how to stain wood floors grey

These same stains will look brown on oak, but gray on maple. I am in the process of refinishing and staining my Brazilian walnut floors. I always love your informative articles Debbie. Marte – Thank you so much. Use 7 parts ebony / 1 part white. If you wanted a very light gray you can mix Duraseal’s Country White with Ebony using more Country White and vice versa if you want to achieve a dark gray. Debbie I will keep you posted. They only have the water based. He bleached one sample but the wood looked damaged. oh and he’s using LastnLast water poly. I edited this photo to turn down the highlights so you could see the color and grain better. Water poly is thinner than oil based so you are feeling the roughness more and this is also another reason you want at least 3 coats. You need to periodically treat the floors with more oil. But, I think it’s very risky on Cherry, especially as the cherries (both American and Brazilian) are more oily, so I would expect problems. Any tips before we get started? Also, by the way, we have found that on most woods with red (e.g. My contractor has shown me several samples but not of duraseal ebony or bona white. Rubio Monocoat Fumed- reacts with the Tannic Acid in Hardwood causing the flooring to turn gray. Thanks! It has a very flat and matte finish. Or you do it without the bleach, but then have a lot of pink showing through. what are your thoughts? Each brand has different colors. They are actually the same product! I’ve finally fished..came out great. Update:  Recently Duraseal introduced a new line of gray blends. The most important thing is that you use Bona Traffic HD. There’s a good chance you won’t be happy with the outcome, even if you’re happy with the sample. You can read my full disclosure at the bottom of the page. Title: grey stain for hardwood floors impressionnant oak meet special Description: oak hardwood floors products grey stain for hardwood floors beau light grey hardwoodr stainrs in bedroom wood woodenring living room Via: southcentralhispanic.org Hi, I have a hunch you will probably need to have floors fully sanded and refinished. Red Oak has a pinkish tone to it that sometimes interferes with the gray stain results. If you can’t do that, then do a darker gray or ditch the gray and go for a traditional gray. 3:1 ratio of ebony to white) and then keep adding ebony and brown to get the right mix. For the gray part, I would use Duraseal Ebony + Bona White (neither Minwax nor Duraseal are good for whites…they are too watery…and their premixed grays are also too watery. Take Samples Home. See if you can find a darker gray that you like and then you can avoid the bleach all together. It was not attractive at all. How do you achieve the gray effect? I don’t think there’s any way that they will be able to buff/screen off all of the oil based poly without damaging stain. Also, BTW, the wood should not look like that. Thank you for your blog post. Applying a stain to hardwood floors is a great way to give them beautiful color and tone. Those go from lightest to darkest. Is it this? Hi Lisa. These a combo of light and dark 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 blend line. Also when he puts the poly finish layer on it seems darker. And, so glad it’s turned out so well. I used two coats to really enhance the… Please note that some of this site’s links are affiliate links, and TheFlooringGirl.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Superior wood stain saves time, energy and provides a great value. Or Rubio’s fuming method. For more info, check out my Ebook – Top 6 Hardwood Refinishing FAQ’s. The reason gray floors has grown in overwhelming popularity is because of the amount of option there are.  The colors spectrum of gray flooring Classic gray, elephant gray(which is a darker gray), weathered gray, light gray, dark gray, GREIGE. Is there a special bleach that is used? We have found duraseal ebony and bona white works best. The dark gray will help hide and drown out the red tones. This prevents liquids from penetrating; oiled floors don’t have that same level of protection. I’m finally ready to refinish my floors this weekend. How would you go about bleaching the floors? I hope this makes sense. 8. He is asking for only a few final “real” samples on Monday and I’m wondering what your thoughts are on bona gray (versus your usual combo) to simplify the process — he is pretty grumpy about tinkering, which stinks but I’m stuck with him. Perfectionist by default. If they are oak and just stained dark brown, that is no problem at all and it’s done all the time. It costs more than your standard type of refinishing (read below to understand why), but for those looking for the stylish gray look, it’s well worth it. Yes, I seem be getting a lot of questions about this, and it seems that the common thread is that many have used Mixwax or Duraseal Classic Gray. It sounds like you are going very light based on that mix. I have a rather large area to cover which will take several quantities of ebony and white to cover (i.e gallons, or whatever). My floor guy (stuck with him as part of the project) is only going to mix up whatever recipes I bring to him. Nick – thanks so much. When was the house built? The dark gray will help hide and drown out the red tones. Not sure how long to wait before using them? An oil based poly will turn the floor yellowish and it just won’t work well with the gray. Do you have any suggestions for color mixes to provide us with a natural looking gray? For the poly, that is easy. I’ve been rather busy. These cookies do not store any personal information. Use a foam brush to paint the wood with the wash solution. Claire – You can certainly try it with medium brown. The gray washes are way too thin and waterery and hence the yellow from the white oak is coming through. I built my own wood floor out of douglas fir 1×6 and wanted to stain it grey . If you can’t tell from the surface, see if there is a grate or register in the floor that you can lift up and then view the profile of the wood. If the wood is unfinished it would probably be from the US. We will test the gray colors on your hardwood floors. 3 parts white to 1 ebony…or 5 to 1. Happy holidays! As background, it’s easy to get the gray color in pre-finished maple or birch floors. Lastnlast is low quality and it won’t hold up (so you will pay more in the end as you will need to refinish much sooner). How to combine stains to create greige on oak floors. Please help ..looks like maybe left stain without wiping. Thank you! The much bigger challenge was finding and experimenting to find the right color combo for this decorator. Nick – First, you put putty on, then 36 grit…then you may need some more putty as some may get sanded off. Thanks so much for everything. If you have 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 it’s prefinished wood, you can just go with the big brand names from the US. In this scenario, how would one protect the inlaid walnut from the bleach since there is oak, which would need to be bleached, on either side? You can try the bleach. First, you need to use Duraseal, not minwax. We’ll definitely try dark walnut, but curious if you prefer coffee brown to medium brown for red oak to lessen the red? then, do 3 coats Bona Traffic HD for poly. Then, apply a pre-stain wood conditioner. Importantly, with oiled floors, you shouldn’t use a regular hardwood cleaner. If you use too much, you will ruin your floors. I keep checking for it every couple of months. It was so helpful. Test the stains carefully (before applying). I read through about 2 years worth of comments, and decided I needed to ask questions, that might be answered, but I’m running short of time, being that I need to have stain on site tomorrow. I’ve done a ton of research but was more or so a month ago and I forgot all the small details. I emailed Bona and asked them where to get the white and they directed me to a Denver distributor as well as this website which was free shipping after $75.00 or something. If you like the darkness of Dark Walnut, but wanted gray undertones, would you mix/blend ebony, white, and a dark walnut? I am finding your blog very helpful, thanks for all of your tips! We have mixed in special walnut, antique brown and dark walnut. Do not use oil based poly – that makes it darker and more yellow and will look terrible and will look worse over time. Just as with a good finish job, the first step to a quality staining job is making sure the floor is … Which duraseal browns have a green tint? I would guess that it would be slightly easier on American Walnut than Brazilian walnut, but that is simply speculation. If so, feel free to buy me a coffee and support my blog. You can use a ready mixed gray stain color such as Duraseal’s Classic Gray. Anyway, thanks for your awesome site! Thanks for the help. We have occasionally done country white, but Bona white looks better. First, you’ll need to do a bleach to drown out the red. The stain is supposed to penetrate hardwood. Do you have any specific recommendations of the darker gray colors to try? I think the white stain may be water based (I’ll need to check). I see I missed some of your other questions. It should not take that long. You are limited to... 3. It looks like you found a water based stain and those are very challenging to use, especially for novices, anyway. Gray is very difficult to achieve, especially on red oak and even most professionals have difficulty with this. Classic Grey Stain by Minwax was one of my favorite gray stains that I tested. The grades are more about the color variation and number of knots. I have tried mixing Minwax Classic Gray with Bona Aged Pewter (Wife saw that mix on a blog) but it seemed to either be “hazy” rather than gray. That’s definitely an option, but it won’t solve the red issue. Check out the info and video on this page. I think they’re only planning to use water base. They are too watery. I have brand new straight grain white oak floors and am going for a relatively light grey floor. Hi i have a white oak floor and want to stain it gray. My contractor wants to mux duraseal classic gray and country white. Re: the white, we typically use Bona White, but the truth is you could use a minwax or duraseal white such as country white or something similar. Furthermore, the floors aren’t protected from water (or pet accidents). I’m looking to do 3 coats of the Bona HD water based poly. However, with a custom blend, you MUST have enough to start and finish. Often times, repairs are needed on an older floor and gray stain does not do the best job blending the new age flooring and the old age flooring. Also how many coats of the stain do you recommend to put down? HOWEVER, I don’t know what you mean by “redwood” floors. Sand 60 grit We are finding ebony + white or true black + white comes out best, especially on red oak. then Bona Traffic 1 coat. Reading your blog, I guess he used the oil-based poxy… This means it works with the wood, exaggerating the patterns in … After he sanded and stained and did one top coat, the color is all over the place with grays, yellows and browns (based on the variations in the wood). Thank you! The staining process is very delicate and it must be done continuously. You may want to look around for a contractor who is more confident in this arena and has more experience with grays and mixes. Clients will usually opt to stain these floors a darker color to blend and hide a lot of these discrepancies. But, there is a way better solve – do white + ebony. Joe – Oh good, I’m so glad to hear that. A little darker than I expected but the red seems to pop out places with the red oak. Your guy will have to be patient. Polyurethane, on the other hand, provides a protective layer that rests on top of the wood. Planning is key when staining a floor gray. They still need to screen the floors and add another coat of poly. If they are old pine, they may need to sand, add conditioner, then apply stain. Dry how long before putting the Bona traffic? from either Duraseal or Minwax (or other places), that is most likely your issue. Thanks a lot! The carpet sample is from Tuftex (Marblehead is the style). What’s the difference? I hired a contractor for the flooring of my whole place and its taken a month to finally stain freshly purchased oak wood to the shade of gray I’ve wanted. We want to do a lighter gray floor. If so, how? You definitely can use tung oil or Rubio monocoat for gray hardwood floors, but it’s generally not my first choice. (Note: some people love this, others don’t). NO, do not light sand or buff the stain. Lisa – Oh excellent. That is super important. PS: If you want to test a section with bleach, you might see if there is a closet you can do it in, or under refrigerator or something…i.e. I suppose it’s possible and it would be darker gray. Apparently there are a few whites to choose from. Thank you again! Do I need to order it from their website as I can’t find anyone that has it. I’m having my brand new red oak floor stain in a few days. I would wait at least 8 hrs before walking on floor (w/ socks), but 24 hrs is even better. We’re planning to get rid of the living room carpet next Spring and I would love to go with grey – but I’m not sure it would look good with birch doors and window trim. 6. Oh gosh, you really need to test it. Because pine is soft wood, it is perfect for staining as the stain soaks into the timber creating a rich and beautiful appearance of the new colour. I’m using NordicSeal on white oak and I want to apply 2 coats. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. Any other recommendations. Liz – I understand your concern with the bleach. Also, it’s okay to use an oil based stain and water borne poly. Avoid these common pitfalls that can impact your floor’s durability! Thank you I was leaning towards it. They are especially popular in NYC. I hope that helps. Anyway, thanks! Have you worked out on dark wood before ? And, if you’re looking for this particular floor (which is pre-finished) – Shaw Castlewood Hearth, you can buy it here. intel to my gc’s flooring guy and he has suggested trying bona gray and a duraseal medium/dark for the new/existing red oak. We did some test squares mixing duraseal country white and classic grey in different parts, but there always seemed to be some yellow undertones coming through. Yes, I agree it’s a bit of challenge. I guess most of my questions are in the buffing/screening process. Thank you for shedding light on the best browns to get the red out. These products are still rather niche, but they are growing in popularity for their natural and unique look, as well as low VOCs and importantly the ability to spot treat scratches and mishaps. Will try ebony duraseal and bona. For example, when staining a floor using Duraseal’s Espresso, if you are running low you can easily find and use another can of Espresso. If you have a wood that is naturally red (e.g. (Is there any truth to fruitwood? Thanks for your responses! Use a bristle attachment on a vacuum to remove all of the dust. My recommendation is to stay away from that color. And, thanks for keeping me posted. And, you can buy these products on Amazon and have them shipped directly to you. You may also need to use a conditioner (test it) so it absorbs more evenly. Dave – I was going to ask you if that was a new stain as I had never heard of it. We’ve done this a few times…and sometimes, it may take 10 or more mixes. Any thoughts? We have sometimes used dark walnut or coffee brown in with the ebony + white to get a gray brown (just a bit). Zaza – That is odd (and I’m sure frustrating). I would mix duraseal ebony + Bona white until you get the right ratio for the color you like. And, it should be duraseal ebony. It sounds like the contractor didn’t apply stain correctly nor use right poly. Is it really going to make it look that much nicer? Are you about to sand your floors? I don’t know your definition of “dark gray.” That being said, you want to reverse your ratios…so it would be 7 parts WHITE to 1 part EBONY. I’m going to give this a try in a couple of weeks. He went the route of 2x coats of white followed by 1x coat of grey staining which turned out beautifully! All the designers were raving about this beautiful gray hardwood. Jul 15, 2014 - Refinish hardwood floors gray in Westchester., Believe it or not, gray hardwood flooring is in style! a place that it’s okay if it gets ruined. Gray stained floors have been a sweeping trend for the past few years or so. Terry – No, you don’t. Staining Hardwood Floors Grey So not sure if you remember, but, a few weeks ago we were in the midst of deciding what shade of grey to stain my clients hardwood floors. It was only a matter of time that manufacturers would start producing flooring with the gray color. They are too watery and do not come out well. Your email address will not be published. A few places were tough to blend since I have never stained before and took me about half way through before I had it down and learned how long to let it sit, wipe away drop marks right away and whatnot. That might look good. My floor guy mix duraseal ebony and country white 50/50. These may give you indications as to the species of wood you have. The oils penetrate the wood and attach at a molecular level making the wood stronger while leaving the texture and color unobstructed. Required fields are marked *. Please note that this article may contain affiliate links. It’s not the best for wood, especially if it’s not applied properly. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. There is no right or wrong answer. But we want it to look like natural wood, not thick or coated. Drill Brushes and Floor Sander: How to Refinish a Hardwood Floor. Also, it really isn’t worth spending money on an exotic hardwood to stain gray when you can purchase domestic woods(like Oak) for a fraction of the cost and allocate that towards staining your floors gray. Usually my guys can install 1000 sf in a day, so installation should have only been a few days. It might be a tad tricky though due to the oils found in most exotic woods so I’m not sure how it would turn out. Deirdre – Yes, gray is challenging. Again, your help was invaluable. Hardwood supplies – e.g. We would also like a matte finish instead of glossy. But, you could try natural with Bona traffic poly. It may be enough to hide the red. Husband + Wife team construction company owner. Talk to your flooring guy. Nick – Personally, I would do 3. It’s perfect if you’re staining your floors gray, or white, or just going for a natural super clean look. OK, so I have white oak and want a dark gray stain. This could look different as the species may be different. Varathane 1 qt. 3. But, there are some downsides to the oiled floors. Bleach first. We’ve been using that combo for years. Here is some testing we did with gray stains on a house that had both red oak and white oak flooring so you can see the difference. he sanded my white oak floors to the bare original conditon, is there alight stain color you can possibly recommend. felt pads, doggie socks, Ebook – What to look for when buying a home with hardwood. LC – Sorry about the delay. You have to use a waterborne polyurethane when applying a gray stain. Increase your home's value with these 27 DIY projects! This is great advice! Because these woods are closed pored, they absorb the stains differently and some of the darker brown stains turn gray on maple and birch (see picture to the right). It is on the lighter side. You should use Bona Traffic HD. Please note that refinishing hardwood floors gray is challenging and should be handled by an expert, especially one with experience in gray and white washed floors. Good news is this is the easy part. It will be lighter than doing oil based poly and lighter than it is now (in fact, when you refinish, it will be lighter anyway as you’re removing the top layer (it’s like when you have a suntan and you’re skin continues to replace itself. Also how much square footage would this cover? It’s not my first choice. (These mismatched species were installed by a previous contractor but it’s a great illustration to show the difference). I hope this helps. Bona traffic HD has some UV protection in it, so it will help a bit, but still you can’t stop the natural process. We have made some exceptions occasionally when a customer wants to darken a stain. Re: Cofee brown, yes, this is better than medium brown, especially on red oak (medium brown has turns out rather reddish). Maple is more expensive, but “easier” to get gray. I know you said don’t sand after the stain but it was bugging me a few places I needed to feather so I ended up doing it throughout the floor to kind of blend in some areas and I think it came out pretty sweet once I evened everything out. To test, they generally just use the caps for the stain to measure. I would expect Lastnlast to amberize more and more over time. It is a matter of your preference in what color gray you like and want your floor stained. That will get me a dark gray? One of the many reasons gray has become so popular is because of the many, many options of staining a floor gray. Installing new hardwood flooring is a major investment, which makes choosing the right one even more daunting, especially for a wood floor newbie. Can you stain Brazilian cherry grey? I asked my contractor for a sample of bona white and duraseal ebony. One of these days, I’ll have to write a full article on this topic. https://www.bona.com/en-US/Bona-Professional/Products/Coatings/Stains/Bona-DriFast-Stain/. I know this is strictly an opinion question, so bare with me. Hello, You have some beautiful floors on your site. Weathered oak and gray? You will have a much easier time (and probably happier client) if you just do a dark stain…or a dark stain with a hint of gray. Also, you can check out this article I just published about an hour ago and try Duraseal’s new “dark gray.” See the article here: Duraseal’s new gray blends. Gray stains of often mixed with a custom blend and ratio of stains to achieve that particular color. Yes, I seem to get a lot of comments and phone calls about people getting blues. The oil based poly will be darker and redder. If that’s the issue, you can offer to buy the other cans (e.g. Should I just replace my red oak with select white oak? dark walnut or special walnut and test until you have the right mix. Allow it to fully dry. We generally mix Duraseal ebony and Bona White. Now, flooring manufacturers have created gray flooring in many different tones of gray. But, if it doesn’t look right, they may need to sand those again. May throw aged barrel in the mix! Well first, the stain is a combination of ebony and white wash. We test different levels until we find the right level of gray that our customer prefers – it could be dark gray, light gray or somewhere in the middle. First, the sanding must be immaculate. 2. However, we don’t like any of them and we’re concerned at this point that we may not be able to get the gray color we want. Your true missing ingredient is the ebony. You should only have 1 coat of stain, not 2. Tina – Oh gosh, it sounds like you may have hired an inexperienced contractor. I mean 7 parts white to 1 part ebony, BTW. But, if you’re asking can you do those browns with white, I suppose you could, but it won’t be gray…it will be more of a beige. Oak floors are also easy to stain. The other issue you may be having is the ingredients being used. And, it sounds like you don’t want dark brown. We strongly recommend Bona Traffic HD poly for this effect (see below on where to buy). Thank you very much for your help I learned a lot and was able to do it myself and came out pretty fantastic. Interesting. It’s always more challenging to do grey on red oak, especially light gray. It is VERY important to remember the ratio of Country White to Ebony or which ever color stains you blend. If you do bleach (and I do NOT recommend you bleach), then yes, you’d need to carefully tape off the walnut. Do I buff or anything before applying the poly? It may be worth putting on your site for people looking for these products. Too bad you’re so far away from Dallas, upstairs floors are next! they both look very nice. In your case, you should be using bona traffic HD for the poly. mix in more ebony) or 2) bleach before. In the above pictures, you see different ratios of … And, medium brown doesn’t look good…it comes out too red, especially on red oak. I hope that helps. It may work or it may look awful. https://www.amazon.com/DS-QC-EBONY-131-G/dp/B00ISXFBRS/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1516804243&sr=8-10&keywords=duraseal+stain. I really appreciate your input! That does help confirm my process, thank you. Choose what you like regardless. Oh hi Matt. Thank you so much for your help. How Your Homes Environment Effects Your Hardwood Floors, Expert Advice on Hardwood Floors for Homeowners, Protecting Your Floors from the Christmas Tree. I took a test piece and sanded it by hand as best I could to get the finish off. We have found doing an ebony/white mix works best and/or mixing in some true black. Sorry, I’ve been busy and I have a flood of questions, and just can’t keep up. This definitely took him longer than he anticipated and I feel he’s fed up but after investing so much in this I want this done properly… He was going back (on top of the oil based poly) to restain it with the grey stain and then use a different poly on top. Also, I would like my finish to have cool toned undertones, nothing warm or red and I don’t want it to be dark. In the far right picture, the sample on the right is 3 parts white to 1 ebony, middle is 5:1, left is 4:1.

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