Should You Stain Your Floor Before Putting Poly

Knowing how to stain and seal a hardwood floor properly pays off in having a beautiful finish and enduring protection.

Should you stain your floor before putting poly.

The stain will probably get mixed up with the poly. Large and or deep scratches can be visible under the polyurethane. When you stain and seal a hardwood floor the stain must be completely dry before adding the final coats of 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.

Immediately wipe it off with a dry cloth. Sand your wood with at least 220 grit sandpaper. 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. If the stain begins to dry before you wipe it off you re tackling too much area.

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. Or possibly the stain you didn t mention if you stained the floor didn t dry before you applied the poly. Maple and birch are tight grained woods with very small pores and the density of the pore wall fibers varies drastically. I ll be sending you the url of my poly article so you can see how it s done.

As with all wood finishes good results depend on smooth clean wood surfaces but this goes double with clear finishes such as polyurethane. 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. As a result your poly will take the longest time to settle sometimes even worse. Work in manageable areas.

Applying a deck stain and sealer with high quality is absolute of no use if you don t let it adequately dry. Floors made of maple birch and coniferous woods especially pine or fir are all very difficult to stain evenly. You must be starting with fresh or raw hardwood floors. Apply the stain to the wood liberally with a sponge or soft cloth.

Before applying stain to your wood floor you need to know what species it is. When etching the surface you can do this by hand or you can also use a palm sander. If you attempt to add stain on top of floor without sanding it expect it to peel off. Overlapping stain on previously stained areas causes uneven colors.

This is more likely to happen using water based stain. Drying times are influenced not only by the brand of stain but also by the. This floor was sanded correctly but was aggressively mopped with water against the grain probably in an attempt to remove all the dust. This is the only way to change the color of your hardwood floors.