Wood Floor Colour Change Over Time

Natural Products such as Hardwood Flooring may change colour over time, which is completely normal. It comes as result of direct light exposure or naturally occurring oxidation reactions in wood. The shift in tones and colours of hardwoods is often described in terms of colourfastness. The prefinished wooden flooring may contain “UV blockers”, but these do not eliminate colour variability, they merely limit the degree of colour change. Since the change of colour is inevitable, you should be aware of the following:

• Limiting the exposure to sun light whenever is possible and use of curtains or plastic film designed to limit the harmful light will reduce the colour change.
  Your hardwood floor under the furniture or rug may result in colour differences with the remaining parts of your floor but it will eventually catch up with the rest of the floor once that area is exposed to light.
• Dark prefinished flooring shows significantly less colour change.
• “Colour match” is slightly biased term, because you cannot have two wood pieces with identical characteristics and density, which will result in colour variations during staining process. In order to avoid disappointment it is always better ordering samples before selecting the particular finish for you project.
• The sapwood and heartwood of most wood species age at different rates.