Stain problems

Dan Cook

Member
Messages
5
Hi all,

We just had new windows installed throughout the house.
Outside they look great. The inside trim has been another issue entirely. We wanted stain to match everything else we've stained in the house, and my wife was looking
at the stain outside before it was put up and she didn't like the color. I called the contractor (who has done a great job thus far - also new siding which looks great) and said NOT to put the trim up until we get the color figured out. Well, he went ahead and put it up. I have no
idea why. (My wife was at work and I was out of town.) So now we have a house full of trim - half of it stained,
half not yet stained. Problem is, the stain doesn't match the other wood we have in the house, and we were very clear that was what we wanted. We told him several times. He used the stain that we used on the other wood - Minwax Golden Pecan - like we asked, but it does not look even close to the other wood. The trim is way too red and pale, and not dark enough or yellow/golden enough. And we're pretty sure the reason is that he used white pine as opposed to yellow pine which we've always used. If he'd listened when I left him the message saying NOT to put it up
yet and to hold off, we wouldn't be in this situation.
We'd ask him to take the white pine back and get yellow. But now it's up all over the house. While we never specified yellow pine over white (we didn't know the difference until quite recently!), we did specify what we wanted it to look like, and he could have easily seen that
what he put up doesn't match. I'm talking 18 windows here, as well as some very good carpentry work to build some of the windows out. This would all have to come down.

I read a couple articles online that said if you coat white pine with ammonia it takes on many of the traits of yellow pine. Perhaps this could solve the problem easily. We're going to test this tomorrow.

Any other ideas? We've tried some mixing of stains, but nothing has worked. Any chance the varnish could fix everything? We've tried varnish (both oil and water-based) on some extra boards and it didn't make much difference. But we used a clear varnish like we always do.

Could a colored varnish or a gel stain fix this?

Anyway, if you have any thoughts, I'd appreciate it!

Dan
 
well i saw the stain problems and thought maybe i could help but after reading your dilema i am not so sure but welcome to the forum,, we have alot good folk here and some are very good in the finishing field.. i myself have never seen yellow pine trim. white pine and popular but not yellow pine.. isnt it real griany and yellow with red grain lines.. very prominent grain.. i would say the contractor should help you out in this.. you can tint the final top coat and should be able to mix together some stains to get there.. another choice would be some dye, which i would suggest you check out "homestead finishing forum" and ask jeff threw email..he is a wizard at matching color.
 
Thanks, Larry. I posted over at the finishing school forum. There's got to be a way to get this to work. We've stained so much pine and it's always looked great. I really think the problem is that we always use yellow pine.
 
Thanks again, Larry. I have pictures of the previously stained wood that we like and the newly stained wood that we don't like if anyone thinks seeing them would help. Both are stained with Minwax Golden Pecan, but the wood we've done in the past is much more golden in color.
 
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