from Gardners 2 Bergers: How to Stain Hardwood Floors

It's a funny thing, when you own a wood stain & coatings company, people expect you to be the expert on that product. Well, that means I needed to tackle flooring in a hurry! I already knew how my stains worked in a flooring line, in fact, I blogged about it two years ago, here. But a UV flooring line and finishing a wood floor that's already installed are not even close to the same thing!

So last spring I got educated in a fast way when Zack and I, as well as a flooring professional, completed three hardwood floor jobs in one weekend. It was insane, but I learned a lot about staining installed floors and best way to do it with my products. That's good news for you, because Weatherwood stains are the easiest way to stain wood, and the easiest way to stain flooring, too. Let me show you....

Materials

Weatherwood Stain- This was Reclamation
Long Handled Broom
Empty 5 Gallon Bucket
Weatherwood Topcoat- This wasWhite Maintenance Oil
2 Lint free, white rags

Directions

You can watch the above video, of check out the directions below:

Sand the floors and vacuum the dust. Sanding over 150 grit may seal the wood and keep floors from "taking" the stain.

Floors do not the grain to be popped nor does the stain pop the grain. Do not precondition or pretreat the wood.

Using this method 1 or 2 person's can work together.

Pour your gallons of Weatherwood Stain into the 5 gallon bucket. Mix stain well.

Dip the broom into the bucket and lightly scrub the stain into the wood grain, cracks, and grooves. See above video for additional information.

Work from the back of the room towards the door. Walking on wet floors will not ruin them.

Here's the time-lapse on that hickory! In real time, a piece of hickory dries in about 30 minutes. But for a floor, with all those seams, it takes more like a hour.

Now, to get hold the oxidized look, you'll want to use our white maintenance oil topcoat. That's also included in the first video and here's the directions:

Use one rag to apply oil to the wood's surface, working boards by board or in 10-12 inch sections.
2. Apply oil and wipe off immediately with new clean rag.
3. Keep working in sections, applying with one rag and wiping with the other.
4. You can apply up to three coats of maintenance oil. Each coat will continue to lighten the finished product.
5. Allow maintenance oil to cure 24-48 hours.
6. Either apply annually or as needed. Or spray maintenance oiled product with VARNISH TOPCOAT to seal the look for a maintenance free finished product.