Hallway Flooring Improvements (And Disasters)

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Finally there is a chance to get back to the hallway flooring project. I was determined to stain the floor and even a polyurethane coat last night. Now, I have achieved my goal, but with terrible consequences. But back up a bit.

When I last wrote about this hallway flooring, I came across a paint stain from which Cooper pushed a liter of blue paint on the unfinished floor…

After reading all of your suggestions, I decided that getting the paint on was the way to go. I was concerned that other options like whitewashing the wood would bleed into unaffected areas and lighten the wood unnecessarily. Stripper paint seems to be the safest option. So I covered the paint area with Klean Strip paint, sat it on for a few minutes, washed the area with a wire brush, cleaned it with Klean Strip After Wash, and dried it.

repair of hallway with red oak hard floor - 1 - removal of paint stains

I did this about three times, basing in between each application. After the third time, I decided it was enough.

repair hallway with red oak hard floor - 2 - removal of paint stains

After sanding the entire floor using 34, 60, 80, and 120 grit paper on my handhand belt sander (which I chose to use instead of renting the large floor sander because it took up so little space), it was returned I do my posts I Write when I have re-finished my floors one last time so I can follow the correct process.

You can find the posts here:

So after refreshing my memory in the process, I started pre-stain conditioner all over the floor…

repair hallway red oak hardwood - 3

And then I mixed the stain like I did before – 50% Minwax Dark Walnut and 50% Minwax Special Walnut.

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And that was right there so I would have known things weren’t right. Can you see the new stain against the stained floor in the music room beneath that photo? There is no way that the two floors end up being the same color as them that were very different at that stage.

repair of hallway red oak hardwood - 5

But instead of trusting my eyes, telling me it wasn’t right, I decided to ignore my eyes and just continue with the exact process I had used before. With a little change.

This stain seems to have stained the floors much darker than the stain last hour. So I convinced myself that all I needed to do to rectify the situation was just to get rid of some of the darkness. And that’s what I did all over the floor.

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With the whole thing set up and lightly lit, I was ready to move on to the next step. Once again, I decided to ignore the lying eyes that told me that. those two colors are still not close to the same !!! The hallway is more real brown, and the music room has more red / orange in it.

also refining the hallway red oak hard floor - 7

But I kept saying to myself, “This is the exact process I’ve used in the past. I just have to rely on it.” Also, if I step back a few feet and look at it, the color variation is like and less noticeable.So once again, I convinced myself that somehow, magically, the end product would be right even if things seemed so far away at this point.

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So I proceeded to the next step – mixed some of my stain with the first coat of polyurethane in a 1: 8 ratio. I tried it right next to the music floor. Now I know you’re thinking, “REALLY here Kristi can see that it doesn’t end well, right?” Wrong.

repair hallway red oak hard floor - 9

I mean, I saw it. But all of you, I just had a really silly moment where some cables clearly got through my brain. Because while I saw the color variations, I keep telling myself to go ahead and trust the process. I mean, that’s it same process that I used before! There’s no reason it won’t work, even if my eyes tell me, “Hey !! It won’t work !!! Stop it! ”

I didn’t stop. I kept going. I put the first layer of polyurethane all over the floor.

repair of hallway with red oak hard floor - 10
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And sure enough, when it’s over, it’s awesome. I was hoping that things would magically change my sleep last night, but I woke up this morning to see this mess

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So why did it go wrong? Well, I would have saved myself a lot of trouble if I had taken the time to look at my photos that I took after I finished the floors last season. Here’s what they look like…

I was trying to find the latest photo showing my hardwood, and it was just…

home gym foam flooring

Those are not exactly the same floor. I have no idea why, but my floors have been lighter to run over the years, and they are even more orange now. They weren’t so obvious orange that they went back to my used Waterlox on the floors, but they were definitely more orange than after the freshly finished.

I really haven’t noticed this happening in years. If I look at my floors now, orange is never visible to me. And I never noticed that they were lighter than before. But comparing today’s floors with old photographs, it’s clear. And it became even more obvious when I tried to use the exact same staining and finished process and products today to match a floor that was finished years ago.

So at this point, my option is to just sand the whole floor and start staining as well. I’m so glad it’s just a small hallway. If it was a more crowded place, like a bedroom, I would cry right now. But it’s a small place, and I’m determined to just finish it. There is no time to waste tears. I’m ready to put behind me this ridiculous floor project so I can keep up with more interesting things.



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