I’m still in the process of renovating my daughter’s place in France. The last room to be worked on is nearly finished, thanks to my son-in-law who does all the heavy work, pointing stonework, plastering and the like. My job is to look after repairs to the woodwork. Due to problems with damp, and subsequent wet rot, I have had to cut away the ends of the parquet flooring and rip out some of the skirting boards. I’m now in the process of machining the replacement parquet and also have to do some oak trim round the doors and window sill. The skirting boards will have to wait until later.
My problem will be matching the stain on the floorboards, doors and skirting boards. The room was last renovated over 40 years’ ago, possibly longer, by the previous owner. I doubt that modern stains were available at the time and there’s no sign of varnish judging by the dirty marks on the doors where people have handled it (if you try to wash off the dirty marks, this takes off some of the stain). There is also a very slight sheen on the woodwork. This leads me to believe that they were stained with a water based stain such as Van Dyke crystals and then given some form of oil finish. Trying to buy modern stains to match the current colour is a bit problematical so I was thinking about using Van Dyke crystals to get the colour I want and then coating with Osmo. Has anyone got any experience of using Van Dyke crystals and, if so, are there any tips that you can give me? I assume that Osmo will be OK for the finish as it’s oil and not water based.
My problem will be matching the stain on the floorboards, doors and skirting boards. The room was last renovated over 40 years’ ago, possibly longer, by the previous owner. I doubt that modern stains were available at the time and there’s no sign of varnish judging by the dirty marks on the doors where people have handled it (if you try to wash off the dirty marks, this takes off some of the stain). There is also a very slight sheen on the woodwork. This leads me to believe that they were stained with a water based stain such as Van Dyke crystals and then given some form of oil finish. Trying to buy modern stains to match the current colour is a bit problematical so I was thinking about using Van Dyke crystals to get the colour I want and then coating with Osmo. Has anyone got any experience of using Van Dyke crystals and, if so, are there any tips that you can give me? I assume that Osmo will be OK for the finish as it’s oil and not water based.