Staining Natural Maple Floors

This is because maple is very tightly grained generally but there are turns in the grain that are more absorbent.

Staining natural maple floors. Due to the extremely tight cellular structure and variable grain patterns inherent in northern hard maple the maple flooring manufacturers association mfma does not recommend staining or bleaching maple strip flooring under any circumstances. First a natural maple floor finished with water based finish is going to look a lot different than a maple floor that is finished with an oil based finish see pics below. About maple maple is a closed grain wood this means the wood does not like accepting anything into its pores which includes stain. Stained colored floors should be uniform in color.

The two options available are staining maple using a dye water soluble or solvent soluble or alcohol soluble or using a conventional resin based wiping stain. The use of oil based pigmented stains on maple results in a very blotchy looking floor. Before applying stain to your wood floor you need to know what species it is. It is not supposed to look like oak that s the beauty of it.

Floors made of maple birch and coniferous woods especially pine or fir are all very difficult to stain evenly. Truth is staining a maple floor gives it a cool depth and unique color variations something that is impossible to duplicate the same in another floor. The result will probably be close to this and will cost roughly 6 000 7 000. For the record this is not really an option because i refuse to spend that much on floors but it was an option presented.

The standard industry answer to this question has been that maple floors are meant to have clear finishes and could not be stained. Secondly a maple floor if properly sanded and conditioned can take a stain and look absolutley stunning picture top left and another stained maple floor below. Maple is a difficult wood on which to achieve uniform stain and the appearance can look as if the stain was not applied evenly. One of my favorite colors to stain is a color called sable black made by glitsa.

To get the wood to accept stain there is a popular method of water popping the grain water popping is the method of actually putting water evenly on the floor to raise the grain. Often this is simply a physical property of the wood species itself such as maple black cherry and pine whereby it does not evenly accept stain or colorant. Staining maple is generally not recommended by finish manufacturers since the dense grain does not allow the penetration of most pigments. Blotchy stain or colorant is when there is the appearance of an inconsistent color from one area of a finished floor to another.

Dyes work better but limit the colors available.