The other nice thing is shellac bonds to (almost) anything. You can use your oil based stain, then shellac, then water or oil based poly and it will be fine. I would skip the other steps though, well applied shellac should be fine. Just don’t EVER spill alcohol or ammonia. Ever.

^^^Nail polish remover is RIGHT OUT!

Shellac is not a low-grade product. It can last for DECADES longer than today's polyurethane. Yah it stinks (literally). Yah it takes work to get it there (that's why you pay someone else) but it can be STUNNING and RICH looking! The DEPTH OF COLOUR that a well made shellac can offer is AMAZING.

Remember: 80 years ago the 'oil based' polyurethanes were trying to imitate shellac. They didn't quite get it right. And now we have water based polyurethanes that are trying to mimic the mimic! Boy how things change...and how they stay the same.

Ain't life grand?

Thanks all! Yes I agree and think I may have to let them do what they do best. I am not so opposed to an amber floor color. i was just not happy that the way I had done my floors before because it was just sealer and oil poly and it was more that no color was added was what bothered me. Just wanted anything darker and not wanting them left natural. I didn’t want to leave them like that so this is why we sanded them. even if they come out orange, I would not mind it as long as it is a darker amber orange with some warm brown than me leaving floor without color.

the thing is I have two options. Either I have this guy that does very handmade work and he will get a group of people to come here, they will do some final hand sanding then dye the wood the way they do with this water based powder stuff, then they will put on coat after coat of shellac until it has multiple coats. He says that is enough for a finish. Is that durable?!

then another guy was going to do the same system but he will also tint the shellac so it’s a nice warm brown. But he might do a couple coats then apply the local oil based poly. He said the poly is a must or it wont be strong enough. (They all say wildly different things to me)

i still have no clue if this shellac is de waxed or not and how do I know?? Everything is old school here and sold as flakes.

alternately, I can use the minwax provincial stain I bought. But I feel I have to water pop first? Then they can shellac and I can use the water based poly I bought. But I’m afraid these can be incompatibiale? Minwax told me not to use shellac with their stuff ,...

the other thing that bothers me about just doing the minwax stain then sealing it is that I don’t want the zebra look of the pine. that is another reason I’m kind of liking the idea of the shellac with a dye in it. It seems to help cover over the contrasting grains and give me something more even. if I wanted to use my minwax stain I guess I can water pop, but I already attempted that on my floor and was horrified how ugly and dark the color came out, not like my nice sample on scrap wood. I just don’t want to mess things up, and they would not be water popping, they don’t know how. I would have to do it.

so should i poly over the shellac or let them do many many layers of shellac and thats the finish?

or do I add the water based floor finish after?

how do I know if it is dewaxed?

I think the blotchy new stain is due to not getting down to the bare wood. All shiny and previous stained finishes need to be removed for the new surface to absorb the new color evenly. You might need a professional sanding machine.

It was sanded by machine......for three long days. It’s pine. Pine blotches

C A . Hmmmm... pine has knots, are those darker? Pine is known to look blotchy. It's a soft wood.

I just found this info. If you prefer the wood’s natural color, treat your floor with clear varnish or whitewashing to prevent it from darkening with age or simply leave it untreated. As it ages, pine develops a distressed look with visible wear and a patina that many consider part of the wood’s appeal.

Pine’s rustic appearance makes it a perfect fit for a log home or country cabin or for adding warmth to a modern interior or even a commercial office.

https://homereference.net/pine-flooring-pros-cons/

As I said...I hate the natural color! It’s why I sanded the previous treatment..

anything darker is good with me. And yes i love the patina over time

Shellac with a wax topcoat remains a beautiful and high performance floor. It is also easily repairable and strippable.

Are the flakes version always dewaxed? And can I use shellac over minwax oil stain?

All shellac is basically two components. Shellac flakes and grain alcohol. The cans are just premixed but at one time were flakes. So, no... all flakes are not dewaxed.

However, it is easy enough to figure out by mixing up a sample in a jar and letting it sit a while. The wax will decant to the bottom of the jar.

As for performance, you can generally stick dewaxed shellac to everything and everything sticks to dewaxed shellac. So over oil stain is not a problem.

ETA: Not that you would want to spend the extra money on floors, but I typically dissolve shellac flakes in Everclear 190 proof alcohol from the liquor store rather than denatured alcohol. Denaturants themselves are added to make the alcohol taste bad and smell bad and often make it poisonous so you will not drink it. It is the culprit that makes shellac so offensive. Also denatured alcohol can have significant amounts if methanol and water rather than being 95% ethanol.

Will coats of tinted shellac over aniline dyed floors prevent the lightening of the aniline dye over time?

The short answer is that nothing can prevent dyes exposed to sunlight from fading eventually.

Shellac is UV resistant, and water soluble dyes fade slower, but in the end dyes are going to fade. The question really becomes the time frame over which that will happen. I have seen dyes remain vibrant after 20 years of direct exposure to light and I have seen them faded after 10 years of relative shade.

The concern about the wax in shellac is more about not putting a finish on top of the shellac that contains wax. I've done finishes of first dewaxed shellac (tinted), followed by an oil-based stain, and then coated with a regular shellac (not dewaxed), with no issues. But I would not put an oil-based topcoat on top of regular shellac.

I've also put tinted shellac over aniline dye, and it still faded. Perhaps not as much as it would have otherwise, but it did fade. On the other hand, shellac usually darkens over time.

I'm not even sure if it's an aniline dye, but it's a powder they sell here. We also have dyes that come in liquid form that they also mix with water---is it better I use that or will that fade too?

It depends on what those dyes are, and of course how much light the surface gets. I used a supposedly (and relatively) colorfast TransTint dye on my house's interior trim, and the places that get full sun still faded quite a bit.

I’m so over my head...I have no idea how I should finish my floors...I really don’t want something that will fade, it would be such a disappointment. I have a lot of sun here and even one room it hits the two sides disproportionally

Do you have access to marine varnish, or polyurethanes? Do you have to use a shellac? I'm confused 😉

A piece of advice from someone who has spent much of his life as an expat, including some time in North Africa. Find someone whose work you believe in and trust that person. You are not likely to improve your results by trying to force people to work with the materials that you want.

Additionally, some of the things I have seen tradesmen and craftsmen in those areas do with few modern tools, methods, or materials are quite incredible.

Oh dear, "I really don’t want something that will fade, it would be such a disappointment."

I'm sorry C A but sun fades EVERYTHING. If it can KILL YOU it can do everything else. All you can work with is what is available to you. You are in N. Africa. The way they do things is the WAY they do things. That's it. That's all you can expect.

I'm sorry but you will need to manage your expectations. Embrace where you are and what is available to you. Have you enjoyed the Souks? Awesome! I would lose my MIND in there! My husband would have to tie me to his belt...and take away my cash cards! SOOOO MANY BEAUTIFUL THINGS in Souks! I would KILL for some of those leather slippers - the bright red and purple ones?! Yahhhhhh....or the silks....oooohhhhh.....the silks....the scented cedar wood chests....squeal! You see what I'm getting at?

I don't have a Souk to enjoy. But I do have Shopper's Drug Mart. And Super Store. And Costco. And Ikea. You don't have any of those....which means you probably won't be using Ikea's Godmorgen cabinet in your bathroom.

Please enjoy the limitations and the advantages of being where you are. You have access to OLD WORLD technology that is AMAZING. It is VERY hard to do. Which is why Europe invented OTHER THINGS...to make it easier to finish floors.

The SUN is an omnipresent burning orb in Africa. The Khamsin winds can obliterate entire towns for days on end. Water rules the roost. He who controls water controls the region.

You are in a different world...it's OK. Things work and look different. They smell different. They are different. Trying to prevent the African sun from 'fading' things is impossible...unless you live in a cave or an underground compound.

As annoying as it is, you will have to shrug (just like the peoples you are living among...you've seen it...I know you have!) and do what they do....live with it. Life does not depend on the colour of your floor 'not fading'. It just doesn't.

I do love the local style and the souks yes!! This is the beauty of being here as you said. Ive been able to do so many beautiful things for my home here. I have bought so many beautiful handicrafts and plan to have furniture custom built, it’s such a joy.

actually I’m not 100 percent an expat. I’m American yes and grew up in america but I’m a double citizen too, my parents are from here and all my relatives and family history. :-) I still clash with aspects of the culture though having grown up outside.

but yes, the local quality of things can be just gorgeous with such a handmade element—it gives it soul! funny enough, we do have ikea here, ha! I absolute hate it. A lot of locals think it’s something amazing and designer. I avoid it all costs unless there is something I absolutely need.

im searching for the person I trust most to do the work, it’s been a process.

and I didn’t know that fading is a problem with everything! I was about to go buy minwax again and tell them to use it over the aniline dye, but most the guys I have spoken to have never used an oil based stain. They don’t know even know how to wipe it into the wood or wipe the excess off. I did Find a couple companies here though that exclusively work with it, but they do nothing to prepare the pine to accept it uniformly and I have seen some photos of some bad grainy blotchy stuff they have done which I think is not nice but they think is nice. Not sure if they can use the aniline dye first then the minwax, but I dont think I should be coaching and telling people what to do. Best to have someone do what they do best Without interference.

im gonna have to just hire someone and go with it. One guy told me he will do the hand mixed water dye then shellac it in many coats. I tried to explain about finishing with wax but maybe he misunderstood me. I’m kind of afraid to have only shellac at the end, if it’s durable enough. They do put oil poly at the end. Should I get a UV resistant one? Or try to get waxed finish. I don’t know if our shellac is dewaxed. This is a concept no one understood when I asked in many places.

will keep searching for the person who I feel I can trust to do their thing on it

@SJ McCarthy ”The SUN is an omnipresent burning orb in Africa. The Khamsin winds can obliterate entire towns for days on end. Water rules the roost. He who controls water controls the region.”

really enjoyed reading your thought! that was just pure poetry. A reminder what I love about this place.

The recent (last decade or so) obsession with dewaxed shellac has to do with rare problems that occur when top coating it with other finishes. (perhaps it relates to water-borne finishes?) I used non-dewaxed shellac for decades as a first coat under a variety of varnishes when dewaxed was a relatively rare thing you pretty much had to make yourself, and haven't seen any incompatibility issues, but don't doubt that it could happen. When using shellac as a final finish the wax is a valuable addition.