Hardwood Floor Sanding and Staining in Edmonton
A sand and stain goes past the sheen and changes the colour of the wood itself. It is how a 1970s orange oak floor becomes something you want to look at.
How a colour change works
Stain only takes on bare wood, so a colour change always means a full sand first. Once the floor is clean and even, the stain goes on, gets wiped back to a consistent tone, and is left to dry. Then it is sealed under several coats of clear finish, and it is that finish, not the stain, that protects the colour and sets the final sheen from matte through satin to gloss.
Red oak, which is what most Edmonton strip flooring is, has an open grain and a pink undertone that shows through almost every colour you put on it. Grey stains in particular fight that undertone and can come out muddy or mauve on red oak in a way they never do in the showroom sample, which was probably white oak. This is worth knowing before you fall in love with a photograph.
Test patches are not optional
We put test patches down on your actual floor, in your actual rooms, and leave them for you to look at across a day. A colour under afternoon light through a west-facing window in Glenora is a different colour than the same stain in a north-facing dining room. A three inch chip in a store tells you almost nothing about that.
Give it more than a glance. Look at it in the morning, look at it with the lights on at night, and look at it in the room you actually spend your evenings in. The extra afternoon this costs is the cheapest part of the whole job.
Picking a colour you will still like
The most common regret is going too dark. Dark floors show every crumb, every dust bunny and every bit of winter grit tracked in off the street, and Edmonton streets produce a lot of grit between November and April. Mid-tones hide wear and dust far better and they date more slowly.
It is also a long commitment. Changing a floor colour later means sanding it again, which spends another turn of your wear layer. Getting the colour right the first time is worth being slow about.
Other work we cover
Want a number before you talk to anyone? Read what hardwood floor refinishing costs in Edmonton.
Have us look at your floors in person.