Stain looking strange. Is this normal?!

[RenoRookie]

I’ve recently purchased my first home and am having the hardwood floors sanded, stained a darker colour and sealed with solvent based poly. The contractor seems super competent and spent multiple days sanding. I then chose a stain and they went to work. Today I just popped in to have a look, and it looks so strange and uneven. There is a very pronounced rainbow sheen in places, other places look very grey in person. It looks much worse in person, the photos don’t do the unevenness justice. I’m just wondering if this is normal for the first coat of stain or something? Will it improve with another coat or two? I don’t want to be a pest and bring it up with them if it isn’t a problem, but it’s hard not to worry about it!! I have no pervious experience with hardwood flooring, grateful for any advice!

 

[highup]

How was the floor sanded? Doesn't look like a drum sander was used...... I'm guessing.
I wouldn't know about that sheen. I'd certainly ask about it. I see that in acrylic mortar additives, but those aren't used as wood floor sealers.
I'd does seem strange.
I notice a picture frame effect around all the board edges. I've never seen a freshly sanded floor look like that. Planks vary in shade, but not the edges.
That said, I like that look. It's got a neat antiquish or aged look.

 

[DarisMulkin]

I'm venturing a guess that the boards with the white edges were cupped and when sanding they just took off the high edges. Kind of shows that in the pattern how it feathered off the finish. I really don't think they got all the finish off but I'm not a wood guy.

 

[havasu]

Looks like wetness swelled the edge, so the sander just got the edge.

 

[highup]

The boards are face nailed, maybe years after it was installed. I don't see any shiney nail heads. Wondering if the floor was just scuffed and the rainbow is from a reaction with residual wax?

 

[DarisMulkin]

The boards are face nailed, maybe years after it was installed. I don't see any shiney nail heads. Wondering if the floor was just scuffed and the rainbow is from a reaction with residual wax?

Is it face nailed or was it screwed and those are dowels/pegs? But to me they did not get it down to bare wood.

 

[RenoRookie]

I notice a picture frame effect around all the board edges. I've never seen a freshly sanded floor look like that. Planks vary in shade, but not the edges.
That said, I like that look. It's got a neat antiquish or aged look.

I spoke to him yesterday and he said that the picture frame effect is indeed very unusual and he wasn’t expecting it. His theory is there is some sort of containment in the gaps that is pushing the stain away from the edges of the boards. I don’t actually mind the look either! The house is a very old wooden home, so it kind of suits haha.

 

[RenoRookie]

Thanks for the replies! Appreciate it. So, he agrees it’s definitely an issue and he re-sanded the floor with a courser grit, and then stained a test patch with a higher concentration of stain (50% as opposed to 30%), this seems to have stopped the strange patchiness. The higher stain concentration means a deeper colour though. He put one coat of poly on the test patch to give me an idea of the final look. It looks nice, but much darker than I had originally anticipated, I’m guessing this is the only option though. Either this, or forgo the stain entirely.

 

[highup]

The original look without the rainbow effect wasn't bad to me either.
You could have a natural or golden oak applied now and it would add a little more color than bare wood, but not overly dark. I'm sure the profit goes down quickly for the wood guy, or the cost to you goes up quickly depending on how many tests are done to decide a color.