Should You Stain Your Floor Before Putting Poly

Overlapping stain on previously stained areas causes uneven colors.

Should you stain your floor before putting poly. You must be starting with fresh or raw hardwood floors. Large and or deep scratches can be visible under the polyurethane. Staining and sealing hardwood floors the right way whether you re refinishing refurbishing or stripping the wood floor results in years of enjoyment. If the stain begins to dry before you wipe it off you re tackling too much area.

Immediately wipe it off with a dry cloth. Work in manageable areas. This is the only way to change the color of your hardwood floors. The floors need to be sanded 3 times with finer and finer grits so that all polyurethane and all stain is removed.

Before applying stain to your wood floor you need to know what species it is. Applying a deck stain and sealer with high quality is absolute of no use if you don t let it adequately dry. When etching the surface you can do this by hand or you can also use a palm sander. It may be impossible to dry out this top coat as by now it has lost it s drying capabilities and is really just a pool of semi dried oil just sitting.

Drying times are influenced not only by the brand of stain but also by the. When you stain and seal a hardwood floor the stain must be completely dry before adding the final coats of polyurethane. Sand your wood with at least 220 grit sandpaper. I ll be sending you the url of my poly article so you can see how it s done.

This is a vivid illustration of how important it is that the texture of your wood floor be absolutely uniform and consistent before you apply your stain. The stain will probably get mixed up with the poly. Maple and birch are tight grained woods with very small pores and the density of the pore wall fibers varies drastically. If you attempt to add stain on top of floor without sanding it expect it to peel off.

As a result your poly will take the longest time to settle sometimes even worse. This floor was sanded correctly but was aggressively mopped with water against the grain probably in an attempt to remove all the dust. Or possibly the stain you didn t mention if you stained the floor didn t dry before you applied the poly. Time limit to dry stain before polyurethane.

For open grain woods like oak ash or walnut you can apply a wood grain filler before the polyurethane to create an ultra smooth finished surface. Apply the stain to the wood liberally with a sponge or soft cloth. As with all wood finishes good results depend on smooth clean wood surfaces but this goes double with clear finishes such as polyurethane. It really depends on your preference but if you re wanting to apply polyurethane to a floor it s advised that you use a floor buffer with a 120 grit sanding screen.