Staining Your Maple Wood Floors

Floors made of maple birch and coniferous woods especially pine or fir are all very difficult to stain evenly.

Staining your maple wood floors. Staining maple can be done and it can be done very well. Hard maple floors offer a nice light bright look to a room and are often paired with matching cabinetry when the home is built. The maple flooring manufactures association actually discourages the practice. However after just a few years the maple yellows considerably and loses the nice.

In my own flooring business natural wood floors i have been asked to stain many maple and hickory floors when refinishing but i usually tell my customers no. Most hardwood floor companies won t stain maple the usual reasons being that it will be blotchy and uneven. Y es you can have your maple floors stained a different color. One thing is for sure good communication with your customer is a must.

The extra steps to stain maple take more time considerable more time. For the best results test the possible finishes on scrap pieces before you start. Maple is a difficult wood on which to achieve uniform stain and the appearance can look as if the stain was not applied evenly. Maple hardwood floors are tough to stain.

Translated this means that either they don t know how to do it it takes extra work to do or they think that it is supposed to look like a stained oak floor and since it doesn t it must be wrong. The tight cellular structure of the wood makes it difficult to get a stain to penetrate properly. Maple is also known for having an inconsistent grain pattern often leading to blotchy stain finishes. Woods like cherry pine and birch can become blotchy and unattractive when stained unless you use a sealer before staining.

Everyone should be on the same page about the expectations and what to expect. Staining maple is generally not recommended by finish manufacturers since the dense grain does not allow the penetration of most pigments. Some types of wood like pine cherry birch and maple are notoriously difficult to stain. That is the only way you ll know how your sanding is going well you can always wait for the finish coat which will pop the hell out of.

Maple is a difficult wood on which to achieve uniform stain and the appearance can look as if the stain was not applied evenly. When staining maple do not try and force dry times. Discovering the secret to successfully staining maple floors. Maple and birch are tight grained woods with very small pores and the density of the pore wall fibers varies drastically.

Hopefully this article was enlightening on maple flooring and staining it. That usually makes them unhappy but the reason is that the grains in both maple and hickory flooring can be very hard in spots and very soft in others. Staining maple is generally not recommended by finish manufacturers since the dense grain does not allow the penetration of most pigments. Dyes work better but limit the colors available.

You will need to get on your hands and knees with a light so that your eyes are only a few inches away from the floor.