Classic Grey Stain Refinishing Oak Hardwood Floors

Refinishing hardwood floors gray in Westchester County

gray hardwood flooring maple westchester county Yeah, believe it or not, grayness hardwood flooring is in style! Higher end homeowners in Westchester proceed requesting greyness hardwood floors. Yes, gray! It's an upwardly and coming tendency. Finding pre-finished grayness hardwood is easy, but how about if yous already take oak hardwood floors in your Westchester dwelling house?

Every bit background, it'southward easy to get the gray color in pre-finished maple or birch floors. Because these woods are closed pored, they absorb the stains differently and some of the darker brown stains turn grey on maple and birch (see pic to the right). These same stains will look brown on oak, merely grayness on maple. And so, at present that this trend has caught on, we have many homeowners who want to refinish their existing hardwood floors (which are normally oak) to have a like look).

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testing gray stain colors for hardwood While achieving this greyness look on existing oak hardwood is challenging (and is non to be done by your everyday contractor), information technology is possible to achieve when you take talented hardwood floor refinishers. It costs more than your standard blazon of refinishing (read below to understand why), merely for those looking for the stylish gray await, it'southward well worth it. How do you attain the gray result? Well first, the stain is a combination of ebony and white wash. We test different levels until we find the right level of grayness that our customer prefers – it could be dark gray, light grayness or somewhere in the middle. We will examination the gray colors on your hardwood floors.

In the above pictures, you run across different ratios of white:ebony. In the far correct picture, the sample on the right is 3 parts white to one ebony, center is 5:ane, left is iv:i. In the left photo is 7:i. These are shown on white oak. The carpeting sample is from Tuftex (Marblehead is the fashion).

gray hardwood floor refinishing westchester county From there, it's critical that yous use a h2o based poly (rather than an oil based poly). An oil based poly will plow the floor yellow and it just won't piece of work well with the gray. So water based poly in this example is the best way to go. White wash costs a chip more, and h2o based poly costs a fleck more.

Nosotros strongly recommend Bona Traffic HD politico y for this event (see below on where to buy). It but lasts longer than traditional Bona and other h2o based polyurethanes. And, of course information technology costs more than. It's ofttimes better to add an extra coat of water based poly, too for a more than durable end. After all, refinishing hardwood floors tin exist rather inconvenient as you need to move all the furniture and often vacate the firm. And, since this is more expensive than your typical refinishing job, you might besides brand it last longer then yous can postpone the need to refinish your floors once again.

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grey hardwood floors westchester county - staining hardwood gray Please note that refinishing hardwood floors grayness is challenging and should exist handled by an proficient, peculiarly one with feel in gray and white done floors. Showtime, the sanding must be immaculate. Stain should exist consequent and applied in strips to avert any cross-grain color-variant lines. Test the stains carefully (before applying). Stains should dry at least 24 hrs, consequent with dark colored stains (and/or to the manufacturer'south specifications.

Wire brushed dark gray hardwood floors Be careful with the wood species. Gray stained floors tend to turn out best on white oak flooring. Reddish oak has underlying red tones, and often a darker gray is needed to reach the desired await. Stain can turn out blotchy on maple floors every bit these are close pored species (this blotchiness occurs with all stain colors).

Gray does not come out very well with pino floors which have underlying yellow likewise every bit cherry-red tones. If you endeavour this on pine, I'd suggest a deep gray to launder out the yellows (and note: these floors will become more xanthous over time as the pino ages). And, if you're looking for this detail flooring (which is pre-finished) – Shaw Castlewood Hearth, yous can buy information technology hither.

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Hither is some testing we did with grayness stains on a house that had both red oak and white oak flooring so y'all tin can see the difference. The right oak is on top and the white oak on the lesser. (These mismatched species were installed by a previous contractor but information technology's a groovy illustration to prove the difference). The differences in color and graining are more apparent in real life.

Recommended polyurethane for Grey floors and where to buy

When it comes to water borne poly, there is no dispute, Bona Traffic Hard disk is the all-time in the market. Information technology looks great, dries quickly, and doesn't amberize. It'south perfect if you're staining your floors gray, or white, or just going for a natural super clean look. It costs more than Bona Mega, but it's worth it every bit it looks better, lasts longer and amberizes less. This is the only production nosotros use with grey or white washed floors.

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Should you lot use Rubio monocoat or tung oil for gray hardwood floors?

Oiled gray floors castle combe beckton Yous definitely can use tung oil or Rubio monocoat for gray hardwood floors, but it's by and large non my showtime choice. There are pros and cons with using tung oil (or like products). One of these days, I'll have to write a full commodity on this topic. These products are withal rather niche, but they are growing in popularity for their natural and unique look, equally well as low VOCs and importantly the ability to spot care for scratches and mishaps. They are especially popular in NYC.

hardwood with tung oil castle combe beckton Dissimilar polyurethane, the oils penetrate into the woods. This gives the forest a unique patina and texture. It looks more natural and a flake more than rustic. (Annotation: some people love this, others don't). Information technology has a very apartment and matte finish.

Nigh oiled floors use linseed or tung oil, or a combo of the 2. The oils penetrate the wood and adhere at a molecular level making the wood stronger while leaving the texture and color unobstructed. Over time, the oil ages with the wood and the patina grows stronger.

oiled floors castle combe byrdcliffe - staining hardwood gray (or grey) In addition to the environmental benefits, many similar the power to spot repair the oiled floors. As a homeowner, y'all can do the repair yourself, and you don't need to sand and refinish. Instead, you just employ more oil.

But, there are some downsides to the oiled floors. The biggest disadvantage is that they can be more than hard to maintain. You demand to periodically treat the floors with more oil. Furthermore, the floors aren't protected from h2o (or pet accidents). Polyurethane, on the other mitt, provides a protective layer that rests on top of the wood. This prevents liquids from penetrating; oiled floors don't accept that same level of protection.

Sanding hardwood gray - Castlecombe holborn tung oil The other downsides to oiled floors are that they cost more (significantly more) and they accept a longer curing fourth dimension (which means information technology will be longer before you tin motion your furniture in.

Importantly, with oiled floors, you shouldn't use a regular hardwood cleaner. Instead, you would use Woca natural lather and the Woca Wood Refresher . These items cost more than than the typical hardwood cleaners, but at least you can make repairs every bit scratches occur. And, you can buy these products on Amazon and have them shipped directly to you.

I'd say that if you absolutely love the look of tung oil, then go for it. And, if the ability to spot treat is very important to you, so that is an added bonus. If y'all accept pets that may get the floors wet (from going in/out when it rains, water dishes or accidents), you may want to avoid this option. If you don't like to spend a lot of time on touch ups, and instead prefer a floor with less maintenance, and then use Bona Traffic HD (note: Bona Traffic is also environmentally friendly).

Update: Recently Duraseal introduced a new line of gray blends. These a philharmonic of low-cal and nighttime grays as well as greiges (gray/brown blends) and you may want to check those out in this article: Duraseal's new gray and greige alloy line .