(means sand or bust!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRMMr6aiKYQ

 

YOU GOTTA SAND OR DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO STAIN

True story.  I saw it with my own two eyes!  The fine folks at Benjamin Moore took me to school and gave me a demo that was completely on point on why you need to sand .   You absolutely have to sand (and sand thoroughly) before applying stain or the natural tannins in the wood, which act like a wax, prevent the stain from soaking in.  Watch and see for yourself!

Q&A with Jordan Strilaiff, Stain Specialist at Benjamin Moore Kelowna

Amy:  Jordan, I love stain. I love the look of it. It's just so classy and timeless. Tell me a little bit about what's trending IN for stains?

Jordan:  What's trending in at the moment is the "weathered wood" look. So, it's got that grey kind of warm tone. It looks like a building that's been out in the sun for 50 years but you don't have to actually go through the trouble of knocking down an old barn to get it!

Amy: Mmmm, it's so nice. It's beautiful, gorgeous, gorgeous color. That weathered look.

Amy: Okay. So, what's trending OUT?

Jordan:  What's trending out, right now, would be the more saturated tones. So, like that espresso tone or the dark ebony black tone where you almost can't see your wood because there's so much color there.

Amy: Color. Cherry as well, maybe?

Jordan:  Cherry as well, yup.

Amy: Those shades are so hard to keep clean. Especially on your floors.

Jordan:  They are, yeah. You see on your cabinets too, every fingerprint. On your floors, you see every scratch. So, a more natural look like this you get a nicer finish for longer.

Amy: So, there's a reason why I don't stain more. I HATE SANDING!!   Like I said, I love the look of stain but I just don't have the patience for sanding. But it's so important to sand and prep.

Jordan :  Oh, it's very important. Basically what happens when you have wood that comes out of the mill or has been sitting in the sun for a few days is all the tannins in the wood come to the surface and they seal off the pores in the wood.

Amy:  Like a wax?

Jordan :  Like a wax.   So, sanding or any other method of mechanically abrading the surface will let your stain penetrate in.  Here is a test I do for my customers to show them how dramatically this affects things. So, you can see on this side here, just the darker color and how it's spreading out, versus on this side here where it's just basically sitting there not doing much.

Amy: There's the why. This is the why you sand, right there.

Jordan : Yeah, exactly.

Amy: It's so crazy how it penetrates in.

Jordan : Exactly

Amy:  You know I'm still not going to do it though, right? I still don't have the patience for it.

Jordan :  Well...

Amy: But I definitely appreciate exactly why you need to do it!!  Thanks for the demo !