/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>434597
*Dark Walnut stain

>before pictures

Do a test patch in a discrete area, like a closet. Avoid hitting the wood filler with the stain.

In my experience, a second coat of stain typically adds more "depth" then darkness.

>>434607
What can I do about that one area though?

What grit did you use?
A lower grit allows wood to accept darker stains with less re-applications.
dat oak?

>>434614
I used the ezV sander from 36 -> 80 grit.

I read about water popping, but it seems to not be diy-friendly.

I believe it is oak, but your guess is as good as mine.

>after staining
The pictures don't really do the floor justice since there's not enough light in there to photograph it well. The floors look very nice to my eye, and significantly better than the before which had lots of scuff marks and lots of missing varnish.

after closet

In case anyone reading this wants a tip for doing their floors:

Remove the shoe molding and push the ezV right up to the edge of the baseboard to get really close. I didn't. Worst idea I ever had. I had to go over all the edges with a palm sander and a carbide scraper. It took forever and was extremely taxing.

Buy an organic vapor/paint respirator. You can't even smell the oil stain with it on.

Use an oil polyurethane instead of the water one. It is more durable and it is easier for beginners to not screw up (e.g. lap marks). It smells though, so buy the respirator.

>>434614
>A lower grit allows wood to accept darker stains with less re

fewer, you fucking idiot, fewer.

less is used when something is subdivisional, like less sunlight.

fewer is used when something is countable, like fewer ass rapings

you meant to say fewer. learn the language, or shut the fuck up.

>>434666
>in pain

>>434668

lol. i love you

>>434666
>grammar nazi attempts to correct someone
>has no access to dictionary
>fails miserably

less. adj.
(proscribed) A smaller number of; fewer. [from 9th c.]

>Some [1] regard the use of the determiner less with quantities to be incorrect, stating that less should indicate only a reduction in size or significance, leaving fewer to indicate a smaller quantity:

>Their troubles are fewer than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so numerous as ours."
>Their troubles are less than ours, meaning "Their troubles are not so great as ours."

>In typical usage this distinction is absent, and less has been widely understood and commonly used as a synonym for fewer since it first appeared in Old English.

>used as a synonym for fewer since it first appeared in Old English

>>434679
10/10

>>434597
we pop the grain with water when we want to go with a dark stain, the stain on the boards look like an existing pet or water stain, good job over all. I'd hire you.

>>434684
the patch...
>can't tell if joking about the hiring part

I will resand it now and restain the patch and post an update pic. hopefully it will improve.

>>434687
no, its actually a good job (stain aside)
I'd hire you too.

>>434597
Mistake was not using natural wood colored stainable filler I think. Maybe try stain on test patch of untinted filler and see how it looks before redoing part of floor.

I sanded the spot down to remove excess wood filler, then restained it, and restained the entire floor again. It looks a lot better now.

I called Varathane and they said I could leave the stain for an hour and then wipe it off. So I left it for an hour and wiped, but now the floor looks a bit blotchy. I guess do not leave stain for an hour, despite what the can say. I probably should have wiped as I went, ended up with a light finished color, then stained a 3rd time if I wanted it darker. Otherwise it gets a bit blotchy. The floor still looks great, and if I didn't say anything about the blotchiness you'd never notice (unless you refinished floors professionally).

>>434728
Most of those I read about said it is never stainable and always shows up. Some filler from Rockler apparently works well and takes stain, but I needed this floor done sooner than later and had to make due with whatever is sold locally (Lowe's, Menards, Home Depot, or specialty flooring places).

>>434728
To be clear, I did look into that before buying the filler. I chose this filler because it's by the same company as the stain, it hardens, and it was the same color as the stain. I figured it would come close to matching. After two coats, it does come quite close. I can't get into the room to take a picture, but I will post one tomorrow. It's not perfect, but it's better. And I prefer the floor darker.

In order for your stain to take and give you a richer color, after sanding and vacuuming the entire surface(you want to remove wood and abrasive fines from wood pores) soak a rag with plain water and soak entire surface. Let dry.

What this does is opens the pores of the wood and facilitates the absorption of stain, makes a huge difference especially with tight grain species like Maple and Ash.

Let dry and apply stain, let dwell between 3 and 5 mins, or you can test ( inconspicuous area like a closet ) and gauge your dwell time. This also depends if you are using water based or solvent based stain.

Let dry a min of 24hrs with solvent based stain, solvent needs to gas out before applying urethane. Don not sand.

Apply urethane and let dry 8-24 hrs depending on type of urethane.

Sand urethane between coats. 3 coats of urethane are recommended.

>>434925
I read that you can't walk on the surface once it's been "popped" with the wet rag. How do you then stain a room? Start at the doorway, and then walk on the stained area as you go?

Also, the reason I didn't do the water popping is that I read that it can often result in blotchiness when done by amateurs.