Hardwood with multiple stains/types of wood - What to do?

My wife and I are purchasing a 6yr old home with what looks like a nice quality hardwood floor in the living room where you enter the home.

The issues/questions are these if you can help:

1. Our realtor said that they used different types of wood and obviously there are different stain patterns as well within the arrangement. Please see photo (please let me know if you can't view it).

1. Can you tell me what type(s) of wood is used here just based on this photo?
2. My wife would like this to have all one uniform stain. any recommendations on what our best route would be? Can we get away with sanding this and then refinishing dark? I don't think I can pull up planks and lay new ones down if they are different woods.
3. finally, we have an adjoining kitchen/dining area that I am considering laying hardwood down in order to make it all match. In this case, we would want to lay down the exact type of wood we already have in the living room and stain it all the same.

your tips and expertise are much appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forums.

I think I see oak and maple in there but we have pros on this forum who will be able to tell you what's there with much more certainty.

To answer your questions, I don't think you're going to get these to look the same, period. With a lot of work staining the boards individually, you might get the color to approximate but I wouldn't put in the effort that would take. I would either live with this (nope, wouldn't do that), strip it all and stain them all with the same stain (will still look different but not as pronounced) or rip it out and put down something different and then use that in the kitchen as well (I think this option is the one I'd take).

 

Yeah, looks like oak, maple, dark stained oak and possibly mahogany.

 

You might want to get a couple of estimates from floor finishers. They should be able to recommend what stains should look ok once the floor is sanded and refinished. Even if you decide to do all the work yourself - you should gain some insight by talking with the flooring guy.

What was the original homeowner thinking

 

Much appreciated. I have a relative who is a contractor so I'll ask him as well. Wanted some other opinions on here. I would hate to pull up boards as that would be a much larger project I'm not really cut out for. Sanding and staining is manageable.

 

Yep, less work and cost but don't think they're all going to look the same when you're done. If that's the ultimate goal, you will need to replace the floor. It's also not going to match your new room.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Any recommendation based on the wood types seen here on a stain to use that would blend them the best? We're leaning towards strip and stain while leaving existing wood in place.

 

The maple is not going to take stain well so I don't know if there is a good choice - generally, the darker the stain the more the woods will look alike when you're done.

 

You might wait until it's sanded to make a stain choice. As Mitch stated, dark stains usually blend the woods better but maple only accepts a small amount of stain....but sanded down to raw wood and just using a poly will look a lot better than it does now.

 

Marksr, could you please elaborate on what you mean exactly by "just using a poly"? I'm completely ignorant.

 

It might look better with no stain - just 3 coats of poly. Once the floor is sanded you'll be in a better position to make that decision.

 

Thank you for the explanation.

 

Typical wood finish is a coat of stain to color it and then several coats of polyurethane to protect it. Mark is suggesting the floor might look best with just the polyurethane since the maple isn't going to absorb stain well in the first place.

Wiping a part of the floor down with mineral spirits will give you an idea what it would look like with just polyurethane on it while the thinner is still wet.