Grey patches

[Nijinski001]

Hi
I have recently stripped worn varnished floorboards back to the wood and applied a water based stain prior to varnishing with a clear diamond glaze. The floor now instead of appearing the \\\'golden\\\' colour I was expecting from the test area has many small patches of grey all over it. I am reluctant to varnish over the top of this in teh hope that the varnish will improve the look as once the varnish is down I will have to start all over again.
Can anyone tell me what is causing this and how to get around it?
Many thanks

 

[king.module]

have you wiped over the boards with a clean cloth?

the 'grey patches' could just be 'excess' stain that has dried on the surface of the wood - if this is the case you should be able to wipe em off with a little bit of work (you should really give newly stained floors a wipe over anyway)

best of luck

 

[Nijinski001]

Before staining thoroughly cleaned.

Tried a test patch and wiped with white spirit before staining.

After staining tried wiping with a dry cloth, wiping with water and wiping across with White Spirit. Nothing clears it.

The stain seems to occur where the wood has been stripped to it's cleanest by the sander.

Tried allsorts. Tried everything I can think of.

Any other ideas what it might be?

 

[king.module]

sorry dude that was my only idea.... unless (a very long shot) these 'grey' patches are a different texture to the rest of the floor?

maybe go over them lightly with some 120+ grade paper?

 

[WoodYouLike]

IMHO (and if I understand your story correctly) it could be old and deep water stains. The old varnish layer, was that a dark colour?
If wood gets wet and it isn't noticed and cleaned-up on time the water could get into the wood. This darkens (grey) the wood and if you're very unlucky penetrates the board between 1mm to the complete thickness of the board

 

[Nijinski001]

Thanks
Someone else has mentioned damp in the wood as well. There are too many patches for it to be spilt water.
This is an old house (circa 1910 ish) and the boards I would guess looking at them are at least 30 years old. They are above a cellar. Could this explain anything?

The previous covering was a natural varnish. This is the first time that colour has been used on the boards and that was to try to equalize the varnish that was left in the pits and crevaces. Otherwise a new coat of varnish would have shown up the pits and crevaces as patches themselves.

Do you have a possible solution?

 

[WoodYouLike]

The stain seems to occur where the wood has been stripped to it's cleanest by the sander.

The cellar could explain something, specially in regards with what you mentioned above. The former varnish might have prevented the stains from appearing (closing it air-tight) and the sanding might have triggered the moist to come out further and now showing the long-time result of damp from underneath.
But that would also mean that the wood would be 'rotting' and I don't think that's the case here? Does it smell damp? Can you get at the cellar and have a look underneath?

At the moment I'm only guessing and not really helping you, am I?

 

[Nijinski001]

Helping a great deal in that you are backing up my theories.

Regarding the varnish sealing in the grey patches, the wood does not look grey before the stain is applied and it becomes greyer as the stain dries.

No I can't get to the underside of the floorboards as the cellar has been modernised recently and a full ceiling installed. You would hope that the company fitting out the cellar would have noticed.
There is no sign from movement of the boards or smell that there is likely to be anything rotting but I know that's not difinitive.

My guess is that if this is caused by damp or otherwise then it is likely something that has built up over the years before central heating was installed.

Can there be any other explanation?

Alternatives being considered at the moment is to resand the floor and apply a varnish again with no stain. The sanding will be much more difficult this time as last time we didn't remove varnish in the nooks and crannies thinking that the stain would equalise the colour.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Can there be any other explanation?

Well, my partner suggested another cause indeed. Your floorboards, are they pine? If so, the sanding could have ruptured resin-canals and through the friction of the sanding the remaining resin could have melted a bit. Then with sealing the floor again, that could have reacted with the sealer.
Did you smell that typical 'pine' when sanding?

Pine always turns 'orange' very quickly, hence the reason for staining it a bit darker to prevent that more.

Just another thought.

 

[Nijinski001]

Thanks for that.
I believe they are pine but very old. Wouldn't the resin canal issue be more applicable to new wood?
I can't say that I detected a particular piney smell when I was sanding them.

 

[WoodYouLike]

New pine boards are normally 'cooked' to get all the remaining resin out, 'old' ones not.

But it was just a thought about the resin.

Sorry we can't help you further (is rather hard from a distance - or by pc)