Staining Hardwood Floors Without Sanding

When you walk across the hardwood floor, you hear it. Your shoes stick to the floor with each and every step. It’s a peeling sound that people obviously want to do without. Some equate it to that old “nail-across-a-chalkboard” sound. That sound indicates that the floor needs to be re-stained.

What if sanding is not an option when stainig hardwood floors

Here’s the issue when staining hardwood floors without sanding: When you refinish wood floors without sanding, you never know what the floor was finished with before.

So, buying a product and applying it over an existing finish is a risky business, because it’s best to know if the products are compatible.

Because stains for hardwood floors are liquids that feature very fine dusty pigments, if you apply these stains to a waterproof sealed wood floor, they won’t soak in properly. They also will be very messy. And if the finish that was on there before is worn in some areas (this is a high probability), those areas will soak in differently and stand out in all the wrong ways.

That’s why, when sanding a floor, you have to sand it back to bare wood, and then apply the stain. Following this process, you then seal the floor with a lacquer or varnish to lock in the color and protect the floor.

But, as we have already discovered, this is not an option here. So, instead of staining, use a colored lacquer that can protect the floor when it’s applied. This will eliminate the stain soaking issue and leave the floor looking evenly stained.

To note, you must apply the lacquer the same way you would if the floor was stained. Also, put the coats down a little thicker than usual, which gives the lacquer time to level out before drying. You don’t want any clumps and bumps on the floor, because these will be darker than the rest of the floor.

One final note before staining hardwood floors without sanding: find out if the previous finish was an oil. If so, there are different colored oils you can use. Be sure to contact the manufacturer to find out of the product is generally cross-compatible.