I get more calls every week to refinish wood floors in order to make them darker. We no longer talk medium colors but dark, rich browns and blacks. A lot of home owners don’t realize that the labor involved in achieving those dark looking floors is pretty intense. The amount of work to produce a dark floor is greater than producing a natural floor. That is why the price tag is higher.

When we add color to the wood we apply pigments to the top surface of the wood cells. That highlights every imperfection in the sanding process if there is any. That is why it is so important that the sanding is done right. Not every contractor can tackle a black floor. I hear stories from frustrated home owners who had hired someone they thought was capable of making their floors pretty. Then, when the stain was applied the color was uneven and blotchy, and they had scratches showing in multiple areas on the floor. It gets even worse when some of those contractors sand the floors again and come up with the same poor results. This why it is so important to hire someone who has the experience, the education, the right equipment and the skill level to produce a great floor.

Through maintaining a dust free job site, using the right sanding sequence with the right machines we produce a scratch free and flat floors. Then, we literally crawl the floor to check for imperfections and then, and only then is the floor ready to be stained.

So, next time you hire someone to refinish your floors to a dark color make sure they are skilled in doing so before the stain hits the floor.