar floor mind you so nobody was looking that closely.
I always wrapped my t-shirt or at least a sweatband if it was that hot. When edging, you have to lean in the direction you're sanding so you can edge it off.

Grainywood

there's a woman in my area, an artist who spot refinishes stained flooring, apparently with good results. Rather then refinish an entire floor people just want a spot fixed. She says it takes a lot of patience to be gentle around the edges so that it blends well. It probably wouldn't fly under a bay window though...to much light to show imperfections.

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"I can't change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

Poor Floorman

My faith in this site is on the demise.
All those posts and no one told you what's up.
I call their replies 'salesmen jargon'.

The spots are highly likely sweat, aka moisture. Even though you sand over the sweat the moisture is still present. When it dries out, it raises the grain and the stain absorbs more into the wood. That's the problem.

The preventive measures.
If you sweat allot or live in humid climates, carry a towel in your back pocket, wipe sweat from your brow frequently and more importantly from the floor before you run the sander over it.

The fix.
When staining, carry a scraper and file in your other back pocket. Scrape out anything you don't like, get rid of the scrapings (front pocket) and carry on staining. This scraping while staining is very effective and requires very little experience or skill.

If you have already applied a finish coat you will need experience and skill to correct it.

Patrick

And your response should be deemed more "helpful" than the others because?

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Originally Posted by Celtic
Like I said...I'm sure you are very good at what you do ~ whatever that is and where ever it happens.

banctecbobn

Thanks for all the responses though late, well too late for me. lol

Yes, the spots are from me sweating on the floor. It was during the time period I put the stain on the floor. I tried sanding out, which was easy, but trying to blend the stain did not give me the results I needed. I went back and sanded the entire floor again to remove all the stain and even the sanding patterns or you might say the sanding tracks. While restaining the floor I started to see a few spots again, actually from my sweaty palm that I placed on the floor to brace myself. I wrapped my hand with a rag and used a tee shirt to wipe the sweat before it hit the floor as someone above mentioned. Could hardly beleive sweat hitting the floor and within seconds before staining would cause this problem.

Found out the hard way, wish I could have gotten these replies a few days earlier. In the end the floor looks good, not perfect but very good.

Thank you again for the responses,
Bob

Poor Floorman

I'm sorry for your loss.
My response addressed the problem.
Had preventive measures.
Had the cure.

On the other hand, your post did absolutely NOTHING.
Had not one thing to help answer the question.
As I said I'm sorry for your loss of mental capacity.

OCRS

I guess none of these reponses count

Powell

Yah sweat is certainly an enemy of stain. as mentioned, sweat does seep in pretty deep and can take more to sand out than you think. Trying to blend? well as long as you fixed it before you applied 1st coat it's possible to look like it never happend but certainly a pain in the rear for as long as it can take. My old workmate sweat like a pig. Contractors were not very happy with that.