Water Popping Oak Floors

How to water pop a hardwood floor for a perfect stain.
Water popping oak floors. The water popping process helps ensure your newly finished floors produce a beautiful rich color and most importantly an even coverage. When the floor is water popped properly all of the hardwood floors grain is evened out and becomes equal. Benefit 2 it makes the stain color darker and richer. Allows for a more even application of the stain.
The end result was gorgeous. It is especially recommended for those looking to do dark hardwood floors and go as dark as possible as the water pop will allow more stain to be absorbed and hence a darker color. After the water evaporates the fibers stay in the swelled position and the cleared pores take stain much more evenly. To make sure that the floor looked its best we water popped the floor to open up the pores and raise the wood s grains then applied four coats on top the owner wanted an extra coat because he had a big dog.
Helps to reduce sanding marks. A few benefits of water popping a floor before staining it include. The water popping process also makes sanding marks blend into the rest of the wood grain helping to reduce swirl marks and other marks from the big machine. If the flooring is going to be kept natural without a stain color the water popping step isn t necessary.
Helps the stain penetrate the wood. Water popping is usually done before using a water based finish. The drawbacks to doing a water pop are first and foremost it costs more. Now when the stain is applied there will be no worries about any areas accepting the stain differently and ending up with a blotchy floor.
Learning about the difference in applying stain to dry floors versus the water pop technique.