Good news: the stain/urethane fumes in here have died down, and I am no longer wondering whether we’re just living in someone else’s dream, man. With the exception of a few touch-ups, and the need to still stain the inner window grids (we need a different stain for that) the wainscoting in the living room is officially done.
we're hanging a tv here - that's why there's an outlet/hanging wires in the center
In Chapter 1, the wainscoting was designed, built and installed. Now G and I needed to get ready for stain.
SANDING
First, all the wood was sanded, starting with a heavy grit sand paper, and working up to a fine 180 grit, to get a smooth surface. Next, we lightly wet down all the wood surfaces with distilled water. Water “raises the grain” of the wood, which means it causes the wood fibers to swell. Then we waited for the surface to dry, and lightly sanded again with fine grit sandpaper. Why did we do this? Because the first step in our stain process was to use a water-based dye, and since the water in it would cause this “raising the grain” effect, we wanted to pre-raise the grain first with water alone, so it wouldn’t raise when we applied the dye. Make sense?
DYE
Let’s back up a bit here… weeks ago in G’s Secret Lab, he set out to create the perfect sample of stained quarter sawn red oak. Using a few drops of a wood dye solution called
Trans Tint in Reddish Brown diluted in varying amounts of water, he took a board of the red oak we were using for the wainscoting and applied sample patches going from light to dark. Then, he applied the stain, and we chose the finished result we liked the best (making the flecks of the quarter sawn red oak “pop” the most). This way he knew the right formula (drops of dye per volume of water) for the job.
You can read more about water-based dyes at Fine Woodwoorking here (sub req).
OK… so the dye solution was applied with cloths to the surface, and allowed to dry completely. The wood looked like the tongue of a cherry-flavored Ring Pop-sucking child.
the snozberrys definitely do not taste like snozberrys
STAIN
Then we applied a gel stain in Antique Walnut from General Finishes. We used cloths, and bristle or sponge brushes to get in the corners. We pretty much applied it and then wiped it right off (not much wait time).
FETAL POSITIONS, EVERYONE!
At this point… we freaked out completely. It looked way too dark. Like haunted house dark. Like Ozzy Osbourne Seal of ApprovalTM dark. Like bats were going to fly out any minute dark. For a moment there, G started speaking gibberish, saying we may have to sand it all off.
But we decided we must carry on. Too much work had been done. We were exhausted. G had been at this for weeks. Frustrated, we went ahead with the finish.
EUREKA – URETHANE
We wiped on the Oil & Urethane topcoat, called Arm-R-Seal from General Finishes, and. it. looked. beautiful. The surface lightened, the mahogany tone from the dye emerged, and the flecks mygodtheflecks! The result after the next coat was even better.
Next up… paint the walls. After sleep.
Yay!!!
One spoilsport question: How long did it take to get all the sanding dust out of the rest of the house? Or did you do a better job than I have containing it?
Hello! We take dust collection seriously, so we used a power sander with a built-in dust collector, hooked up to a good shop-vac. It makes a HUGE difference.
That would make sense. The sander I’m using is borrowed and is missing its dust collection bag, so the dust goes everywhere. Not sure what it’d take to hook it up to the shop vac.