Stainning Maple Floor

woodlover

I do remodeling and with times the way they are I took on refinishing a hardwood floor that was going to get a clear coat finish,but now they have decided to stain the floor.Can you guys give me some direction on what you think are the best procedure to follow staining a maple floor.

Cdat

Staining is just....just....wrong. Sorry, I don't stain anything. Can't help you out none.

jarvis design

I just finished some work in my own house, re-doing the stairs going into the basement. They were carpet, but underneath were maple treads. I stained em with Old Master's stain (maple) and put 3 coats of finish on them. The only thing I would suggest (and I don't pretend to be an expert on staining), if your customer wants a really uniform colour is to use a conditioner on the wood first so the stain absorbs uniformly.

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Bathrooms Built for Life.
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jamestrd

depends on what the customer wants ut of the floor.. more opaque?
more grain?

you can use zar gel for deeper coverage.

you can buff the stain on..hand wipe...leave longer penetration,etc,etc.

communicate and sample for owner..

if applying by hand, always try not to drip on bare flooring..will make spots.

when coming out of a can with a rag, always come out to a portion of floor already stained..

alot of tips to give here...

floorinstall

I had to stain a maple floor a real dark stain, I believe it was min-wax Bombay. It kept coming out splotching. I re sanded it and wiped it down with water to "pop" the grain and stained it the next day. Worked great. I think the conditioner are for soft woods like pine. The gel stains do a real good job on Tight grain wood like maple. If you don't have a lot of experience with staining that is probably the best route for you to take. Hope that helps and good luck.

jaros bros.

Maple is a really tough wood to stain. I just redid some bathroom vanity raised panel doors because I did not like the way they came out. The stain looked fine on a sample piece but came out too uneven. I went to a dye and they came out great. They needed to be fairly dark and darker colors with maple are tricky. Some people will mix a weak solution of sealer and use it to partially seal and raise the grain so that when a stain is applied it won't soak in unevenly.

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Josh Jaros www.jarosbros.com Remodeling in The Woodlands, Texas

woodfloorpro

Scratches scratches scratches. If you are not a professional floor refinisher you should be very careful here. Depending on how dark it goes maple does not take stain well coming out very blotchy. Sure people will tell you that you can use stain controllers and presealers and dyes but these products are for the most part not for floors they are for cabinets and furniture and they only minimize the problem and may have combatability issues with the finish and will make it impossible to achieve a dark color. Buffer scrathes and edger scratches are also a concern for the inexperienced. I tell my customers that maple will turn out blotchey. End of story. I have tried too many things too many times to expect different results. Mike