Splotches in the stain

[BigguyZ]

This could also be in home improvement, but I thought I may get more eyeballs in this section. Anyway, it's applicable to furniture as well.

We've finished installing the oak trim in my brother's house, and now we're ready for the stain. This is trim, and the carpenter used plenty of nails and stainable filler. The trim was sanded with a ROS, to 120 grit. Today when we started staining you can clearly see splotches around the nail locations.

How can we fix this? It's a big house with a lot of trim, so we'd prefer to not have to re-sand the entire thing. So if there's a way to get an even finish without that, it would be highly appreciated. Would conditioner resolve this? In 7 houses we've never had to use it to get an even finish.. What about a lighter shade?

I'll post a picture as soon as I get to a computer.

Thanks!
Travis

[cork58]

Stop by your local big box and pick up some DeWaxed Sanding Sealer. Its really nothing more than shellac but will work just fine. It dries rather quickly and will seal off anything that is causing you trouble. The nail sealer he used probably has some sort of silicone or wax in it. Of-course try it on a few holes first before doing all the trim. I actually make my own to different cuts for different reasons.

[cabinetman]

Using 120x on a ROS is a bit too coarse, and will cause the stain to show darker. The random action sands cross grain in its random orbits. I would use 180x by hand and sand with the grain. Try that for starters on a small section. If that don't work...we'll go to plan B.

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[sweensdv]

I've used Zinsser Universal Sanding Sealer with good results. I think it's the same kind of stuff that cork58 was suggesting.

[woodturner]

Today when we started staining you can clearly see splotches around the nail locations.

Sounds like the filler they used is not taking stain the same as the wood, which is to be expected.

You could replace the filler with a mix of sawdust and shellac, which will take stain the same as the wood, more or less. That would be a lot of work, though.

The shellac sealer cork58 suggested is a good solution, if the staining is not already done. If the staining is already done, your best bet may be to either bleach the spots (if darker) or touch them up with a paintbrush and artist's oils (if lighter).

Resanding is unlikely to help - if the sanding were the problem, you would see scratches and larger splotches rather than the spots over the nail heads it sounds like you are seeing.

[BigguyZ]

Thanks for all of the replies. It's definitely with the filler.

We tried a few different options/ methods on the baseboards, and found the best solution. First, we went to Rockler, and they reccomended that we use General Finishes Pre-Stain conditioner. That produced better results, but there was still some splotchiness around the nail holes. Then, we tried the Zinser sanding sealer. That produced a MUCH lighter color, and you could see the splotches more than you could with the conditioner.

Ultimately, it came down to sanding the wood with 50/ 120 again, to really clean it up as much as we could. Then we used the General Finishes conditioner, and then we stained. That gave us a good color, and we can't see the splotches anymore.

I'll send pics of everything later tonight.