This customer came to us looking for a very dark floor to contrast with their light colored walls and we knew that fuming the floor was the perfect solution. Fumed White Oak with White Rubio finish creates a natural weathered gray tone and is hard to achieve with only gray colored oil.
The customer chose planesawn, 4", 5", and 6", select grade, White Oak flooring so that there would be plenty of open grain and to minimize the knots so as not to distract from the floor. After installing the flooring, our crew first applied a tannin reactor to White Oak and which reacts to the tannins found in Oak lumber and produced the dark grey color.
In order to maximize the gray tones over the brown of the original White Oak, our crew next applied White Rubio Monocoat Hard Oil to add a contrast in the grain.
The pigment in the finish filled the open grain of the floor and reversed the effect. Before, the grain was the darkest part of the wood and lent its color to the whole board. Now the white grain is the lightest part of the floor and stands out by brightening the floor.