Why dye my hardwood floors?

Posted Jan 28, 2019 by Aaron Schaalma

Having your hardwood floors dyed can add another depth of color. It’s similar to getting your hair dyed at a beauty boutique; it allows you to get layers of color in your hair. This is similar to what dye can do for your hardwood floors. When would I want my floors dyed? Some species of hardwood are not very receptive to the staining process due to the properties of the wood and require another step to achieve an even color tone across the entire floor. For example, due to the denseness and grain composition of Maple hardwood, stain by itself often times appears blotchy and uneven over the flooring. This is where dyeing the floor would come into play. Dyeing your floor before applying a stain color gives you a uniform base color to work with, and then the stain adds another layer of color to your hardwood floor. How does dyeing a floor change the process? Having your hardwood floors dyed changes the normal process of just having your floors stained. On a normal stain and finish project, the process after sanding is: water pop (applying water to the floor to open the grain), stain, and 2 coats of finish. When a floor is getting dyed the process after sanding is: dye, stain, sealcoat (depending on what type of product is used) and then 2 coats of finish. I don't like the red in my floor, What can be done? This is something we hear all too often. My hardwood floors are red because they are brazilian cherry or mahogany...I don't want to rip them out but staining doesn't take care of the red. This is where having your floors dyed or a pre-color would come in to change the color. We have done this on jobs before, similar to the brazilian cherry job in Green Bay, WI. This was a dye and stain to transform it from red to a modern grey color. Remember the sky is the limit when it comes to color. How much does it cost to dye my hardwood? There is a lot of skill that goes into dying a wood floor. You have to make sure there’s no lap lines and that everything is feathered out so that you don’t see any stop marks on the floor. The cost of dyeing the hardwood floor also depends upon the product that is being used. Different manufactures have their own type of dyes, or we can make our own. That being said, the cost to dye a wood floor is typically an additional $1-2 per square foot. This is just one of the many different things that can be done to hardwood flooring. That is one of the beautiful things that I love about it! If you have any questions we would love to chat! Feel free to contact us!

Why dye my hardwood floors?

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