ammonia treatment floors

Ammonia fuming is a wood finishing process that darkens wood and brings out the grain pattern. It consists of exposing the wood to fumes from a strong aqueous solution of ammonium hydroxide which reacts with the tannins in the wood. The process works best on white oak because of the high tannin content of this wood. Fumed oak is also called smoked oak. Other species may also be fumed, but usually will not darken as much as white oak.

Fuming or smoking involves putting the oak into an enclosed environment in which ammonia is introduced into the atmosphere. The effect of the ammonia in the air is that the colour of the wood is changed. It is a common mistake that fuming or smoking oak involves the application of the ammonia to the oak, but this is not the case. The change in colour comes about from the wood’s reaction to the presence of ammonia in the atmosphere. Effectively what happens is that the ammonia causes the tannins in the wood to be brought to the surface. The closer the tannins are to the surface, the darker the wood will appear. The longer the wood is exposed to the ammonia, the darker it becomes. The results obtained from fuming or smoking will range from a rich brown colour to almost black. Do you like ammonia treatment engineered flooring ?