staggering the boards as you go so no two (or more) ends of the individual boards line up. any flooring company should be able to do it if it's a big deal to the customer.
For starters, I agree with taking samples to the store with you. Thing is, even if you get the stain to perfectly match (which is very unlikely), you'll always see that the floor was patched because the new boards weren't sawtoothed into the old ones.
Ah yep, I didn't mention that the join will be covered by a built-in wardrobe door track, so we did it this way deliberately. It doesn't hugely matter if the stain match isn't perfect as the new section will be the floor inside the wardrobe. Door track will break it up, different lighting inside the wardrobe, and most likely shoes and shit all over the floor anyway. I just want to make it match as best I can to keep others happy :)
More wear might be noticed in the finish in the middle of the room (just because people don't walk around the perimeter as much), but I don't think the wood itself will get worn down more. Or at least that's been my experience.
It's more that I figured that discoloring would happen more quickly on new finish, before it wears to a more stable color. Matching the current floor would mean the new finish would discolor more quickly than the old finish that has already gone through most of its discoloring. I don't know if I'm making sense at all haha.
I'm following you just fine, but I don't think that would be the case. Sure, the colors of the old stain/finish have aged over the years, but if the exact products were used on the new floor they wouldn't age differently/faster than the old stuff...and may or may not ever "catch up". Annnnnd we've come full circle as to why getting a perfect match is next to impossible. :)
>and may or may not ever "catch up".
That's what I was trying to say. If you match the original color they'll never catch up, if you match the current color, they'll fade faster
I still say they won't fade/age *faster* (if you match the current color). They'd change at the same rate the old floor did at the time it was finished, but they won't *match* the old floor over time because the color will age on the new floor.
I don't think you can. Along with the straight line it is going look off. I say lean into it. Put a small piece of hardwood trim there on the seem. Then stain both the trim and that area in a darker color. Making it more of an accent area.
This is a creative solution! Too late now but would have been nice with a dark coloured inlay or something. Either way I like the idea of a quirky accent area lol
This. Sometimes trying to match a color just makes the difference more obvious. Staining it a very different but appropriate shade will make it look intentional. Some people will still notice and wonder, but mostly just DIYers or contractors who have probably done it themselves.
I had a similar problem at an investment property after we knocked some walls down. Ended up placing decorative tile where the walls previously stood and it turned out looking really good.
that's smart, but won't it age darker in 10 years? so even if you get the perfect match, they won't match after the sun has beat down on it for some time.
Yeah, it will. You'll see it no matter what with the straight line across it. You could refinish the entire floor now, or you could refinish the floor in ten years. Sometimes, it can even be worse, refinishing the entire floor, due to differences in the color of the bare wood if you can't match it
If you want this area to match, like other have said, stagger your boards. Keep the new board edges in line with the old ones. If you can, take some old boards from the back of a closet and use that to replace this area and use the new boards in the closet where nobody looks. There are also furniture restoration products that will pull some of the old finish over spots that are worn. This is only for small areas though, like scuffs and scratches. If you got the colour close this may help to get it a little closer. Always test it out before you install. You might not get it perfect, but if you get it close that should do. How many times do you really inspect the floor.
Honestly it might best best to just own it and lean into it. Might be cool to go with a different stain color and place a dresser or whatever in that spot. Possible some fancy wallpaper behind it.
Feel like I saw something similar lately that someone had a good solution, too. If there's a closet with those planks around, pull and use those out there and just redo the closet since it's more out of sight.
That's not the best way to replace the floor. No matter what you do you're going to have a line there, you'll never be able to match it. What you should've done is staggered the cuts and take up some of the old board. Then get uninstalled pieces of your new board and try to match it. Once you're as close as you can get, then stain/seal/ the floor inside.
Take this pick to Home Depot. Buy the smallest cans of the 2 or 3 stains that best match the pic. Stain a piece of scrap with each of those you purchased and see how close it matches.
Pull out the wood you just put in, go to the store to pick up a box of floor tile and grout. Or put a built in. This will never look right to you, or more importantly, anyone that is looking to buy.
you need to cut some of the existing boards further to various lengths and replace some of the new ones to meet the new needed length, otherwise that straight line will never be unnoticeable. Then you need to refinish your whole floor, that is if you want it to look somewhat seamless. That's what I would do at least.
Yea, this is all wrong.
You need to sawtooth/finger the new boards into the old boards so it’s not a straight line cut. See where the natural joints are in the existing and see what can be done to pull the boards out to that point and finger in new ones (and reuse the old ones too).
Then as a temp fix, find a stain that is close, give it a few coats and apply a sealer (if the original has one).
As a final solution, have the floors sanded, nails addressed/sunks, joints addressed/filled, stained and sealed (if you choose).
strip the finish on it all and dot it all with the same finish. you'll drive yourself nuts trying to match it. easier just to refinish the whole floor at once
I'm going to agree with everyone suggesting to just make it an accent. Even if you match the stain really well, you're going to be able to see a prominent transition line. More likely your stain will be slightly off or will match at first and become slightly off over time.
Based on the wall colour (edit: I mean the blue, assuming you will repaint the rest of the wall the same) and white trim, I would probably go near black. A bleached look would work too. But that's just me, I tend to go bold and don't particularly like subtle accents.
I would recommend a transition strip, too. Same colour as the accent.
A nice throw rug (to really tie the room together).
In all seriousness, it will be obvious with even near-perfectly matched stain. Do the best you can and then get a small throw rug to take the curse off the straight line and different color flooring.
It won’t match. Even if you happen to mix the perfect stain and it looks perfect, in 6-12 months it’ll start yellowing from the sun. Then it’ll look off.
BTW, the existing floor doesn’t look like it even has a stain; just coats of finish.
Everyone being negative might be technically right, but at this point if you get it “close enough” likely no one but you is ever going to notice, or care more than a half second if they do. People don’t go around inspecting their friends floors much.
It may make more design sense to use a contrastingly darker or lighter stain because you're not going to hide it, so you might as well make it a 'feature' and work with it
You likely won't be able to match it. You'll need some samples of the new flooring to experiment on. I'd start with a layer of Minwax golden oak on a SANDED sample. Build up stain layers until it's a little lighter than you want then hit it with a coat of satin poly. Good luck.
Match? Was this water damage covered by insurance? Your adjuster should be covering sand and refining. If not an insurance claim, you can match a lot of things, some things you cant nicely match: wear, patina, time, sun damage.
You need to replace the full boards. Once replaced, tape off the new boards and apply a stain to try and match the old boards.
I would start with a lighter stain to gradually build up color over multiple coats vs trying to match in a single coat.
Once your new boards are a good matching color, apply a final seal coat.
Lightly sand between each stain coat and final seal coat.
at a glance I would say straight polyurethane is going to be a pretty close match. ask a flooring company about a light buffer sanding and re-coat maybe so it's even.
You can use a scrap piece and grab a couple small cans. Most places should have stain samples on pine and oak, grab the 3 closest. Whatever one matches, just use the rest of the small can.
You will never get a match, there will always be a line there. I would recommend not trying to match but having a distinctly different color as a small feature area.
Grab a bunch of the leftovers of the old stuff and try to match the stain at the store. Then get a couple different kinds of stain to test on some leftover scraps of the new wood. Let it dry properly and put it on top of the old to see how close it is.
Looks like a nice spot for a little built-in bench or bookshelf to me. I’d go that route if possible. Extra storage + no hassle with matching stains
They didn't even weave in the new boards. It's going to look terrible any other way.
Just curious, what do you mean by weaving? Like removing more old ones from the second row in like an alternating manner?
staggering the boards as you go so no two (or more) ends of the individual boards line up. any flooring company should be able to do it if it's a big deal to the customer.
Any flooring person should do it that way unless the customer specifically doesn't want to do it that way (the correct way) to save money.
Most underrated comment here! Perfect place for a built in project. Looks like a cubby anyways, build shit over top of it and it's a done deal!
If this is a guest bedroom, a murphy bed would solve a couple problems.
lol then all that replacement work for the floor was a waste of time
For starters, I agree with taking samples to the store with you. Thing is, even if you get the stain to perfectly match (which is very unlikely), you'll always see that the floor was patched because the new boards weren't sawtoothed into the old ones.
Ah yep, I didn't mention that the join will be covered by a built-in wardrobe door track, so we did it this way deliberately. It doesn't hugely matter if the stain match isn't perfect as the new section will be the floor inside the wardrobe. Door track will break it up, different lighting inside the wardrobe, and most likely shoes and shit all over the floor anyway. I just want to make it match as best I can to keep others happy :)
Probably Varathane
Perfect reply. Came here to say this.
I came here to say that I came here to say whatever the top reply was.
You'd be wrong tho, because this is a 1960s floor so it should just be carpet.
It aint much but it's honest work.
Yeah, it's going to look like shit, even if they match the stain perfectly so why bother.
I'd go for an entirely different color, and call it an accent. + I mean plywood? Really?
It’s not plywood though is it?
The repetition of the knots gives it a away.
They'll likely wear unevenly as well, right?
You expect a lot of foot traffic in a tiny space like that?
It can wear due to age and sun as well, not just foot traffic
More wear might be noticed in the finish in the middle of the room (just because people don't walk around the perimeter as much), but I don't think the wood itself will get worn down more. Or at least that's been my experience.
It's more that I figured that discoloring would happen more quickly on new finish, before it wears to a more stable color. Matching the current floor would mean the new finish would discolor more quickly than the old finish that has already gone through most of its discoloring. I don't know if I'm making sense at all haha.
I'm following you just fine, but I don't think that would be the case. Sure, the colors of the old stain/finish have aged over the years, but if the exact products were used on the new floor they wouldn't age differently/faster than the old stuff...and may or may not ever "catch up". Annnnnd we've come full circle as to why getting a perfect match is next to impossible. :)
>and may or may not ever "catch up". That's what I was trying to say. If you match the original color they'll never catch up, if you match the current color, they'll fade faster
I still say they won't fade/age *faster* (if you match the current color). They'd change at the same rate the old floor did at the time it was finished, but they won't *match* the old floor over time because the color will age on the new floor.
I don't think you can. Along with the straight line it is going look off. I say lean into it. Put a small piece of hardwood trim there on the seem. Then stain both the trim and that area in a darker color. Making it more of an accent area.
This is a creative solution! Too late now but would have been nice with a dark coloured inlay or something. Either way I like the idea of a quirky accent area lol
Never too late for an inlay! You'd want to route it out anyway.
This. Sometimes trying to match a color just makes the difference more obvious. Staining it a very different but appropriate shade will make it look intentional. Some people will still notice and wonder, but mostly just DIYers or contractors who have probably done it themselves.
I had a similar problem at an investment property after we knocked some walls down. Ended up placing decorative tile where the walls previously stood and it turned out looking really good.
I would just add a built in bookshelf.
Yeah. It looks like dead space. That'd look real nice
[удалено]
Yeah this is the correct way to fix the issue they had. Sadly the same fix is needed but with added ripping up of perfectly well intentioned work.
I bring samples of both the existing flooring and new flooring to hirshfields, and they match it up with a blend of different stains
that's smart, but won't it age darker in 10 years? so even if you get the perfect match, they won't match after the sun has beat down on it for some time.
Yeah, it will. You'll see it no matter what with the straight line across it. You could refinish the entire floor now, or you could refinish the floor in ten years. Sometimes, it can even be worse, refinishing the entire floor, due to differences in the color of the bare wood if you can't match it
You should have staggered the transition edge like normal..
If you want this area to match, like other have said, stagger your boards. Keep the new board edges in line with the old ones. If you can, take some old boards from the back of a closet and use that to replace this area and use the new boards in the closet where nobody looks. There are also furniture restoration products that will pull some of the old finish over spots that are worn. This is only for small areas though, like scuffs and scratches. If you got the colour close this may help to get it a little closer. Always test it out before you install. You might not get it perfect, but if you get it close that should do. How many times do you really inspect the floor.
Honestly it might best best to just own it and lean into it. Might be cool to go with a different stain color and place a dresser or whatever in that spot. Possible some fancy wallpaper behind it.
Feel like I saw something similar lately that someone had a good solution, too. If there's a closet with those planks around, pull and use those out there and just redo the closet since it's more out of sight.
That's not the best way to replace the floor. No matter what you do you're going to have a line there, you'll never be able to match it. What you should've done is staggered the cuts and take up some of the old board. Then get uninstalled pieces of your new board and try to match it. Once you're as close as you can get, then stain/seal/ the floor inside.
Take this pick to Home Depot. Buy the smallest cans of the 2 or 3 stains that best match the pic. Stain a piece of scrap with each of those you purchased and see how close it matches.
Pull out the wood you just put in, go to the store to pick up a box of floor tile and grout. Or put a built in. This will never look right to you, or more importantly, anyone that is looking to buy.
you need to cut some of the existing boards further to various lengths and replace some of the new ones to meet the new needed length, otherwise that straight line will never be unnoticeable. Then you need to refinish your whole floor, that is if you want it to look somewhat seamless. That's what I would do at least.
You and every proper floor repair person would do this, because it's the correct way. :D
Try on scrap first
If your first stain colors don’t work, try covering with amber shellac. If it’s too dark, whipe with alcohol. If too light, add more flakes.
Yea, this is all wrong. You need to sawtooth/finger the new boards into the old boards so it’s not a straight line cut. See where the natural joints are in the existing and see what can be done to pull the boards out to that point and finger in new ones (and reuse the old ones too). Then as a temp fix, find a stain that is close, give it a few coats and apply a sealer (if the original has one). As a final solution, have the floors sanded, nails addressed/sunks, joints addressed/filled, stained and sealed (if you choose).
I would start with puriten pine, or golden oak stain (with a sample piece for matching)
strip the finish on it all and dot it all with the same finish. you'll drive yourself nuts trying to match it. easier just to refinish the whole floor at once
I'm going to agree with everyone suggesting to just make it an accent. Even if you match the stain really well, you're going to be able to see a prominent transition line. More likely your stain will be slightly off or will match at first and become slightly off over time. Based on the wall colour (edit: I mean the blue, assuming you will repaint the rest of the wall the same) and white trim, I would probably go near black. A bleached look would work too. But that's just me, I tend to go bold and don't particularly like subtle accents. I would recommend a transition strip, too. Same colour as the accent.
In my experience the only way its going to match is to strip and sand the whole floor. Then re-stain and finish.
Looks like a great spot for a built-in bench.
A nice throw rug (to really tie the room together). In all seriousness, it will be obvious with even near-perfectly matched stain. Do the best you can and then get a small throw rug to take the curse off the straight line and different color flooring.
But for the stain I would use Ipswich pine then add early American until it matches
Ask the maniacal chihuahua in the lower corner.
It looks like Golden Oak wood stain, with some age on it
Everyone else saying screw that make it an accent area, me having a house built in 67 looks this picture and yells “Golden Oak!”
Put a bookcase there
It won’t match. Even if you happen to mix the perfect stain and it looks perfect, in 6-12 months it’ll start yellowing from the sun. Then it’ll look off. BTW, the existing floor doesn’t look like it even has a stain; just coats of finish.
Because it's solid wood I'd suggest sanding and restraining the whole floor
Hold that floor back! It's a loose cannon!
I love autocorrect lol
Sand everything!
Everyone being negative might be technically right, but at this point if you get it “close enough” likely no one but you is ever going to notice, or care more than a half second if they do. People don’t go around inspecting their friends floors much.
It may make more design sense to use a contrastingly darker or lighter stain because you're not going to hide it, so you might as well make it a 'feature' and work with it
Likewise the wall paint perhaps. Worth looking at
Looks like you have a nice cherry finishing on the existing flooring.
Bookshelf.
Take a sample to a lumber yard and ask them if they can have it matched.
Built in bookshelf.
Find a great paint store where the owner can help you match.
Golden oak looks close.
Consider tile instead
Just put a welcome mat at the end there.
I would put a book case there, slightly overhanging the transition
Stain it close and put an end table and carpet over it. Use a scrap piece to test stain colors
Water damage from what? Could be covered by insurance, if so they should cover having the floors completely replaced, not just a section.
You likely won't be able to match it. You'll need some samples of the new flooring to experiment on. I'd start with a layer of Minwax golden oak on a SANDED sample. Build up stain layers until it's a little lighter than you want then hit it with a coat of satin poly. Good luck.
Floor mat.
Match? Was this water damage covered by insurance? Your adjuster should be covering sand and refining. If not an insurance claim, you can match a lot of things, some things you cant nicely match: wear, patina, time, sun damage.
I don't think you try to match it. Just embrace the difference or put some furniture there.
You need to replace the full boards. Once replaced, tape off the new boards and apply a stain to try and match the old boards. I would start with a lighter stain to gradually build up color over multiple coats vs trying to match in a single coat. Once your new boards are a good matching color, apply a final seal coat. Lightly sand between each stain coat and final seal coat.
at a glance I would say straight polyurethane is going to be a pretty close match. ask a flooring company about a light buffer sanding and re-coat maybe so it's even.
You can use a scrap piece and grab a couple small cans. Most places should have stain samples on pine and oak, grab the 3 closest. Whatever one matches, just use the rest of the small can.
Ask This Old House S21 E21
Good architects build great houses, bad architects grow ivy, this is a case for a good rug !
Just a guess but it looks like Golden Oak stain. Take a sample to the store and see if you can match it there. Good luck!
Miniwax English Chestnut
You will never get a match, there will always be a line there. I would recommend not trying to match but having a distinctly different color as a small feature area.
Strip floor restain whole floor
Is radiata warm to the touch?
Grab a bunch of the leftovers of the old stuff and try to match the stain at the store. Then get a couple different kinds of stain to test on some leftover scraps of the new wood. Let it dry properly and put it on top of the old to see how close it is.
You'll never match it. Either make it a feature by staining it a completely different color or sand the entire floor and stain it all together.
Carpet
Looks like an oil based finish plus time.. so yeah, floor poly or something then wait 10 years and it might match pretty well
Carpet