What's under the rug?

Mikey P

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My brother who works for Coit, called me today to see if I've been seeing a new trend in wood floor fading under rugs. Normally the wood being covered is darker than that that is exposed, but he seen a number of solid and engeneerd woods showing up LIGHTER than that what is exposed....?

He's pretty certain it's not just soil residue due to how even and into corners and under legged furniture the darkness is..


thoughts?
 
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SamIam

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I’ve seen some latex backed rugs lighten carpet so it’s probabal.

Office matt’s with off gassing can discolor carpets too!
 
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DAT

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I see it all the time. Never tried cleaning Harwood to see if it soiled or not in area cover by rugs.
 

steve_64

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The coatings on manufactured hardwood suck. There is a lot going on with them and the only way to fix them is to remove the old finish and reapply a new one.

Let it go.
 

Hack Attack

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I've got a top spec engineered wood floor I do once a week in a retail showroom, they are crap unfortunately. 1 of my uncles sells them they're still crap
 

Nomad74

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And....?

If i were to see that situation, my personality would demand that I find an answer..
How do you find an answer for off gassing and UV reactions? I just explain it as that. I've also noticed this with urethane finishes. It sucks when it happens, but nothing I can do for them unless they take me shopping with them when picking out flooring. Maybe CTI can come out with a product like Dinge Away and call it Off-Gassing Away.

LVP may be the next wave but it still shows the mills are constantly cutting corners for the sake of the bottom line. Are we as consumers partly to blame? Always attracted to the lower priced items and services? I'm not really one to lecture, I'm using JB Weld on the innards of a V6.
 
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steve_64

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How do you find an answer for off gassing and UV reactions? I just explain it as that. I've also noticed this with urethane finishes. It sucks when it happens, but nothing I can do for them unless they take me shopping with them when picking out flooring. Maybe CTI can come out with a product like Dinge Away and call it Off-Gassing Away.

LVP may be the next wave but it still shows the mills are constantly cutting corners for the sake of the bottom line. Are we as consumers partly to blame? Always attracted to the lower priced items and services? I'm not really one to lecture, I'm using JB Weld on the innards of a V6.
I used a propane torch to melt jb weld into a cracked block on a Chevy 400 sb. Never had problems after that. Just make sure you seal it all up and it works great.
 
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My brother who works for Coit, called me today to see if I've been seeing a new trend in wood floor fading under rugs. Normally the wood being covered is darker than that that is exposed, but he seen a number of solid and engeneerd woods showing up LIGHTER than that what is exposed....?

He's pretty certain it's not just soil residue due to how even and into corners and under legged furniture the darkness is..


thoughts?
My question would be, I’d it just on rugs that are synthetic, or under wool rugs aswell? Is he finding it under man made furniture? Or under unstained, natural wood table legs? I have a feeling that it is caused by off gassing by man made materials. Either the lack of air circulation, lack of air-roughly 20% oxygen, 78% nitrogen, and/or off gassing causing a chemical reaction between the two surfaces. Just a guess.
 
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Mike, so-called Brazilian Cherry reacts to light by darkening. The difference can be dramatic. Perhaps you are seeing a similar species or perhaps the finish is darkening.
I guess that would be it ‘weathering ‘.... it’s got to have something to do with the air. Or in Mikes brothers case, being covered by a surface (area rug, table leg etc), not allowing the air to get to it?
 

clean image

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We provide some punch out stone work, they had there wood floors protected with 3 foot wide paper, and when pulled up it was all lighter under the paper. They said it would all blend once exposed
 

jcooper

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My brother who works for Coit, called me today to see if I've been seeing a new trend in wood floor fading under rugs. Normally the wood being covered is darker than that that is exposed, but he seen a number of solid and engeneerd woods showing up LIGHTER than that what is exposed....?

I generally see the opposite, Under the rug is closer to the correct/original color. When I do see it, most often caused by a large window/windows. For us/me it's not a bleaching, but a darkening, probably of the polyurethane.
 
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J Scott W

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Depending upon the species of wood, sunlight (actually UV exposure) can either darken or lighten wood. Some of the South American and Asian species do get darker in sunlight.

This change happens at different rates for different species. Usually removing the rug and letting everything get the sunlight will even things out after a few months, sooner for some species.
 

sweendogg

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Several guys already mentioned it, but its UV light Exposure and it as Scott said, some will darken with light exposure and some will lighten. Doesn't have to be sunlight, normal lighting can emit enough uv to cause a shift. Especially when furniture and rugs create a perfect barrier to the light exposure. In extreme cases a sanding or refinishing is in order which can be problematic if its an engineered wood with less than an 1/8 inch of hardwood veneer.

I imagine that with more and more companies getting into Engineered at the lower price points that we will see issues with glue off gassing also causing issues with the thinner top layers. Engineered products where originally designed to be more stable at higher moisture prone areas such as over concrete slabs or in basements. They are also more stable with wider widths than traditional solid hardwood flooring but with a top layer of 1/4 wood or more and at price points that matched or were even higher than traditional solid hardwoods. Now its being used to give the effect of a hardwood floor but a cheaper price.
 

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