Last Updated on October 26, 2026 by Royal Stone Care
Staining a real hardwood floor gives it shine, depth and warmth while enhancing your room’s overall appearance. However, if you don’t handle the process correctly, you won’t achieve the desired effect.
While it may sound obvious, it’s worth remembering that staining isn’t the same as finishing. It colours a floor, enhancing or altering the shade of the wood completely.
Staining wood enhances its natural beauty by highlighting the grain and giving the timber’s colour greater depth. So it’s an ideal (and popular) process for floors, furniture and other surfaces. A stain also provides protection against exposure to UV rays, which can make wood fade and discolour over time.
Here’s a quick round-up of some of some key points to bear in mind if you’re tackling this task yourself:
You can’t stain all wood surfaces
Know your wood species before you start work. Some types, including pine, maple, birch and fir have a dense structure, and so are not easy to stain evenly. So you could have an end result that doesn’t look right at all.
Do sand in the right way
Work progressively, kicking off with 100-120 grit and finishing with 180 or 220-grit paper for a smooth surface. If you use a higher grit than that, it could close the pores and prevent the staining product from being absorbed.
Staining makes poorly sanded surfaces look worse
Staining can accentuate a floor’s imperfections, including even the seemingly smallest scratches and flaws. So be sure staining is indeed the right thing to do before you get started. Even if everything looks OK initially, staining can later lodge into any gouges, dents and so on left by poor sanding. And, unfortunately, you will end up with a hardwood floor that doesn’t look its best at all.
Do complete the pre-stain
Pre-staining is about sealing wood pores using a thin, clear conditioner before you add the stain. It prevents streaking, blotching and uneven colour absorption. Softwoods, in particular, such as pine, benefit from this process, as do porous hardwoods like maple.
Apply to clean, sanded woods and leave for up to half an hour to soak in to the timber before applying the stain. (In any event, apply the final stain within a couple of hours.) Pre-staining conditioner is available in water and oil-based forms, so match yours to your stain type.
Do consider using gel stains
These are great if you’re not an old hand at DIY, or the timber is a tricky one to work with, such as pine, since gel stains sit closer to the surface of the wood and therefore help prevent blotching.
Don’t stint on the stirring
Unlike James Bond’s famous Martini, your stain should be stirred rather than shaken, so that you don’t introduce air bubbles.
Why is wiping a more efficient staining technique?
It’s simply more efficient to wipe stain on to wood using a rag or cloth, rather than brushing it or using a spray gun.
There are a number of reasons for this, including speed – the technique is nearly as quick as spraying, but you won’t have to clean the spray gun afterwards. At the same time, it’s effective in just about every situation – with the notable exception of getting into recesses, including inside corners, deep carvings and so on.
Brushing, for example, will definitely take longer over larger surface areas.
The other issue is that, apart from slow-dry, oil-based stains, other products, including water-based, lacquer and dye-based stains, dry too quickly to give time to brush the liquid on and wipe it off larger areas before it starts to dry.
Wipe before it dries
However you do it, apply a wet coat of staining product in the first instance. And then wipe away the excess before it dries. Ultimately, you can use any method you want, but it’s important to wipe off the excess before the product dries. If you don’t, you’ll get a type of blotching with thick dry stain spots next to clean areas.
The exception
Every rule has its exceptions, and this one is no, well, exception. If you’re trying to get staining into inside corners and similar recessed areas, brushing is typically a more efficient method.
And if you do use a sponge or cloth, you’ll need to get it very wet. However, even in this situation, you can still manage without a brush.
Just bear in mind that when you use a cloth, it can drip more. So be prepared to clean up after yourself, and wear old clothes for protection.
Speed at which stains dry
Oil-based products are popular. And these dry so slowly that you won’t usually have wipe-off problems. Water-based stains, however, can dry as quickly as water evaporates – i.e. very fast in hot temperatures.
Dye-based ones again can dry speedily in warmer weather or climates.
Professionals typically apply lacquer stains on to bigger surfaces by having assistants follow behind them to wipe off the excess stain with large cloths.
You could do the same if you have a willing helper!
Ugly bleedback
You apply stain by using rags to rub it into the wood’s surface before wiping off any excess immediately. If you apply a second coat, or leave a lot of leftover staining product behind to soak into the boards, you risk unsightly ‘bleedback’, meaning the stain wicks back up to the surface as solvent starts to evaporate.
Don’t stain in direct sunlight
If you do this, and equally if you stain somewhere where humidity is high, the uneven drying of the staining product will leave the surface of your wood looking patchy.
Allow enough time for drying
Drying out wood once it’s been stained takes longer than you think. What’s more, you’ll need two to three coats of clear finish on top of the stain to protect the colour and give it resistance and protect it from abrasion. But you can only do this once the stain has dried out thoroughly.
Do add a protective coating
While a stain adds colour, a top coat such as a lacquer or hard-wax oil is what affords your natural material protection.
Don’t forget to put safety first
Remain extremely vigilant at all times. For example, when you’ve finished using oily rags, dry them completely outside rather than indoors. This helps prevent spontaneous combustion.
Call in the professionals
If the above sounds too challenging, we understand. Our professional services, covering homes and businesses, ensure you get the best from your wooden floor cleaning service in London, furniture or other timber product.
Take a closer look at what we have to offer, including our high-quality wood staining services.
