Made a huge mistake...I think
+3
Okay, so we are having family over this coming weekend. Our hardwood floors have been looking rough so we decided to go ahead and try to stain them quickly in order to transform our livingroom. My mother, an interior designer said the floors weren't finished when we got the house a year ago. I think she is right, if water or anything gets on the floor it makes a white spot that won't come off. We have dogs so sometimes they'll piddle in the house and it eats the floor coloring. Anyways, so we put a coat of Minwax stain on about half of the living room, knowing we would have to walk across the unfinished area to get to the rest of the house. It has been almost 48 hours since we stained the floors. And they are still tacky. We did not take the excess stain off, which I guess it says to do. My question now is, have I made a mistake taking my mother's word about the floors not being finished and that is why the floor won't dry? Or do I need to do another coat of stain, and then remove the excess? Thanks so much!
6 answers
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I know @Anne @ DesignDreams by Anne posted tips for staining wood, maybe she can help you?? Here's her post: http://www.hometalk.com/diy/-1980136
Hannah V
on Aug 18, 2014
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I would remove the stain that you put sown with mineral spirits and sand the floor first. Sounds like the floor already had a stain on it and was stopping your stain from soaking in and drying. Good Luck
Joy Derouen
on Aug 19, 2014
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Hi Jasmine, If the floor had a white spot when you spilled on it that means they have probably been waxed with paste wax. The wax will not let the stain soak in. I really have no solution for you, except calling a professional in and asking them what can be done. When you phone I would ask them to come out and see the damage and ask if they can fix it. It will cost you but at least you will save your floor. In future if you want to pick up your floors you clean them with a solvent (varsol) and then you put on paste wax and when it is dry you polish them. This is what we used to do with our floors about once a year. Good luck, I hope it all turns out for you.
Louise Fulton
on Aug 19, 2014
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I think Louise is right; you have a wax finish that nothing will penetrate. You also cannot put a finish over it. We once bought a sailboat and tried to refinish the wood inside but we were scraping a waxy coating under this blackish glaze. We think the previous owner was trying to hide a mess like yours. We used a lot of stripper and elbow grease scraping, then heavily sanded. When we were certain we were down to bare wood we used a finish grade sand paper and four coats of satin varathane. It looked fantastic in the end. With a floor you can get a professional sander to come in and remove an eighth of an inch of wood (which would make certain there is no wax left)and then do a final sand with fine grit then it would be ready for a varathane finish.(which is the most durable and washable) We had this done to the oak floors in our 50 yr old house. The person who did it used a commercial floor varathane which looks great still (18 yrs) That process was easier than doing our boat haha! Good Luck to you!
Linda
on Aug 19, 2014
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I agree with previous posters. Sounds like a couple of problems. #1. Something prevented the new stain from penetrating (old varnish, lacquer or paste wax). #2. Your stain application was much too generous and should have been wiped off after 5 or 10 minutes. Before jumping into any resolution I would attempt a remedy in a small inconspicuous corner. Try the mineral spirits remedy suggested by Joy. Finishing flooring is always more time consuming than you think and if humidity a problem it will extend the drying time.
Melly
on Aug 19, 2014
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I did the same thing a few years ago when I stained over a door to touch up scratches...the out come was great, but it took over a week to dry out. It sounds like your floors might have been finished previously, albeit maybe poorly. My guess is the lacquer used previously is not allowing the new stain to take. Good luck.
P
on Aug 19, 2014
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