Custom finished Oak Flooring – What to expect
We have been customising and manipulating oak flooring for many years now and the results of course never surprise us, but they can sometimes alarm our customers. So here are some pointers about what to expect when your oak floor has been custom finished with either stains or oil waxes.
Most of the floors we work on are oak, as oak is very easy to work with in terms of manipulation. If you have decided on a certain colour for your floor, don’t expect each plank to be the same colour as the next one, because it won’t be, and neither should it be. If each plank were the same colour after staining, then it would almost certainly look incredibly flat. When you stain oak, the wood absorbs the stain at different rates, so of course each board will vary in colour. You must of course bear this in mind when you see a small sample, as what you see will not always be what you get. Some of the tones may vary wildly from your original sample. Then there are the various cuts of the log, which will also affect the colour, and of course the overall look. The type of oak used will also affect the colour. American oak which has a pinky hew to it, will stain completely differently to a let’s say a European Oak. So if you're trying to match floors and skirting boards, always check to see what oak is being used on each product to avoid surprises.
The only way to be really certain is to see a few boards together, but unfortunately this is not really practical. So, there is a small element of guesswork in selecting a colour, but remember that you are looking for an overall effect as opposed to one particular colour.
