gregpark and/or floor guys - floor staining/finishing questions
 

We're planning to apply conditioner (oil-based), apply stain (oil-based), apply poly (water-based).

Other than being in a dust free environment, do you have any recommendations for the best (easiest for a beginner to not screw up) method for each.

Conditioner says paint on with brush for oil-based or rag, wipe off excess in 5-15 mins, and then stain in less than 2 hours. I assume the timings are important so things don't get too dry to be consistent.

Stain says apply by stain applicator (assuming lamb's wool or synth lamb's wool style for oil-based) or rag, wipe off excess in 2-4 mins. I think I've even seen videos where folks talk about using a paint roller to apply stain.

Any tips are appreciated.

The last time, when the missus wiped the stain off, she didn't really wipe it dry. I think the timing (2-4mins) is probably pretty important so it doesn't dry too much and can be wiped off, and I think getting it thoroughly wiped off/dry is important.

Basically looking for recommendations of what we need to apply pre-stain, stain, and poly to ensure best chance of success. I've got ideas, but I'd prefer to learn from experience.

Shut off all your pilot lights throughout the house and do not wad up your rags. Spontaneous combustion can happen and they do often.

The missus nearly gassed us years ago after applying BLO to something and then leaving rags piled on a folding table in the garage. I got home from work and the downstairs was smoky and smelled. She was upstairs and hadn't noticed. The rags were warm and the table was scorched.

Very important advice.
My used rags have always gone in bucket of water after use - makes a mess for clean up, but better than cleaning up after a fire.

My nephew (who is an engineer and is generally a really smart guy) just lost his house after leaving just a couple rags in an attached garage. They went out for the evening and came home to a nightmare, but relieved no one was at home.

My only advice (and you may already know this) is to sand the floor with the correct grit. A long time ago I refinished my hardwood floor in one room and I sanded up to 2000 grit. When I applied the stain, it just smeared around and didn't soak in. I soon found out that I sanded too smooth and had to start over.

Thanks. I think I'm good.

Wow, 2000 grit! That's some serious commitment to smooth!

Have lots of clean white rags at the ready. Rag the conditioner, rag the stain. It's easier to control the amount applied by using rags. Keep it consistent and just enough product on the rag. Rag off quickly and be consistent. Practice in a closet first. We apply the eurothane coats with a long handled squeegee as thin as you can and always pull with the grain

Check, rag-on, rag-off. I'd thought that ragging might be easier to control even if it's actually more physically demanding (crawling around on hands and knees). Thank you.

Last time I told my wife "you might want to start in a closet so if it's not as good as you like, it's in a closet". Afterwards she said "I should have started in a closet."

Thanks for the info about the squeegee and putting it on thin. Great to know.

Thanks tons for all of the advice!

The squeegee takes practice to master but you'll figure it out. Pour a line and pull slowly. At the end pull the material over for the next courses lift the squeegee and gently pull the wet finish again from the wall you just finished at so there's no evidence of cross pulling (it's important to always finish with the grain, when it cures any across the grain pulling will be apparent. Directing the flow of the material with the squeegee is controlled by twisting the handle. Leave no drips, they'll be there to stay.
And did I mention consistency is important at every step? :^)

Thanks, Greg! Lots of great info!

I took a class decades back on hardwoods. Since then I have laid two floors and sanded three more floors. I can't recall a single specific detail other than it sort of boiled down to basic woodworking on a very large piece of wood. My results with stains have always been inconsistent. A me problem, I am sure. Water based is sort of idiot proof. And I don't even know what conditioner is.

With the above, I would give a significant weight towards water based. I did pay a contractor to redo my floors recently, she insisted on water based. It is great. Even with my goofy dog trying to gouge things up.

Conditioner is to even the stain out. When finishing without color a sealer is applied instead. You're right, it's basic woodworking 101 just on a larger scale. And just like anything else, prep is everything

<UPDATE>

We got the floor stained 2 weeks ago, and it came out pretty good, much better than the previous time. The floor isn't perfect, has some stained wood, etc..., so "rustic" one thing, is that my wife had some sweat run out of a glove and down her elbows and drop on the wood floors before we put the conditioner down. We conditioned and stained, and there are spots from the sweat drops.

My wife asked "can we spot sand those spots and then condition and stain them?"

I'm worried that if we tried that, we would end up with rings or something around the areas where the stain was obviously different/darker/lighter, and more of an issue than the sweat drops.

We've got some old wood laying around. I'd thought of replicating it in a test (sand, drop, condition, stain, try sanding, conditioning and restaining) But I thought I should check with you folks first. It seems like you could save me a lot of trouble (it'll never look right) or encourage me (you might be ok if you're careful).

We haven't put down the poly yet.

I found general spot sanding will not work very well. The spot sanded area will come out lighter then the rest of the rest.

Yeah, my concern is that there’s no way to spot sand and get it to all match.

You can do it. Orbital sand the sweat spots, re apply conditioner and wait 6 hours, re apply stain to match, wait over night, start the eurothane process I described

Thanks, I'll mock it up and see what sort of results I get. Make sure the missus is happy with them before I attack the floor.

Thanks folks. We went up and looked at the floors closely today (I had already done that, really it was about her doing it). She decided that we didn't really need to go through all of the work to try to get rid of the few drips for floors that look good, and have other stains and spots anyway.

Whew! I really didn't want to screw with it. I'll be putting down the poly this weekend, 2 thin coats is the plan.

Thanks again, for all of the advice here and in the several other threads where our floors have come up.