Prep is everything when it comes to staining a wooden surface. Without diligent and effective preparation, your refinished product is up against obstacles similar dust, wax, existing stain or irregularities in the wood surface. Fight equally you will – if you don't spend a scrap of time making certain the wood surface is clean, your stop result isn't going to live up to expectations.

Strip Pigment Layers

If you're looking to stain a piece with whatever paint residue on its surface, start by using a pigment stripping agent to loosen paint on wood. It'll soak in. It'll bubble. You'll resist all temptation to scratch at it until it'due south fully ready to be removed, and and then you'll use a paint scraper to skin it away from the wood surface. Wipe the surface area clean with a clean cloth. If there's a lilliputian chip of paint remaining, it'll likely come off when you sand the area.

Removing paint from a hardwood surface is a pretty satisfying experience, but it's also essential because you can't stain wood if there are whatsoever bits of paint covering the grain.

Use Wax Removers

Wax is used on many forest surfaces, commonly as a furniture smooth, or a heavier duty floor wax. Formal "wax removers" or "polish removers" exist in stores, only you tin can also endeavour to loosen wax using mineral spirits.

Depending on the condition of the wax, later on applying mineral spirits y'all may be able to remove information technology by wiping it abroad with a make clean, dry out cloth. It's too likely that you lot'll desire to use an agitating scrubber, just be forewarned that it could harm the underlying forest grain. Elbow grease with a cotton rag is safer and more effective for removing wax layers from woods.

Sand the Surface

When y'all're working on a large surface, it's dainty to lean on ability tools for a footling extra muscle. Use a palm sander or a random orbital sander to quickly strip abroad imperfections and previous layers of stain to reveal the underlying natural woods. Work efficiently by starting with a coarse sandpaper in the threescore-100 grit range and gradually switch to finer sandpapers rated closer to 150 dust.

Sanding a wood surface by manus is an option also. If your piece doesn't demand the forcefulness of an electric tool, employ various degrees of fibroid sandpaper to remove stubborn spots and existing stain. Then, work upward towards fine sandpapers to even out the wood surface so that it's taken back to its fully raw, natural wood state.

GettyImages/Jovo Marjanovic

The last stage of refinishing a fine forest piece involves using fine-grit sandpapers (200+ grit) and smoothing out any rough edges to the wood so that it feels and looks uniform. Finishing with a very fine sandpaper by hand is platonic whether you used a sanding machine or prepped the wood by hand.

Tack On

Lastly, before you stain, it's a good idea to use tack cloths to clean every last bit of dust off the prepped woods surface. Tack cloth is a cheesecloth-like piece of fabric that's coated in a layer of viscous adhesive. The "tacky" finish of the cloth is used to capture every final bit of grit that might remain on the surface of your wooden slice. It's an essential last footstep to the sanding and preparation process, which easily leaves dust in random nooks and crannies of the wood. Removing that droppings aids in even stain saturation and results in a blemish-free stained finish.

Now, yous're ready to add together stain!

Picking the Right Stain 01:53

J. Pickens demonstrates how to choose the right stain for whatever project.