Rubio Monocoat Pre-Color Easy

I have some old maple wood floors that I am in the process of sanding and refinishing. I was looking for a stain for maple wood flooring on the internet and came across your website. I would like to learn more about your Rubio Monocoat floor finishes and would like to know if this is a product that I could use on my maple floors.

Thanks.

Hello,
I wonder which Precolour Easy will darken the Natural Oil Finish PINE best into a rich reddish brown: Cashmere Brown or Vintage Brown or even Smoked Brown? I have to match new window frames to existing old frames…
Also, how can I remove fat stains from a floor treated/finished with Rubio Natural Oil Pure?

I live in River Forest, IL.
Thank you,
Mrs. Almut Roberts

Hi,

Have you done any Red Oak floors with the Rubio Precolor Easy yet? Anything to watch out for?

The Rubio rep suggested Precolor “Intense Grey” then “White” or “White 5%” oil to get the Fumed look (he did not recommend fuming red oak as it might turn many boards mildew green). The fumed look is too dark for me though. I am trying to get to that light brown/gray reclaimed wood color so I’m thinking the ‘Mint White’ Precolor might cancel the pink then apply the Biscuit or Havanna Monocoat Oil on top?

There are SO MANY of us out there with 2 1/4″ RED Oak floors that are trying to create the white oak weathered wood look and so little information on how to do this with Rubio (everything is on White Oak). I’m wondering if you’ve done any that have come out successfully?

Thanks!
Angela

I have wasted money on a number of precolor easy stains in the hopes of darkening the wood in the desired color tone before applying the oil plus 2c (which alone is not dark enough). If this company were smarter, they would replicate the stain colors that they have in the oils so customers could darken to their desired shade. Instead, Rubio monocoat provides a whole new set of colors, none of which work with the color tones of the oil 2c colors that I’m using. It’s bad enough that poor quality color swatches on the website look almost nothing like the real life color you get after application.

I also doubt that there is anything proprietary to the precolor stains and it just seems a business ploy to capture their customers’ spending on related products while then overcharging them for small quantities of what they can get elsewhere (locally) for reasonable prices. I would be willing to bet that any alcohol based dye stain would not affect the bonding adherence of the oil plus 2c to the wood base and early experiments seem to be bearing this out.

‘Proprietary’ verbiage rationalizes overcharging for precolor stains at $20+ dollars for 3.4 fl oz (100ml) or $80 for 1 liter. I can’t stand companies that pull this crap.

Hey Tadas,

Any recommendations for staining the interior of a timber framed home, made out of red pine? We are hoping to use Rubio Monocoat stain, our first trial run ended up a little blotchy.
Please help ( :

Shannon

I have 200-year-old wide board PINE floors in my house that I am refinishing. I have been experimenting with Oil Plus 2C. As close to natural/untreated, leaning toward white is the desired finish.

So far I have tried:
1. Pure/Clear: As expected, produces a yellow/amber finish.
2. White: Brings out the red streaks and imperfections in the wood.
3. Natural: This is closest to desired finish, but the tone is somewhat flesh colored.

Now, my thought is to apply one of the white stains (Nordic,Alpaca,Mint) first and then coat with Pure Oil.

Another reason that I am considering this method is that I have varied gaps between the boards and when I used the White or Natural Oil, the pigment would spill into the gaps. With the Precolor dye, I could apply with more care using a brush.

What are your thoughts on that?

I have made several slab tables and used Rubio monocoat and love this product , this time I have a walnut slab that my wife wants me to try adding or creating grey and black in it rather than the natural browns ? Does anyone have any input on this of what to use ??

Please help! I love the Rubio product but am having a hard time getting a medium toned brown/gray. I have white oak flooring. I like the light to medium reclaimed look. I’ve tried mizing different oils. And tried some precolor. Don’t know what I’m doing wrong. Thank you!

Hi Tadas would love some advice from your expertise. I have already applied PCE and RMC oil on top without the 2C. Unfortunately I was told by the shop I bought the product from that I could apply PCE like a paint, very heavy with multiple coats to match by prefinished hardwood. Now that 30 days have gone by the finish is still susceptible to water and can smudge it if I rub it a bit with my thumb. I believe this is due to the excessive PCE. I am thinking that I will need to use a oil based topcoat (water based would remove the PCE) to seal in the application and make it durable. (I quite like the finish I achieved so I don’t want to redo) Any suggestions on product and application? Obviously based on using RMC I am looking for something very low VOC. Thanks for any help!

Hey,
You say you water pop all of your rubio monocoat floors and that it makes the finish “stronger”. In what ways does it make the finish stronger? Have you tested samples next to each other with the only difference being the water popping?

Thanks,
Zach

Hi Tadas

I am looking to treat ash wood with 5% mist…we have tried many variations of the Monocoat produsts. 1) Smoke seemed to have little impact on the ash but did raise the grain – one dealer told me that the smoke is really for white oak, 2)PCE products did not seem the color evenly as the ash has spots that do no absorb the color and the colors never matched the picture (got tried of buying samples).

So we think the water popping with the 5% mist will give us a nice finish…do we need to water pop and use the red buffering pad (does the red pad not open up the grain?) How long should we wait after water popping to apply oil?

Thanks for your help…

Hello! Love you site and all the great info! I am having hardwood floors put in the bedrooms of my home and I want to use the Rubio Monocoat but i need it to match or flow with the existing floors throughout the home that are traditionally stained dark walnut oil. Any advice on what Rubio color combo will match or at least transition/flow from the existing floors? Thanks!!

Hi Tadas,

Love your blog!

We have 4″ wide, flat sawn red oak floors. They are currently coated with RMC Vanilla, which we’ve gotten tired of. There’s kind of an orange undertone to the Vanilla that we should have anticipated but didn’t.

We’d like to accomplish three things with our next RMC floor: (1) quiet the grain of the red oak as much as possible and have an even color and tone across the floor; (2) eliminate as much of the pink undertones in the red oak as we can; (3) keep the floors very light but also natural, i.e., I don’t want them to look like they have white highlights. If I were building our house from scratch, I’d install rift sawn white oak floors, but alas, that’s not an option.

I’m getting ready to order a bunch of samples to try out but interested in your thoughts. I was thinking about trying one of the lighter precolors (Alpaca White, Nordic White or Mint White) followed by a lighter 2C color (Natural, Mist 5%, Corn Silk, DC Smoke or Smoke). What do you think? Would using the Smoke effect after the precolor and before the 2C help?

Thanks in advance!

Michael

Hello,

We have some exposed, unfinished Douglas Fir beams in our house. These are just rough lumber needed for structural reasons. Everything else in our house is a light natural Color. These beams stand out due to the natural orangish red of the wood. What’s the best way to get the Red/Orange? We want them as light as possible almost like they’ve been bleached. I’ve tried the white, smoke and mist stains, but they still looked red, just with a white or grey film on them. What would you suggest? Should I precolor?

Hi- I have a maple wood slab that I am turning into a table. Do you have any recommendations?

I’m looking for some input on getting red oak stained a very dark brown/grey that doesn’t pull red hues. In your experience, is there a reasonable way to achieve this on red oak using the Monocoat system? Is using white oak going to be the better choice for achieving a color like this?

Hi! Have quite a problem on my hands. Ordered red oak parquet to match existing red oak parquet. Vendor sent white oak, and I didn’t notice until it was already installed and we started sanding it all. Now I need to try to get them to match as much as possible, while staying with as light a color as I can (ideally they’d match the white/red oak stairs we did in 5% Mist). Any suggestions? The red oak is quite pink:(

Hi, really hoping you can help us — we thought we’d done some pretty thorough research on our latest Rubio project (we went with Bourbon for about 1500 sq ft of flooring). It turns out our existing flooring was white oak when we thought it was red. The new flooring we used to replace really damaged boards and for the kitchen — which is now open to the dining room — are red oak. We’ve finished the floors with one coat of Bourbon Oil Plus 2C last night. Results were what you would probably expect – not ok.

Rubio suggested re-sanding the red oak and applying Pre-color Easy in one of the browns, then reapplying the Bourbon, but it was very informally via chat. We’ve got plenty of Bourbon left.

I’m also considering just selecting a color that looks similar to Bourbon on White Oak and applying that to the red oak, but wanted to ask an expert who understands how the colors work and how to neutralize the red oak characteristics. On my computer, it looks like Olive, Savanna or Havana may be the best. Please let us know your thoughts. I’m surprised I couldn’t find an example of this scenario online, but maybe nobody makes this kind of mistake but us? Thank you so much in advance!!

Rebekah

What pre color and oil +2c combo do you think would give German beech wood a dark chocolate finish?

I am sorry, I am very much a novice. My father and I are building a dining room table. We haven’t purchased the wood yet but I think we are going to use a white oak. I really like the way the grain is highlighted on the floors above in a light tone. Can that be done with one pre-color and one 2c?

I like the color of charcoal 2c but I’d like a little more grey to it. I may just stick to that since we are beginners. Still I thought I would ask.

Okay so if I want the look of that gorgeous video you posted for Angela above for red oak what I need to do is use just the Fumed first. Then just the super white over that after? Those are the only products I need to buy? Thanks so much.

Hi Tadas!

I’ve just come across your video. I am looking to achieve a black kitchen with rift wood veneer. The black on the oak looks too dark like a chalk board . My kitchen maker said I can have black or brown. Looking at your post it seems like I can have an off black? Or black brown? How would you achieve an off black and also a black brown for a contemporay rift wood veneer please then I can do the samples myself and show him :)) thanks Donna

Hi! We just bought anew house with Brazilian cherry aka Jatoba. We are currently in the process of trying to figure out which stains we’d like to use.
We’d like to somewhat kill the red, so we’re willing to go very dark, however, my partner has made it very clear that they are not looking to making the floor black.

While they have not worked with Rubio Monocoat on Brazilian cherry, they did mention that the wood is very dense and that water popping Brazilian cherry is not ideal because it’s supposedly an oily wood. Can I ask what your thoughts are on that?

To kill the red a bit, should we just use a percentage of Intense Black? Does that mean diluting it with water? Or should we do a mix of a brown stain with Intense Black? Any suggestions on mixes or colour?

We’re not entirely sure about which colour for the Finishing Oil. What are your thoughts on which colour?

Hi,
I’ve enjoyed reading your tips. Do you have one that might help me? I’ve used various Rubio Monocoat products on beautiful woods where I really wanted them to look natural (sapele, cherry, walnut, maple, etc.). Now I’m doing a simple red oak floor. I’ve tested many Rubio combinations and plan to use Pre-Aging #5 with Cinnamon Brown Oil plus 2c to match an existing upstairs floor. My question is this: is there a way to prep the wood that will help minimize the grain? Before discovering Rubio Monocoat I used aniline dye under stain to get a more uniform look on red oak. In my color tests with the Rubio products the color is perfect but the grain is accentuated.
Any sanding or pre-treating tips or ideas?
Thanks!

I have some French white oak that I used a combination of Pure and 5% white a couple of years ago. I’m trying to match the color with some new unfinished French white oak flooring but the new wood is quite a bit lighter and leans towards a more peachy tone whereas the older wood leans towards green. I’m trying to figure out if I should use precolor (vintage brown or cashmere brown) or pre-age (authentic #4) then finish it off with Natural maybe a tinge of Pure. Which do you think is the better way to go Precolor or PreAge?

Thanks!

Hello Tadas,

We are interested in trying a few precolors with oil 2C on a 100 yr old door. Since different woods react differently and we don’t have samples other than the door itself, how easy is it to remove a test precolor in a small areas once we choose the final? Is it similar to Oil 2C itself, that is fairly light sanding could take off the color?

Thanks for sharing your experience and expertise with us.

Can the Rubio wax be applied over a red oak hardwood floor that was stained with Minwax Oil semi transparent color Jacobean (Dark Brown)?
Looking to cut down on fumes/smell, add an aged look to the floor with more of a flat mat finish, no gloss or yellowing, more environmentally friendly. DIY’ing ourselves would like to not have to rent a buffer if this is possible. Room size is 12 by 20. Any suggestions?

Hello,

I purchased a few samples of the pre-color for my knotty pine kitchen cabinets. I liked the mint white color. I wanted to keep the cabinets the lightest shade of brown that is possible. What options would you suggest for the 2c color?

Our solid poplar doors and trim still have orange undertones. Is there a Rubio product we can apply for a richer brown color? Do we have to strip the finish before applying if there is?

I’m sanding and re-staining a knotty pine paneling wall. I’ve mixed Antique Beige and Cashmere Brown Precolor Easy to create a soft taupe color. However, it’s just a tad too plum (purple). I have several questions:
1) Do you have any suggestions for an Oil Plus 2C color to help tone down the purple without making the stain any darker?
2) Is there a clear 2C color that doesn’t change the Precolor color at all?
3) If there isn’t a clear 2C color then can Precolor Easy be topcoated with another water-based polyurethane?
Thanks for your advice, and great site.

I’m refinishing an old red oak dining table and am looking for suggestions on Rubio Monocoat colors. I’d like a medium brown table, similar to the pre color easy cashmere brown that is shown on their website on white oak. I can’t find a red oak sample. I would also like to hide the grain in the table as much as possible. Do you have any suggestions on how to achieve that?

Hi Tadas

I’m not sure if you have dealt with this yet in another post. I have a surface that I had sanded to 180. We have gone the route of Pre-Color Intense Black followed by a Charcoal oil 2c. I didn’t realize till after the Rubio Oil 2c that the water based pre-color had popped my wood a bit more than we wanted. I believe I had read on another blog that the pre-color can be applied on top of the Rubio oil 2c to add some darker color. I think it has to be followed by a sealer of some sort I’m sure like a Rubio Nano3 product but I may not have that all right.

Can I run a light pass over the surface with say a 340 grit or higher just to knock down the popped grain a bit then run a light pass over with the Pre-color to re-color any of the newly exposed grain then seal with the Nano3 ?
or is there a better way to do this?

We are about to refinish a Brazilian cherry floor in a restaurant. I did these floors just three years ago with Bona traffic water-based polyurethane, and they just have not held up well. Would an oil finish like Rubio, or magic oil work on Brazilian cherry? And will it hold up better under commercial traffic than the Bona traffic did?