Richard Aylen talks dyes, primers, oils, sheens and vacuum coloured floorboards.

One of the many reasons beautiful timber floors have been around for so long is that they blend perfectly with so many styles of interior. In common with other natural materials, timber may be used next to a wide variety of other colours and textures. The colours that nature provides are very familiar to most of us, but we can create more choices by using stains, textures and colouring processes.

There are several options for clients who are looking for a floor with a coloured finish. Be it a new floor or refurbishment of an old one – there are a few popular choices, each with their own pros and cons.

For refurbishments, contractors must decide if they are going to offer products from one manufacturer that are guaranteed to work together. The alternative is to ‘mix and match’ using wood dye from one supplier and lacquer from another. Here the contractor himself needs to guarantee that the products he offers are compatible. If in doubt, always do a test area and be aware of the risk that manufacturers sometimes alter formulations… so what works today may not necessarily work tomorrow. The timber species may also affect the result. Some water-based finishes may not perform well on naturally oily tropical hardwoods but will be perfectly fine on traditional species such as oak and ash.

Let’s look at some of the choices that are available for customers looking for a bit of colour:

Coloured primers
These will usually be water based and used instead of a clear primer. As well as providing the desired colour, the primer will reduce the ‘gluing effect’ that can occur with water-based finishes.

Primers provide an even, transparent ‘wash’ effect and work well on wood that may have a patchy finish if a conventional wood dye is used, for example maple or beech. Skill and care are needed during application to avoid overlaps, especially on darker, parquet style floors. The primer needs to be over-coated with clear lacquer and it is safest to use a lacquer recommended by the primer manufacturer.

Not strictly a coloured finish, ‘invisible’ primers and lacquers are fairly new to the UK market. They are used where the final colour of the floor needs to be as close as possible to bare sanded wood.
Their ‘invisibility’ works in two ways; firstly, they have a very ‘flat’ matt surface which gives the impression that the wood has no coating. Secondly, they change the colour of the wood very little.
That said, these are often normal properties of many water-based primers, whether marketed as ‘invisible’ or not. Best results are achieved on light coloured timbers as some colour change will be seen when applied to very dark woods.

Wood dyes
These are low-solids, fast drying products, not to be confused with coloured varnishes or ‘wood stains’. They must be protected with lacquer. The ‘rule of thumb’ is that if the wood dye is organic solvent-based, a water-based lacquer is most likely to be suitable for overcoating, and vice versa.
This must not be fully relied upon though, and a test area should always be done prior to treating the whole floor. Often, the lacquer used to over-coat the dye will be from a different manufacturer.

Dyes are easy to apply using a cloth or pad and it is fairly easy to avoid overlap marks, etc. They are fast drying, so the first coat of lacquer or primer can be applied soon after. Stained floors may be difficult to patch-repair, especially if the colour has faded over time and may appear patchy on certain types of wood, eg, maple or beech.

Coloured oils
Oils often produce a uniform colour on beech, maple, etc, compared with wood dyes. They tend not to be prone to application issues such as roller stop marks and work well on herringbone and parquet floors. Oil can be used on its own or may be used as a primer and then over-coated with lacquer. Always check that the oil is compatible with lacquer – some are not. Oils tend to have a longer drying time than a primer or wood dye.

The effect of sheen
Many customers will prefer matt finishes on textured and coloured boards as this tends to look more natural, although this is largely a matter of current taste.

Vacuum coloured floorboards
For a very consistent and permanent coloured finish some types of timber lend themselves well to vacuum staining. Here the colour of the wood itself is altered by using a chemical or staining process. This affects the board through the majority, if not all its thickness. So, when the floor is sanded, there is no need to re-apply the colour treatment. Fumed oak, or Black oak, is perhaps one of the better-known examples of this.

Customers are not only wanting an ever-increasing choice of finishes but demanding greater flexibility from manufacturers, sometimes expecting a perfect match to another design element of the interior. It’s important to assess the use of the floor, estimated foot traffic and maintenance issues before recommending one choice or another – that’s where the expertise of a professional flooring contractor comes in.
www.junckers.co.uk
Richard Aylen, technical manager at Junckers