Hardwood Floor Staining and Color Change
Changing the color of a hardwood floor belongs to a full refinish, because the sources tie a color change to sanding back to bare wood. This page covers what they say about stain, sheen and how different woods take color, and what national cost guides add for staining. Color choices are a matter of taste. No source read for this site ranks colors by popularity, so this page does not.
When the color can change
The National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) says sanding a floor back to raw wood is the opportunity to change the color of the floor (NWFA, Refinishing Your Floors, as of 2026). Bona says refinishing, which completely removes the existing finish, can be used to change the color of a floor, while recoating puts a new coat over the existing finish (Bona, as of 2026). A floor that is only recoated keeps the color it has. The floor sanding page covers the sanding that comes first, and the hardwood floor refinishing page covers the sequence around it.
What stain does
NWFA says stains can tone or change the natural color of wood (NWFA, Finishes, as of 2026). The USDA Forest Products Laboratory's Wood Handbook (2021 edition, chapter 16) explains that stains accentuate the wood grain by absorbing differently into the earlywood, the latewood, knots and vessels. It says a penetrating sealer, sometimes called a wash coat, is sometimes applied before the stain to even out the color. If a stain absorbs unevenly and looks blotchy, the Handbook says the cause might be infection of the lumber by blue-stain fungi or bacteria before it was dried, and that this is not very common (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, Wood Handbook, 2021).
How different woods take stain
A 1980 wood-floor publication from Purdue and the Forest Products Laboratory says open-grained woods such as oak, ash, pecan and walnut take stain easily, while close-grained woods such as maple, and to a lesser extent birch and beech, take stain much more slowly. It says softwoods do not stain well, and that stains may fade with continued exposure to bright light (USDA Forest Products Laboratory, 1980). Those are principles from 1980, and neither publication ranks species by how likely they are to blotch, so this page does not either. The hardwood species guide sets the same principle beside hardness figures.
One product note concerns oak. Minwax's data sheet for its water-based floor finish says that on unstained white oak a sanding sealer should go on first to prevent a possible tannin reaction, which is a discoloration, and it says not to use steel wool (Minwax data sheet, undated, read in 2026). The Wood Handbook adds that iron reacts with the tannins in woods such as oak to leave black stains, that steel wool can be a source of the iron, and that iron stain is primarily a problem in outdoor environments (Wood Handbook, 2021).
The finish over the color
The finish changes how a color looks. NWFA describes water-based finishes as normally clear and oil-based finishes as amber in color. The data sheets qualify that for individual products: Minwax says its water-based floor finish provides a slight amber tone, and that its oil-based floor finish may show slight ambering over light-colored surfaces (Minwax data sheets, 2026). So "clear" cannot be assumed for every water-based product. Water-based vs oil-based finish compares the two classes.
Sheen
NWFA describes four sheen levels: gloss, which has the most shine, then semi-gloss, then satin, and matte, which has the least. It says the less sheen a finish has, the less small scratches and other normal wear will be noticed (NWFA, Finishes, as of 2026). Sheen is chosen separately from color, and it changes how both the color and the wear look.
Lightening or darkening a floor
No source read for this site says how light or how dark a particular floor can be taken. NWFA and Bona tie a color change to sanding to bare wood, and the 1980 and 2021 publications describe how wood absorbs stain. Beyond that, how far a given floor can change is a question for whoever prepares the quote, after seeing the floor.
What staining adds to a quote
Both of the national cost guides that give a figure treat staining as an extra. Angi (updated August 3, 2026) says staining adds $1-$3 per square foot. HomeGuide (as of 2026) lists refinishing at $2-$7 per square foot without staining and $3-$8 with it. The guides differ, and neither figure is a Cedar Rapids price or what any contractor charges. What refinishing costs sets them side by side with the other guides.
Questions worth asking about color
- Will the floor be sanded to bare wood, so that the color can change?
- Which species is the floor, and what stain behavior does the quote assume?
- Will a sealer or wash coat go on before the stain?
- Which finish goes over the stain, and does it add its own tone?
- Which sheen is proposed?