Hi.

I sanded my pine floor and varnished it with ‘light oak’ but it looks horrible (quite yellow). I’m wondering if I can give it a light sand and put something like ‘medium oak’ over the top, or am I stuck with a yellow floor forever? (Not sanding again!)

Thanks.

It was this stuff:
https://www.diy.com/departments/ronseal-diamond-hard-light-oak-satin-floor-varnish-2-5l/38263_BQ.prd

Definitely not ! how dare you !!

(Not sanding again!)

No then.
Nothing will adhere properly if you don’t sand it again.

All may not be lost. As it’s water based, you might be able to darken it with the one you want without having to sand back to bare-timber again.

Couple of options before going the whole hog…

Get hold of an old pine floorboard somewhere and repeat what you’ve just done ie sand, apply new “light” oak varnish, then sand back by hand to key it, then brush on the new stuff. Let it dry and see how it works out…

Or do the above on a bit of floor that’ll be covered with a sofa.

Make sure you use the same finish ie “satin” – and accept you can only ever go darker.

Whatever you do, you will need to do some sanding, just maybe not repeating the whole job. And bear in mind that if you do have to sand right back, you’ve already flattened it out so a re-sand wouldn’t be the end of the world.

Don’t panic!

The floor will mellow pretty quickly if i remember tomorrow i’ll take a picture of difference under the door mat after 6months.

Although i just used clear because a pine floor is a pine floor and isn’t going to suddenly look like a hardwood!

No then.
Nothing will adhere properly if you don’t sand it again

Sorry I should have been clearer, I meant I didn’t want to hire a floor sander and take the whole lot back to bare wood again, don’t mind a bit of hand sanding/quick go with the orbital sander.

We’ve a 6 month old and the whole process has been quite hard logistically 😀 want to avoid moving the family out for another two weekends if possible.

All may not be lost. As it’s water based, you might be able to darken it with the one you want without having to sand back to bare-timber again.

This is what I was hoping… We really just wanted to darken the wood a bit because it (was) very light pine, but the colour now is… Well it’s yellow.

The floor will mellow pretty quickly

Thanks for this. You’ve given me hope.

I think I’ll just leave it for now, see whether we get used to it, if in a few months it hasn’t deyellowed, then will try a darker colour, if that doesn’t work I’ll have to find time to start again.

I was hoping this was going to be the first DIY job I haven’t had to do twice before being happy with it

Pine soon goes golden brown.

… with sort of a sun-like texture, if memory serves.

… with sort of a sun-like texture, if memory serves.

A bit like Gordon Brown?