Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - Floor stain problem

Hi everyone,

I've posted this over in the hardwood flooring forum, but wanted to try it over here too.

I have just recently sanded and stained our oak floors and wherever I sanded with the edge sander, it will not take the stain like it does where I had the drum sander. It is a completely lighter shade and obviously different.

I've tried to go back over these areas with another coat of stain to darken them and the stain just will not take. I used the same grit, 100, on everything for my final sanding.

Any ideas on how to fix this, or why it's doing this? Any help is very appreciated. I'm sick of how much work I put into this to have it turn out this way.

Duplicate post moved to wood flooring forum.

I don't really know what is causing this, but I sympathize. A lot of work and a result that you can't help but see! Dull sandpaper can burnish a surface more than sharp paper, and then penetrating stain would not take as well as it would on a surface sanded with sharper paper. Also, its possible that some old finish remained in the wood. Even though you used the same grit, did you use the same type of paper, and did you keep it as fresh and sand as much? Perhaps the paper on the edge sander filled up sooner or wore out sooner. Consider resanding the edge after you remove as much of the old stain as possible. Best of luck.

the edger is not nearly as heavy as the belt sander you probably used on the rest of the floor, so the belt sander winds up being a much more aggressive tool. i'd imagine the belt sander got further down into the underlying floor than the edger did. bear in mind that is the poly that was on the floor in the first place it might have been slopped on pretty heavily and thusly pooled up around the edges.

but if the problem is only occurring where you used the edger i'd bet that you just need to be a little more aggressive there.