floor stains

I would replace them. Dark floors look depressing. My tenants really like my
wide-plank blond maple floors.And they are not that expensive.

I prefer narrow-plank natural finish (ideally more of a blonde wood, but natural oak is beautiful also).

Water-based poly doesn't cast the amber tone that the old oil-based polyurethane used to, so the oak takes on a look more like maple, but with oaky grain.

Why do you feel the need to make the wood lighter or darker after sanding?

Whatever you do, don't "pickle" your floors! [projectile vomit sound effects]

Oh, and definitely go with the "satin", not glossy finish. Gloss looks like patent leather, which is a fancy name for plastic.

tTwo other points:

1. mu older parquest floors were usually in too poor shape by age 40-40 to sane and polish
2. the companies that manufactured parquet floors stopped making them about fice years ago

I don't mind dark floors but think they may look very "2007" in a few years. Lighter shades are more timeless. Struggling with this myself as we start our reno and am leaning towards lighter.

Hi - I'm doing the same thing! (Although my floors aren't parquet). Current floors are oak - kind of golden. While I like the dark wood look I also feel it's on its way out. What do you all think will look good now and for the next 5-10 years? A satin blonde wood finish?

dark wood w/ satin stain tends to show a lot of marks

Darker the color, the more dust, dirt, and hairs show making the floor look forever dirty and in need of vacuuming. Maybe okay for a neat bachelor, but for a family it can be a disasterous look.

Oil polyurethanes will yellow over time and are not used in most buildings anymore--if you use one, take into account the yellowing in your color selection. Personally, I prefer a light brown hue over orange/yellow hues in the stain. While color will vary enormously and must be sampled to know how it will look on your floor, Minwax Golden Oak is a good starting point.

Semi-gloss final finish coat is what most people go with. Matte is fine. Avoid gloss. Every scratch will show. And if you do a dark color, that combined with high gloss will yield an unappealing look in a very short time.

I like a brown-brown floor (not too red or yellow). In our living area, the (5" red oak) is stained with Minwax "Special Chestnut". Bedroom areas "Dark Tudor" (?) which is a little shy of the dark-espresso color so beloved of late. I didn't analyze it too deeply, but in retrospect, they were good choices. Special Chestnut (applied 2x - #apps matters) is a medium brown that isn't quite opaque and takes a good beating from kids (who like pulling scratchety toys) and kitchen shenanigans. Dark Tudor is a psssing nod to the dark-floor-trend, but we hang out very little in the bedrooms, so it has held up very well. Satin finish, I don't like the glossy look.

Thank you all once again for your help and ideas. We cannot replace the floors as we are spending big bucks on this reno as we had to redo entirely all the electrical and plumbing as well as replace the kitchen and three bathrooms. The parquet floors are the big squares and they are in excellent condition so perhaps they were replaced at some time? We have light floors here in SC and i like the thought of something different and more formal in the city though having had them before i know they can show dust and thanks kylewest for reminding me. Also i have seen parquet stained the lighter colors and it seems to bring out the yellow tones and to my eye looks very unnatural. The GC is staining several different colors on the floor this week so we can look at samples next week when we visit and one is the special chestnut that nyc10023 likes. But i will take all your advice and try the satin finish on whatever we eventually chose.

That's great that the parquet is in great shape -- most likely protected by wall-to-wall carpeting for 40 years.

But why stain at all?

Alan- interesting comment. Our floors were very dark, almost black when we bought the apartment. The architect thought they are chestnut (don't really know for sure) and said that after sanding, if we stained them they would again be dark. So we just put on several coats of polyurethane, and they came out a beautiful medium brown.

so rosina, maybe ask your contractor to do a sample with just the poly finish to see how the color turns out.

alanhart...you couldn't just leave them newly sanded, could you, without any stain on them? Or are you suggesting just a sealer? would the wood be of such a quality that they would look acceptable without stain? we do have to sand them as we have moved walls or archways where we have damaged the floors.

ph41, good idea and i think that is what alanhart was suggesting though i didn't understand it at first.

Rosina: the # of applications matters as well in determining what the floor will look like.

hurting, we just saw an apartment that had recently installed medium (but not yellow) oak floors and they looked very classic and would fit into most decors. Like you, I prefer a darker wood floor but perhaps if you stay away from the very dark brown color then they will look less trendy. Also the very dark brown floors that I've seen tend to have no "grain" in them and are a more even flat tone.

yes, medium oak floors without that noxious yellow hue are ideal.

thanks all. just made the decision today -- we really loved the dark colors, Jacobean, but went with dark walnut with one coat, which looked like more of a medium brown and the grains showed through. I was worried the dark floor may make the whole place feel darker. However, walking in and seeing the sanded floors I really liked the natural color. The floor guys said it was impossible to leave and keep them that color without resanding often. Now we need to pick the finish!