Tips
Bleached or White Floors
Style, Maintenance, Common Complaints
Bleached or white/pastel-stained hardwood floors you may see today in a dealer or designer showroom look beautiful and very contemporary. But be forewarned. Their attractiveness could be fleeting and cause you problems you won’t experience with a natural or dark-stained hardwood floor.
Several problems have been noted with bleached and white/pastel hardwood floors, the principal one being the appearance of cracks between the flooring boards or parquet units. This is not a fault of the flooring or how it was finished. Hardwood flooring is a product of nature and as such expands or contracts with changes in humidity levels. This happens with all hardwood flooring with the cracks appearing in dry seasons or periods of long heat use. They usually disappear when the air is more humid and the flooring expands. But the cracks are a lot more noticeable with light-toned floors.
Most complaints on bleached and white/pastel toned floors are related to cracks.
Another problem is color. Bleaching out the natural wood tone is somewhat chancy in achieving the exact hue desired. It also sometimes interferes with adhesion of the surface finish which is usually a urethane material. In addition, bleaching can soften the surface of flooring.
Use of white or pastel stains is the other method of creating a light-colored floor. But stains on wood do not always produce the same color as you’ll see on the color card or in the can. Natural variations of wood grain and texture do not accept the stain uniformly. This shows up more prominently and may interfere with the desired look. Because of the greater labor and time required of a finishing operation, contractors usually charge considerably more if a light - colored finish is specified. A few contractors are even refusing to accept such jobs, and others include in their contract a waiver as to responsibility for the final appearance of the floor.
Maintenance is another consideration. Dirt is a floor’s worst enemy and it shows up more on a lightcolored hardwood floor just as it does on light vinyl and carpet. More frequent cleaning is required, as well as enhanced efforts to keep dirt from getting inside the house through use of dirt-trapping mats at entrance doors. Runners and throw rugs may be needed in high traffic areas because light finishes show wear much sooner than other finishes.
But even with all these drawbacks, bleached and white-stained floors are here to stay. The airy, contemporary appearance provides an attractive background for Oriental and colorful area rugs, as well as most furniture styles.
So, if you want a light-colored hardwood floor, here are some things to do and remember:
- First have a competent professional install and finish it; see a job he has done or a demonstration panel;
- Be prepared to make compromises like living with tiny cracks at some seasons or having the finish turn a slightly different color -- usually a light amber or grayish tone -- with age;
- Follow a regular maintenance program designed to keep floors clean;
- Don’t rush your floor finisher -- it may take as long as 10 days to achieve a good light-finished floor because of the extra drying time the materials used require, and that’s several days longer than it takes for a natural or dark-stained finish.
On the up-side, however, is the fact that with most hardwood floors you can always change their appearance. If you get tired of the color, call a professional to sand the finish down to bare wood and apply a new finish in the color of your choice. That’s something you can’t do with carpet, vinyl or any other floor covering.
