Varnish vs Stain: The Difference, and Why Wood Often Needs Both

Since 2004 we have sanded and finished floors across London, and one question comes up more than any other. It usually arrives as a single word: varnish.

Almost everyone who contacts us uses it. Almost nobody means the same thing by it. Some want colour. Most want the thing that stops their floor being ruined. So before comparing anything, it is worth separating what people say from what they actually need.

What people mean when they say “varnish”

In about 99 cases out of 100, the person writing to us uses the word varnish. In 99.9 of those, what they want is a finish that will protect their floor. That is a lacquer or an oil.

The word itself is imprecise, and that is nobody’s fault — it is the word on the tin in every DIY shop. Strictly, varnish means a traditional resin-in-oil coating, slow to dry, prone to ambering with age. What goes on a professionally finished floor today is a lacquer — usually a two-component waterborne product — or a hardening oil. Bona Traffic HD, Loba Supra, Pall-X 98 are lacquers, not varnishes, whatever the search box says.

None of that matters to the result. It matters to the conversation, because “I want my floor varnished” and “I want my floor a different colour” are two different jobs, and the second one still needs the first.

The real split: colour and protection are separate jobs

This is the part worth internalising, and it is simpler than the internet makes it.

Colour is optional. Protection is not. A floor with colour and no protective coat is a floor with no protection at all. Whichever route you take to the colour, something has to go over it — a lacquer or an oil.

Three ways colour goes onto a floor

The usual “stain first, then varnish” advice describes one of these and ignores the other two. All three are in normal use.

1. Stains that sit on the wood

Morrells Light Fast Stains are the ones we see most in this category. They are spirit-based and they sit on the surface of the wood rather than soaking into it. Water-based versions exist and behave the same way — on the wood, not in it.

They are chosen for one reason above all: a Morrells stain can be lacquered after about an hour. Set that against the 12 hours to several days a coloured oil needs and, on a job where the customer wants their house back, the difference is a day or two of everyone’s life.

The spirit-based ones are on their way out. They smell, and they are unpleasant and toxic to work with. In Germany this is already law — alcohol-based primers are no longer permitted for indoor use. It is only a matter of time before the same rule reaches the UK, and we would rather move ahead of it than wait to be told.

2. Two-component oils that go into the wood

This is what we use for most coloured floors: Pallmann Pall-X 333 or Bona Craft Oil, available with colour or without. They are two-component systems, which means a hardener is mixed in, and they penetrate the timber rather than lying on top of it.

The colour is carried in the oil, so it goes in with the protection rather than underneath it. That is a genuinely different approach from stain-then-coat, and for floors it is usually the better one.

It is also the step that sets the timetable. Pall-X 333 needs anywhere from 12 hours to several days before it can be lacquered, depending on the timber and the weather. Smoked oak sits at the slow end. Nothing about that wait can be hurried, and it is the main reason a coloured floor takes longer than a clear one.

3. Colour mixed into the finishing oil

Colour can also be added to Pallmann Magic Oil 2K — the oil that does the protecting. Here the pigment arrives with the finish rather than underneath it, in one step.

What we do not do: colour in the lacquer

Pigment can be carried in a lacquer, and some floors are finished that way. We do not work like that.

Our colour goes into the timber or into the oil, never into the clear coat on top. That is a deliberate choice about what happens years later, not a preference about how the floor looks on the day it is finished.

Why that matters in eight years’ time

Because the colour sits in the timber and the lacquer above it is clear, a coloured floor can still be buffed and re-coated. The colour is not in the layer being worked on, so it does not come off with it.

There is a catch, and it is about timing rather than product. A buff and coat is done before the lacquer wears through. The machine only abrades the existing coat lightly, enough for the new one to bond to it — it does not strip the floor back. It is maintenance, not rescue.

Leave it until the finish has actually gone and that option closes. Then it is sanding, and the colour goes with it.

What this means for your floor

If you want the timber to look like better timber — warmer, darker, more even — you are choosing a colour route, and then a protective coat over it.

If you are happy with the wood and want it to survive the next ten years, you do not need colour at all. You need the coat.

Either way the honest answer to “should I varnish or stain my floor?” is that the question contains a false choice. Nobody stains a floor and stops.

What it costs

Rates move with the floor plan, the furniture and the access, so treat these as orientation rather than a quote:

• Around £10/m² — cleaning and applying a maintenance product such as Pallmann Finish Care or Magic Oil Care. Upkeep, not repair.
• Around £20/m² — clean, buff and coat. This works while the existing finish is worn but not gone.
• From £35/m² — full sanding. Once the coating has failed, this is the only route back.
• Colour adds £10–£12/m², and on some floors as much as £25.

Why colour costs more on a small floor

Every coat needs time to dry before the next one goes on, and a coloured oil can need anything from 12 hours to several days before it can be lacquered. That wait is the same number of hours in a small bedroom as in a large reception room — but in the small room there are far fewer square metres to spread it across. The labour does not shrink with the floor.

Furniture does the same thing. If there are pieces to move room by room, a two-day job routinely becomes four days, and the rate per square metre rises to match.

You do not need a site visit for a realistic number

A surprising amount can be worked out before anyone turns up. Send photos, rough measurements and a description of what is on the floor now, and the estimate will be close. The more you can tell us, the more accurate it gets.

The visit confirms rather than discovers: the true condition of the boards, moisture readings, and the handful of other things that can move a price once someone is standing on the floor.

Preparation, briefly

Whatever goes on top, the result is decided before any of it is opened. Sanding grit matters: go too fine before a colour and the timber will not take it evenly. Softwoods and pine are the ones that blotch, and they are exactly the floors people most often want to darken.

This is the step where DIY colour jobs go wrong, and it is not recoverable with another coat. It is recoverable by sanding back and starting again.

If you are not sure which you need

You do not have to work it out before you call. Describe the floor and what you want it to look like, and we will tell you which route gets there. That is a faster conversation than trying to pick the right word first.

Send photos over WhatsApp on 07850 631877 and we will advise on your particular floor.