aggietexan, if you send me pictures to my email address, I can set them up in one of the two photo sites I belong to that I have not used in a long time. I would add pictures and send the link here and clicking the link would allow the pictures to show. I do not know how to place pictures inside a post but I do know how to do links. I would love to see pictures. Just click my lynn2006 page and you will see a link to click my email. I am glad you are happy with your new floors. Do they have some red in them? I would love to see some close up of the knots since maybe they are tiny and will not bother me. I do love the pics of the Amendoim floors on the BR-111 website. How long have you had the floors? What color change can you see if you have a carpet on the floor?

While remodeling, ran out of hardwood flooring. Purchased cheap untreated flooring & tried to match paint to no avail. Called Hosking to get pricing on hardwood I needed. Sales rep gave price quote & explained since I didn't purchase my previous flooring from them, might be slight color variation. I understood as I knew it wasn't from same "paint batch." She told me to check on invoice that hardwood brand, color, size is correct & then respond acknowledging there’s no returns. Got invoice emailed which stated description of my order, “LAUZON (brand) SOLID MAPLE (wood type) TRAVERTINE (color)” & confirmed. Two weeks later I opened box to see different size, wood type, & colored flooring. Enclosed shipping package shows these are not Lauzon. It looked the same as my initial failed attempt. Called Hosking about the MISTAKE but was told that since Lauzon is so EXPENSIVE, they use CHEAPER 3rd party lumber molding company that uses GENERIC hardwood & ATTEMPTS to paint match. I asked “Why wasn’t I told this BEFORE?” Rep responds “I don’t know what I may or may not have said…” I ASKED for Lauzon, PAID for Lauzon, I should be GETTING Lauzon. Why would I agree to pay for GENERIC, SUBSTITUTED product & be charged same price as the authentic? She was unapologetic & connects me to the owner. He doesn’t answer & unsurprisingly doesn’t return my voice message. I was willing to return INACCURATE order & have correct one sent. Now its been a month so had to resort to disputing charge & informing others about this UNSCRUPULOUS company & their blatant BAIT & SWITCH. I had to order again from QUALITY FLOORING 4 LESS, paid same price & got correct item. Would you buy a FAKE Rolex that is the same cost as the real one? If your answer is no, then AVOID ordering from Hosking!!! The pics of the invoice of what I expected, the packing slip of what came, and image of Lauzon Solid Maple Travertine & the "generic":

I've dealt with 30 year old engineered floors with the original finish, and a couple of screening and topcoating over it. If you take care of floors and don't let kids play roller hockey indoors, you too will never need to do a sand and refinish. The idea of "refinishing" as a criteria for choosing your floors is not really a valid concern. Choose a quality major brand, and you won't have any worries. No LL or box store crapola. $5-6 a square foot and up is where the good stuff starts. Under that, you can get some OK buys, but you're generally gonna have to do a lot more homework to make sure. So, what does "taking care of your floors" entail? Vacuuming a couple of times a week. Not allowing food and drink outside of the kitchen. Using rugs at all entries to capture the dirt from outside. Being a no shoes indoor household helps a lot too, but I'm not going to get into that classic arguement. Don't mop your floors. You can damp clean them, but people get all hung up over sloshing water on top of wood, and that's just a comple no no. Use something like a Bona cleaner a couple of times a month, max. Every other type of cleaning should be spot cleaning. But with food and drink confined to the appropriate spot, spills are minimized. Abrasion from debris is minimized by rugs that you frequently clean. And in 8-12 years, you do a refresher of a screening and recoating. You don't need to sand down to bare wood at all. Unless you don't do the above and wear through to bare wood.

I just wanted to chime in to 2nd what pharaoh said. The guy who did my floors told me the same thing about all coats being gloss and only the final coat is the desired finish. My finish came out perfect. I think everyone overreacted after the first coat. Which probably says your floor contractor isn't very experienced. That first coat will always be flawed because it can't possibly provide complete coverage. That's because your floor is not perfectly flat. With each coat, the layers build and everything starts to even out. To really see the final finish they should have did the whole process on a board. That's what my guy did. He took a board and applied the three coats, including the sanding between coats. That's the only way to get a feel for what the end result would be like. For you, it's not too late. Take a step back and experiment with several scraps starting with two coats of gloss on each. Then apply the various mixes for the final finish to determine your desired mix. Then just sand the floor (no need to strip it), apply the gloss to repair the base layer and finish with the top. You'll basically end up with four coats but it'll be fine. I had my upstairs done by a different guy (because he was cheaper and as a favor to my MIL because he was a "friend") and he screwed up the finish. I ended up hiring the first guy to fix it which is how I know what I said above. In the end, it ended up costing me the same as if I had hired the first guy to do the job. Lesson learned.