Hi Seamus,


The good news is that I was actually told that red oak is one of the the best woods to use if you are wanting to bleach it, so if this is what you're wanting to do you are in a good starting place. Unfortunately, I'm not sure what the bleaching product was, the floor guys just did it, but I can tell you what stain combination they used once it was bleached: (1) part Minwax Weathered Oak, to (3) parts Minwax Pickled Oak.

The problem I was having was that the wood looked pink to me (which I didn't want) and I needed to find a stain combination that would counter the pink tone. I messed around with stains for a long time until I found a combination that produced a soft, neutral effect and as little hint of pink as possible. If you're wanting a pink hue, then the above combination isn't for you.

By the way, the floor guys didn't say anything about bleaching being particularly difficult or express a concern about it turning out patchy like you've been told. I will say there were a couple of places that it did seem patchy to me once they'd bleached it, but after I pointed the spots out they fixed them. Not sure if you're wanting to bleach it yourself, it may indeed be a difficult thing to do without some experience.

The next decision we made was to wax the floors instead of using a Poly finish. I did this because we have a small child who drags things across the floor and lots of people in and out of our house and I didn't want to worry about scratching and then having to refinishing the floors. Having lived with them for about 9 month now, I would say I'm glad we made the choice to wax but it would be with some major disclaimers for me to recommend waxed floors.

I've attached some photos of our floors.

Hope this reply is in some way helpful, Seamus.


Erin