How can I fix these orange Cyprus Pine floors?

[elliza88]

 

 

Hello everyone

just looking for some desperate advice. I have just spent 6K on a floor sander to sand and varnish my floors to be a light Scandinavian type of look and the product they have used has made it look very orange. 
Would anyone recommend a bleach or tint to create the look I’m going for (first pic of current orange floor and second of desired floor). Understandably the floor will need to be sanded back again but the floor sander is refusing to fix it. 

[MitchellMc]

So sorry to hear that you've not achieved the look you were going for, @elliza88.

I am not aware of any bleach or tint that can lighten your flooring.

Cypress Pine has a very orange-coloured heartwood that is amplified when coated. I have Cypress Pine floorboards, and they are WAY more orange-coloured than yours. 

Typically a water-based coating is more clear and colourless, whereas an oil-based coating has quite an orange hue. However, a water-based coating over orange-coloured timber like Cypress Pine is still going to give you a slightly orange result. I suspect that the coating used on your floor could have been an oil-based product.

Your flooring appears to consist mainly of orange-coloured heartwood, with the limited lighter white sections being sapwood. Your inspiration image has far more lighter sapwood than your flooring, which adds to the overall Scandi style. 

I just wanted to bring to your attention that your inspiration image looks rather unnaturally de-saturated. I've bumped the saturation, and the flooring then appears quite orange. If the flooring were actually blonde with no orange, then when bumping the saturation, the timber wouldn't change to orange. No doubt your flooring is far from your desired look, but I just wanted to point out that the inspiration image might not truly reflect something you can achieve with an orange-coloured timber.

Let me mention @dorabulldog, who had their flooring bleached with acid to strip colour from it. Perhaps they have some advice. You can see their results in the discussion Kitchen refresh using paint and bleached floor.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[elliza88]

Thank you that is interesting 

I was wondering though if I should have applied a white tint prior to sealing- this might have helped get rid of the orange?
do you know what acid bleach it was?

thank you  

[MitchellMc]

Having a look online, it appears some people are applying a whitewash to the timber prior to sealing which seems to neutralise the orange tint to a certain extent @elliza88. We have the Feast Watson 4L Liming White Satin Timber Floor Stain And Varnish or Feast Watson 1L Liming White if you'd like to control how white the floor goes before applying your polyurethane coating.

Unfortunately, I don't believe @dorabulldog was told by the professional what the acid bleach was.

Mitchell

[dorabulldog]

Hi @elliza88  and thank you @MitchellMc  for the mention!!! Yes, I had really good success with a professional because I was advised that simply sanding and re-coating wouldn't get the fundamental colour out and achieve the look I wanted. It was always going to be quite dark / yellow / orange.... I am so sorry to hear your experience with this was not what you were hoping for....

I also didn't want to bleach it myself as that was quite a high risk for a complete flooring novice (and my whole apartment is wood so it was a lot of timber to do myself). 

I am afraid Mitchell is right, I don't know what the exact bleach / acid was but I will see if I can find out. If you are based in Sydney let me know and I can private message you his contact details.... I am sure other professionals would have a similar technique if you show them my photos? I don't think everyone does it, so be sure to query them properly on the process - we had to sand my floorboards and then he applied the treatment and I was not allowed back in to the apartment for one whole week while it took hold, and then we applied a clear water based coating. I hope this helps you and good luck!!!!!

[elliza88]

Oh yes please that would be amazing to get the professionals contact details! Thank you so very much. I am a few hours out of Sydney but I’m sure someone would travel! Hopefully!! 

[AliMP]

@elliza88 @ did you manage to find out what the acid wash was that was used on the floor of @dorabulldog ? They look so beautiful!

We are in the same situation. I absolutely love the raw colour of the cypress timber now but as soon as the clear varnish goes on (which it has for one section) it is far too orange. I've gone from loving the floors to not! 

[EricL]

Hi @AliMP 

Let me tag @elliza88 to make sure they are aware of your question. I'm curious to know myself if the bleaching process gave the floor a less orange appearance.

Eric

[ezzie]

I too have Cypress Pine and loathe the orange look. I used a waterbased coating last time...looked great for the first few months, but then darkened and produced those typical orange tones. This time after sanding back, I used Feast and Watson Liming White Stain and Varnish. It's been an absolute nightmare! I followed the instructions absolutely, but each time the roller touched previously laid-down coating, it grabbed it causing sticking and clumping. The more you try to even it out, the more blotchy and botched it looks. I sought advice from Feast and Watson who said that humidity is CRITICAL to how it looks. Well, nothing about humidity on the can, why would a reputable company leave such 'critical' advice off the instructions? On speaking to one of their senior experts I discoverd that some of the advice provided on their chat line had been incorrect, which didn't help. On the experts advice as an alternative to sanding the whole lot back again and the extra cost, time and exhaustion that would involve, I tinted the varnish with additional white to hopefully even out some of the dreadful roller marks and clumping. This time I ensured humidity was below 60%, I also put the aircon on in the other room on dry setting to further reduced temp and humidity. Guess what....same issue! Looking at reviews for this product, I'm amazed how many similar disaster stories there are. It obviously has very limited environmental conditions for its application and it's reprehensible to sell this product with sub-par instructions. I'm left in a terrible situation of having to either paint the floor in an opaque white paint and lose the lovely wood grain, or having to sand it back. Physically, I am unable to lift the sanding machine from my car to the house and after all this cannot afford a professional. I sanded the floors myself but the equipment from Bunnings Hire was faulty, both the floor sander and the edger (the staff were great) but it took an additional 4 days of work with a hand-sander I had to buy to minimise the gouges produced by the faulty edger (there wasn't a replacement available). Right now, I have no idea what I'm going to do.

[MitchellMc]

I'm so sorry to hear about your experience, @ezzie, but I'd also like to welcome you to the Bunnings Workshop community; you've come to the right place, and hopefully, we can help you resolve this issue.

I've contacted Feast and Watson and gone over your troubleshooting with them. High humidity certainly plays a factor in drying times, but it doesn't rule out the application of the product. As the label states, when humidity is high, extended dry times are to be expected, so you'd need to wait longer before applying your second coat; it doesn't necessarily explain the blotchiness. 

Regardless of the application of the product, there's still the issue at hand to deal with. I'll reach out via private message for further details so I can connect you with a manager at your store of purchase. They'll be able to discuss what options are available to you moving forward.

Mitchell