Can You Stain Maple Floors

This is probably said thousands of times a day across the us during a site evaluation of a wood floor.

Can you stain maple floors. This is because maple is very tightly grained generally but there are turns in the grain that are more absorbent. After spending lots of time reading professional floor refinishing forums and generally obsessing on this topic i have read over and over again the staining a maple floor is a bad idea and that many contractors won t even do it because they ve had enough bad experiences unhappy customers. Maple flooring will turn a deeper shade over time and if it is finished with oil based polyurethane then it can react badly to direct sunlight and yellow. You need to be extra careful with the sanding because any imperfections will be highlighted once you start staining and finishing the maple floor.

Maple flooring is a dense durable product that looks great in a range of decorating styles in your home. You can read what the wood flooring association has to say about maple flooring here. Homeowners are often suspicious when they hear this since they re offered countless options of stained maple cabinetry and prefinished wood flooring and they look quite uniform in color. Feb 27 2014 explore signature custom flooring llc s board stained maple floors on pinterest.

The use of oil based pigmented stains on maple results in a very blotchy looking floor. It s a job that is best left to professionals or you can opt for pre stained planks. The standard industry answer to this question has been that maple floors are meant to have clear finishes and could not be stained. While small areas of individual flooring strips may accept stain without difficulty it has been our experience that much of the maple surface will appear uneven and blotchy following the application of most stains or bleaching agents.

For both applications the best way to start is by sanding the maple floor flawlessly. Staining maple floors can be done either by using a traditional resin based wiping stain or a dye solvent soluble water soluble or alcohol soluble. No maple doesn t take stain well. Simply put maple is not a hardwood flooring wood that should be stained.

Staining maple is generally not recommended by finish manufacturers since the dense grain does not allow the penetration of most pigments. Can you stain my maple floor.