Expert: Greg Scholl - 5/28/2009

Question
QUESTION: On 7/4/08 we had a flood in our laundry room through the Kitchen into the hall and down to the basement.  It took three weeks for the restoration company to remove the moisture throughout.  On 8/8/08 we had a cabinet restoration person come out to strip and restain our oak cabinets. The cabinets were not affected directly by any water and it was only that we needed other work done that we decided to have the cabinet color updated from a bright but deep butterscotch color to a more golden oak color.  It took him some weeks to strip the cabinets down to bare wood and then stain them to the golden oak color.  I started noticing a couple of weeks ago that the cabinets, outside of the doors only, were turning gray.  In the last two weeks the smokey gray color seems more pronounced.  This could have been happening over time and we just did not notice it like now.  I had the cabinet guy come back out last week and he took off a door handle and it was fine underneath.  Also, the inside of the doors are fine, with no change in stain color.  The cabinets look terrible now and seem to be getting worse by the day.  The man did take a cabinet door with him to see what he can figure out. I have not put any cleaner or chemical on the doors and the area of the cabinets that are not the doors are fine.  Please let me know what you think.  Thank you.

ANSWER: Hi Debby, I would need to know a lot more about the actual products he is using on the cabinets. You say he stained them golden Oak...with what stain?....and then what clear coat is he using over that? What does he say is happening, anything?

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QUESTION: I do not know what stain remover or stain he used but I have attached a picture.

ANSWER: Again, without this information, I can't begin to speculate as to what's going on here, has he offered any theories yet??

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QUESTION: In answer to your question about the products used, the cabinet restorer used Becker Acroma and the finish is conversion varnish.  The stripper was Benco B15.

Answer
I'm not familiar with the Becker Acroma line of products,so this would be an answer he should get from them, most likely. It's possible that there was stripper residue on the wood after stripping, that could be reacting with the stain or finish....or there was some other incompatibility in the finish schedule.....