The Oak House Reno-{Old and New Floors & A Stain Dilemma}

Saturday, July 16, 2016

What an amazing sight this was to see!  Although I didn't care for the original finish, these floors were in pretty great shape. And to see them with the old finish removed...wow!  I can hardly believe they are nearly 30 years old.  Our flooring contractor said they were probably select grade oak floors.  Whatever they are, they're beautiful.   I'm in love with just this step being done. 





Upstairs the flooring crew removed the old carpet and particle board underlayment and laid new oak floors to match the ones downstairs.  These were number one red oak, so they have a few more knots in the wood, but we think it adds a bit of character.  We went with a 3 1/4" wide plank upstairs, even though downstairs is a traditional 2 1/4" board.  In the one bedroom downstairs, we matched the wood width to the existing floors downstairs.


Oh those beautiful piles of wood!






It is so much work to have these put in.  Even if I knew how to do them, I don't know that I would have the time or energy to do this amount of flooring.  Plus the amount of sanding they do is impressive!  They have taken out bags and bags of sawdust.  The staining began on Friday, but I haven't been able to get to the house to see it.  We went with Minwax Provincial stain.  I didn't want to go as dark as our previous wood floors because they showed every bit of dust, but now I am second guessing the decision and hoping they aren't too light either.  I'm hoping we can walk thru in the morning after they have dried and see the stain color in the light of day.

{I started writing this post before the stain went down.  Even though we had about 8 different samples put down to choose from, I am still second guessing my stain choice.  The flooring is red oak which has red undertones.  So now with the stain on the ENTIRE floor, I am feeling like I see red undertones.  But I reeaaly don't like wood with red tones.  And although it may be slight, I don't want to have floors that I hate...grrr!  But I also saw how much work the gentleman in the photo put into sanding these floors down, like literally the whole house, and it seems a shame to say, "I don't like the color, please start over."  We were at our closing when the staining was done, and I didn't get a chance to see it go down.   What would you do knowing you've got to live with this decision for the next 20 plus years?  I ended up having car trouble to deal with and forgot to get a picture of the stain.  I will try to get one tomorrow.  Let me know what you think!}

3 comments

  1. So this was happening in my house last week. We had to move out for 4 days while my red oak flooring was sanded and stained. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the unstained sanded look. It's light and bright. I found a matte sealer that could be applied to keep that look, but alas I had to match engineered wood in other rooms so went with stain with red tones! Haha. This is the 2nd time in 10 years we've hand our floors sanded. So I don't think you have to live with it forever. Hope you like it in the daylight!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We never even got to move in. We feel a bit homeless! But that makes me feel better that maybe we don't have to live with it forever. We have some rooms with more modern wall colors and they look better in there. I hope that's what's throwing it off for me. GB said we have to move on...we can't stay at a hotel any longer. I've got to see how yours went!

      Delete
    2. Yes, I understand. we were in a hotel while our floors were being redone. Seeing the sanded unfinished floors actually made me want to redo my other engineered wood flooring with red oak. It's great flooring. Look forward to seeing how yours turned out.

      Delete