Pine walls stained poorly?

8 years ago

We are building a lake house and surged on pine center match walls in the main room. They looked so awesome.... until they stained them. Can anyone tell me what went wrong. They are stained with duraseal dark walnut.... when I did this stain on a piece of pine it looked like a brown with a touctouch of grey... almost like the bark of a tree. I attached a picture. When they stained them, they turned out blotchy with very red and orange spots.

What can u do to fix. The last pic is from a southern living magazine article where they did a wash with 50% urban bronze paint and 50% water. It is dark but still shows the grain of the wood. Could this help me salvage these pine walls? Thanks.

Featured Answer

User

8 years ago

The problem with staining pine comes from the wide differences in the density and appearance of the grain. In my experience, it makes little difference what type of conditioner/stain is used. Water based conditioners/stains raise the grain, requiring sanding after applications. That affects the color and coverage. Oil based conditioners and stains often are not absorbed into the wood as deeply, affecting the coverage. Alcohol based stains also tend to raise the grain.

The addition of the final finish also can affect the color.

Added to all these situations is the number of different species and growth rates of pine.

Result, it takes a fair amount of experimenting to reach the desired look. You provided an example of what seems to be a wash made of paint and water, which is not a stain. That may be the answer to your situation, but, again, it will take a lot of experimenting. That is something many builders do not want to deal with because it takes too much time and too many variables. You may need a decorator/etc. with experience is pine finishing.

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Comments (8)

dentalsudents
Original Author
8 years ago
Anyone... I'm meeting builder, and I'd love some informed opinions to guide builder. Thanks.
functionthenlook
8 years ago
Pine is hard to stain and need someone who knows how to do it properly. Pine's grain is unevenly dense that results in uneven stain absorption. That is why you mostly see pine in its natural color. First you need to use a water based (not oil) conditioner on the wood then a water based stain. To maybe save yours you will have to sand it all to remove the stain. Unfortunately you probably will not remove it all.
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toxcrusadr
8 years ago
The brown and red areas are very strange. I would not have expected that much color variation. Almost makes me wonder if they STIRRED the stuff properly.

If the effect you want is LIGHTER than what you have, you'll have to remove some stain to get that. One way besides sanding is a stripper. It will be less dusty, but there is a whole different set of issues with it, particularly, fumes. But you might get some stripper, put some on a small area and wipe it off and see what happens. I like the solvent based stuff but you can try the safer water based as well. Buy a quart of each and try it.

What others have said about the difficulty of evenly staining pine is true in any case. Your test piece was a nice knot-free and consistent piece. Basically a snapshot of an ideal board that didn't take that variability into account. Builder should have pointed this out though.
dentalsudents thanked toxcrusadr
bossyvossy
8 years ago
I stained a pine dinette set and it was the biggest nightmare of inconsistency. HST, that’s also part of pine’s charm.
dentalsudents thanked bossyvossy
dentalsudents
Original Author
8 years ago
I'm hoping I can achieve the look of the pine walls in the picture by doing what they did with the 50% urban bronze and 50% water.... even if the stain underneath affects a little it will be much better than now. Any other thoughts on how the 50/50 wash will work are appreciated as well as any other creative ideas that might get me out of this situation. Thanks.
toxcrusadr
8 years ago
OK well that's a lot darker so it seems like it should work the way you're thinking it will. Sorry I missed the second question, got distracted by the original staining issue.

I'm not a finish expert by any means, but it looks dark enough in that pic that I think it will indeed hide a lot of the color variation. Not completely but it will dampen it considerably depending on how much you put on. Start real easy and see how it looks. You might even be able to avoid some of the darkest areas or put it very thin there so it doesn't get too dark.
wednesday morning
8 years ago
Pine does not take a stain nicely. It is very inconsistent. I read that treating it with a shellac before staining would make it better. But, don't quote me on that!