How Long To Wait After Water Popping Before Staining

Homeowners and commercial real estate developers love wood's long-lasting beauty. Wood blends in with almost types of décor and is easy to clean and maintain.

It'due south environmentally safe, does not trap grit mites that tin can touch your indoor air quality, and it is comparable in price to other types of floor such as rock, tile, and quality carpet.

However, the natural construction of forest – which looks appealing on the outside – is also what can cause problems from the inside. It all has to do with the relationship between wood and moisture. This is why h2o popping is such a vital, yet risky task when installing forest flooring.

What Is Water Popping?

Also called "grain popping" or "raising the grain", water popping is a process that opens the grain in forest flooring; it involves adding water to the wood before you stain and finish it.

The Science Underlying Wood and Moisture

Wood is a hygroscopic cloth; information technology contains numerous cells that blot h2o. In the tree, these cells fit together in groups of sparse vertical passages like pipes. The jail cell wall contains a small amount of moisture, whereas the "hollow" office of the inner cell has room to hold and release moisture. The purpose of these cells and pipes is to collect and transfer h2o and nutrients from the roots of the tree to other parts.

Later on a tree is cutting down, the green lumber is very moist, so the lumber must exist kiln-stale to remove the excess wet and make information technology fix for manufacturing.

However, the structure of the cells in the forest remains the same as before the tree was cutting. Even long after cutting the tree, the cells in the wood blot and release moisture from the environs. This moisture can be from relative humidity in the air, groundwater or water leaking from faulty plumbing.

As the humidity in a room goes upwardly or down, the wood absorbs or releases moisture. This is a continuous exchange, fifty-fifty after you finish your floor project.

Wood Moisture and Why You Need Water Popping

A wood flooring manufacturer buys kiln-dried lumber and cuts it downward to size. Then, the lumber must be sanded down – ofttimes through several passes. During this procedure, the hardwood goes from being fibroid to becoming fine and extremely smooth.

The sanding process closes the natural grain of the wood and then the wood is no longer porous enough to accept stain. That'due south because the tiny wood particles and sawdust get stuck within some of the pores.

The sanding procedure begins with a fibroid, low grit paper to flatten and clean the wood, then progressively finer grit sandpaper is applied to polish the surface even more than. Finer grits tighten the grain fibers, making the wood denser and less porous and penetrable.

The result is that the stain is not captivated deeply into the wood, and most of the stain will be removed when wiped with a material.

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Benefits of Water Popping

When water is added to the wood before staining it reopens the pores in the grain. It makes hardwood floors porous again so that hardwood flooring can be properly stained and finished.

This process has many benefits.

• Information technology allows the stain to be applied more evenly across the floor
• It raises the wood fibers and then the stain goes deep into the wood for a dainty finish
• It helps create a professional person look and feel without any sanding marks
• It makes the color stand out

It is important to use a precise quantity of water. Too much h2o can oversaturate the wood. This can cause the woods to swell in the short term. In the long term – equally humidity decreases – the wood volition release the excess wet.

In addition, care must be taken to spread the water evenly across the surface of the floor. Uneven water distribution can cause your floor to prove blotchy areas under the stain. If this happens, the but remedy is to re-sand the surface of the woods, which costs fourth dimension and money.

To reduce this run a risk, many flooring professionals apply a "T" bar. A "T" bar is shaped like a broom with a long handle that meets the end piece at a 90-degree angle. The end piece contains a straight-edged slice of rubber, like a window squeegee, that touches the flooring and helps you distribute the h2o evenly.

Some use chemical sprayers to mist the floor with water. Some use a buffer with a soaked carpet pad. Still, others run a wet mop over the floor. Perhaps the most effective way, though time-consuming, is a bucket, a rag and getting downwards on your hands and knees.

No matter which method, information technology is fairly piece of cake to do. This is especially truthful if you have experience with applying h2o-based finishes. The difference is that h2o popping employs clean water without chemicals, whereas finishes often contain substances that tin hurt the forest.

It's best to use purified or sterile h2o, non tap water. Tap h2o can contain excess chlorine and other chemicals that can react with the forest or the stain.

A standard plant watering can be used. Pour a 2-inch line of water, with the direction of the flooring grain. So employ the T-bar to even out the water.

After blanket the whole floor, no affair which method you choose, let it stand and dry on its own for between 2 to iv hours. At that indicate, the floor should be somewhat gritty, with it no longer having a smooth touch to it. This is the effect of the grain in the wood reopening.

Perhaps the nearly of import step in the process is the close examination of the whole floor. You need to make sure the surface of the floor feels the same throughout. An area that is rougher or smoother than other areas may point that you did not apply the water uniformly.

Two Choices for One Outcome

If the surface of the floor is consequent, then the procedure was successful and stain can be applied.

Nonetheless, if the floor surface feels different in spots, then it is necessary to echo the process, or more likely re-sand the flooring. Remember, if re-sanding is required, the water popping process is necessary afterward.

A Deeper Look at the Benefits

Stain More Evenly Across the Flooring

Due to the application of various grits when sanding, the grain throughout the flooring may not be uniform. When water popping is done correctly, the pores are opened throughout the floor, assuasive the stain to be more than evenly applied.

Raises Wood Fibers Promoting Stain Penetration

Water popping causes the cobweb in the forest to stand up upwards, providing greater expanse for the stain to absorb and penetrate deep into the forest. Applying two coats of stain tin can give y'all an even nicer wait.

Sustain a Professional Look and Feel without Any Sanding Marks

Even the best professionals can brand a fault. Sanding woods flooring can leave marks, however small, that are noticeable until later the forest is stained. When the grain is raised from water popping, any sanding marks blend in with the wood fibers, and when stained the marks won't stand up out.

The Wood Floor Stain Appears Darker and Richer

Perchance the thing that stands out the most on a wood floor is the deep rich color. Water popping enables you lot to brand your stain appear darker and richer. Darker and richer floors are noticeable, which many people adore. Be sure to ask to come across the color you select on a sample of h2o-popped wood. Otherwise, the color yous are shown you may not exist what ends upwardly on your flooring.

Risks

Uneven Water

If you cascade uneven amounts of h2o on different sections of the floor, you increase your risk of the wood absorbing various quantities of moisture. This tin cause your floors to break downward in the nigh or distant future, and your stain will look blotchy afterward.

Staining before the Floor is Dry

If you do not allow enough time for the flooring to dry earlier staining the wood, you run the risk of the stain appearing blotchy. Drying fourth dimension can differ past temperature, humidity and air circulation in the room. The lower the temperature, the higher the humidity, or less air circulating, the greater the corporeality of time you lot need for drying.

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Sensitivity to Scuff Marks

In one case the wood has absorbed water it becomes soft and more susceptible to scuff marks. For this reason, y'all should not walk on the floor with whatsoever blazon of hard shoe or kick between the fourth dimension of h2o popping and completing the staining procedure. Instead, wear only socks or slippers with very soft bottoms.

The Event Varies past Forest Type

The outcome from h2o popping can be incredible. You lot tin can have a professional flooring that will last a lifetime. Visitors will commend you for a good job.

Nevertheless, your outcome tin differ not but from the actual procedure only also past the type of forest. Each blazon of wood can differ in the amount of water needed for popping and the length of fourth dimension to dry. Different types of wood also vary in how the color of the stain appears. These are the reasons why you ought to sample a piece of woods to "water popular" earlier committing to buying and installing the whole floor.

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What You lot Need Now – Moisture Measurement

Anyone tin do it, simply not everyone will do it right. To avoid the risks and maximize the benefits from water popping, it'due south best to hire professionals who know how to measure moisture in the wood.

Past looking at relative humidity at diverse places throughout the floor, you can get an accurate glimpse of how the moisture levels in the environment – now and afterwards – will impact the wood.

When the forest contains a low level of moisture that is at equilibrium with the environment and compatible throughout the floor, yous can then seal it and employ the stain. An accurate wood wet meter can help you lot lower or prevent the risks from water popping.

Tony Morgan is a senior technician for Wagner Meters, where he serves on a team for product testing, evolution, and also customer service and training for moisture measurement products. Along with 19 years field feel for a number of electronics companies, Tony holds a B.A. in Management and his AAS in Electronics Technology.

Last updated on June 30th, 2021

Source: https://www.wagnermeters.com/moisture-meters/wood-info/the-pros-and-cons-of-water-popping/

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