Black stained hardwoods are quite trendy.  However, the industry is seeing a high demand for darker stained hardwoods.  Most people are moving away from red/yellow tone stains for their hardwoods.  There are two variations of black on the market.  True black and ebony.

DuraSeal makes the true black and Minwax makes the ebony.  Both are great products.  The difference is unique.  True black covers up most of the wood grains.  It’s because the stain is so thick.  The Ebony stain color will still show the grains in the wood.  Sometimes the Ebony stain color will not cover up the red in oak flooring.

On this project, we used ebony.  We sampled, on the floor, the different shades of black stain for the customer to see.  The choice of color was water-popped ebony.  The water popped sample was much darker than the non water-popped sample.  There was too much red coming through the non water-popped sample.  Water popping is a trick-of-the-trade.  This is a process that opens the grains of the hardwoods by wetting the floor area.  This gives the stain a deeper penetration and darkens the color.

The non working areas were sectioned off by plastic film.  Removed all the base shoe and numbered each piece.  We always number the trim if we are putting them back down.  This helps keep everything in order and maintain efficiency.  We ran 3 passes of sanding on this floor.  36, 50, and 80 grit.

When the floor was ready for stain, we vacuumed everything up.  This keeps the dust out of the stain.  It’s really good to vacuum the entire house in between each phase of the project.  This is good practice and reduces re-work.  Plus, every customer loves a clean house at the end of each day.

For the finish coat, the modern world loves gloss.  So, we did a gloss finish top coat.  This is the same sheen that is used on gym floors.  The gloss finish is very reflective.  Which is actually unique.  The reflection lets you see the artwork thats on the wall, on the floor too.  If you are an artist, then go with black hardwoods with gloss sheen.  We suppose a natural hardwood with gloss sheen would pull off the same reflection.

As with each client, we walked this customer through our complimentary cleaning consultation.   Which, includes proper maintenance and general care for the floor.  We provide new felt pads for all the furniture.  This reduces wear and tear significantly.

Project Overview

  • Hang plastic
  • Remove base shoe
  • Sand and finish
  • General care

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,