I have a set of new stairs installed in a project. They are a combo of solid white oak treads and veneer side stringers. The client wants to match the colour of the new white oak flooring which is a dark brown colour.
Any advice on the products to use?? I’ve never finished white oak before, it’s not very common in Canada. I’m pretty concerned about the colour uniformity on the treads vs the sides due to the veneer. My first thought was to use a gel stain as it is easy to control and won’t make a mess. Getting a custom colour match won’t be an issue but I am open to all suggestions. Remember, this is a site finished job not a shop project. I do have hvlp equip but am trying to avoid spraying colour if I can.
Paul
Replies
I agree that gel stain might make it easier to have uniform colour between solid oak and oak veneer but what does the existing floor look like? Does is have dark contrasts between the earlywood and the latewood of the oak or is the colour uniform? Getting uniform colour on oak with gel stain requires that you apply a lot of it, which hides the grain.
As an example, attached is a picture of an Arts & Crafts table I made out of white oak where I used a dark gel stain over a light aniline dye. Because gel stain has next to no penetration into the wood you get a dark colour in the pores and a light colour elsewhere. If I had not used aniline dye before applying the gel stain the lighter coloured areas would have been even lighter. I.e. I would have obtained an even greater contrast.
I build a fair number of pieces where I mix solid wood with veneered plywood and I find that aniline dye gives me uniform colour between the two mediums. It also gives a fairly uniform colour between latewood and earlywood in solid oak, which may or may not be what you want to match the floor. You can get aniline dye from Lee Valley.
Hopefully this helps a little. Tough question to answer without seeing the floor.
Thanks for that info. The wood colour to match is pretty uniform overall. The picture is not bad but it is a little darker in real life.
Given the uniform colour of the floor I personally would not use gel stain for the stairs. I would use aniline dye to get a uniform deep colour followed by pigment stain to get darker pores only if necessary. If you are not familiar with aniline dye a deep penetrating stain like Saman (http://www.saman.ca/) would work equally well in my opinion. You can get Saman at Rona in Gatineau.My 2 cents...
I ditto on the Saman Stains
I have used a few bottles and the color mix/match is pretty universal.I have used it mixed in an acrylic base and it gave a nice glazing effect.
Wally World has it here in South SK
You're lucky. White oak takes about anything you can throw at it pretty well and pretty evenly. I would first try a penetrating stain on some sample boards to see if you can get the color you want because it'll be on stairs. Gel is only on the surface and may be prone to chipping.
---mike...
Agree with Mike that gel stain is a surface stain and on stairs that take traffic a penetrator might work best. And a shame really as gel stain is easy to work with and especially on white oak. I use a lot of QSWO and below is a picture of a solid wood match with veneered back panels using the same gel stain.
Good luck...
Sarge..
Woodworkers' Guild of Georgia
Hello
Anilines are great - the water based one will give you much better control.
If I had the ability to spray on site like you do - there would be no better option for color control or flawless finish.
Regards,
SA
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