How To Finish Wood Clear To Match Flooring

Area with sanding screen.

How to finish wood clear to match flooring.

Choose whichever sample is closest in color to the existing floor. This assumes you hire a professional hardwood sanding company. Clean each area with a wood floor cleaner and roughen a 6 x 6 in. First start by sanding your raw hardwood to leave microabrasions in the wood s surface.

Matching site finished wood can be a little trickier though especially if you have a custom mixed stain so it is often worth it to have a professional installer come in on the project. In almost every case vinyl will be lower than laminate. For added durability a third coat can be applied. Next apply minwax super fast drying polyurethane for floors.

Very lightly scuff sand the dyed wood with 320 grit paper. After drying sand and vacuum up any loose dust. I have used it in conjunction with an amber shellac sanding sealer and it gives the wood that older look. Even though the match may not be exact once furniture area rugs and accessories are added to the space the slight difference in floors will be minimized.

Apply a 50 50 mix of trans tint dark mission brown and medium brown dye to the bare wood and let it dry. Then remove all the sanding dust and apply a second coat. This finish is designed specifically for quartersawn white oak. If your wood is older than 5 or 10 years depending on the wood stain etc you may a little more trouble getting a seamless transition.

Sanding the dye coat ever so lightly really enhances the ray flecks. To level off the surface apply minwax sanding sealer which will take about an hour to dry. It goes on water clear but as it cures it ambers like the oil based urethanes. Installation involves anchoring a metal channel to the subfloor using screws an expansion anchors then snapping the top strip into the channel to cover the seam between floors.

Generally if you have oak hardwood flooring provided that you match the existing species and grade you can generally refinish the wood to match the stain on the existing portion. Then wipe away the sanding residue mask around the test area and give it a coat of polyurethane photo 1. With a light floor finish it may be effective to keep all the wood finishes in similar but not matching light tones. Aside from a few tiny whiskers caused by dust particles it should be smooth.

Gather samples with different intensities of the same color then pair them with the existing faded floor. Most clear finishes are applied with a brush working in the direction of the grain of the wood. A medium floor tone is a warm background for a wide range of wood finish tones. May or may not be a close match for what you are trying to compare it to but it is an alternate suggestion.