Anything except a complete sand a re-stain and re-finish is not get the first stain correct.

The down side is slightly less wood available for latter refinishing.

Our contractor's 'floor guy' did a terrible sanding job at our house, especially in tight spaces where he used a hand sander. We have hardwood throughout and no thresholds. We were squeezed for time, getting out of a rental, and had to 'move in'. The contractor paid to move our few furnishings into the garage, put us up in a rental for a week, and the whole house was re-sanded, re-stained, re-poly-ed.

Here's just one shot....the whole perimeter of the island looks like this and worse (the cabinets are quite dusty from the floor sanding, and it's been 100 degrees w/ no a/c, so I didn't feel like dusting):

They had to re-do ours. It's a pain, but better to do now before you move in the house. That shot around your island looks awful...completely unacceptable work.

We put hardwood floors in after we moved in our house and had the same issue. Ours was more that it was sanded unevenly I think. They did not sand the entire thing all the way down but screened it (?) and reapplied it I think. The owner of the company (who had been doing floors for 20 plus years) did it himself. It turned out great but was a mess before.

We had the additional problem of a two story great room so when you were upstairs looking down, it really looked bad!

I guess it doesn't sound like an uncommon occurrence then. Just received an email from the builder who said he "didn't disagree with me" about the floors; he went on to say that "I will have them correct the floors until they are right." Whew.

Can they just do the spots, or if the places are spread out through the house, will they have to do the entire area (no thresholds)? Reason I'm asking is if they have to sand it down far enough to get to the stain, I might have the finish done differently this time--2 coats of semi, THEN the final coat of satin (instead of all satin). Guess I have a few questions for my builder tomorrow (don't like to bother him on the weekend).

Thanks.

Spot repair is possible - but we have a tick of evidence in the right light. Just at some repairs so perfection is possible.

"Spot repair is possible..."

Unlikely by someone who already messed up the first attempt.

Spot repair MAY work if the person is a true craftsman. If this floor had been done by a true craftsman though, this issue wouldn't exist. Polyurethane as a rule is hard to spot repair without it showing.

It's possible that the sanding was done unevenly, but most likely the stain was slopped on and the excess not wiped off correctly. That's what it looks like to me.

In order to correct the situation the floor most likely will have to be stripped and some stain reapplied overall to even things out. It is usually impossible to get all the stain out without having to sand too deeply. You may end up with floors that are slightly darker than you wanted, but that is way better than having the uneven mess you have now.

Good luck with getting this taken care of. It would be unacceptable to me and I would not make a final paynment and move in until it is done right.

(This is exactly why I am going to do all the staining and finishing work on the wood floors and walls in our new house myself. I just don't trust anyone else to do it).

Thanks, Sandy. I haven't heard an update from my builder, so I'm going to go check on the house today. I just couldn't believe it when I saw those floors. I know I would've done better on the floors than the "floor guys" did!

I don't blame you for only trusting yourself. Wanna come work on mine? :-)

So here's an update. I met with the builder and hardwood floor business owner at the house this morning. No question about it--the entire hardwood area will have to be completely re-done from the beginning, including the stairs (everywhere you look, it's horrible). They're thinking the 100+ heat had something to do with stain application gone bad (ya think?). The electricity and HVAC gets hooked up next week, so I told them I don't want it re-done until then--I want the house at a more normal temp so the stain won't dry too fast.

And, I believe all things happen for a reason....I wasn't 100% liking the Gunstock. I think if I'd seen it done perfectly, it would've been just fine, but it now has me rethinking its "orangeness" in light of my paint choices. I'll at least tone it down, maybe cut it half/half with natural. It did look great with my cherry toffee coffee kitchen cabinets, though.

If this hadn't happened, the house would've been finished with the connection of electricity next week..... it's oh so close.....

Our hardwood were just stained last week. This thread was so timely for me. My husband has been completely angered at the outcome of them. We have talked to our GC/Custom Home Builder and they think they look fine, and that's its the natural characteristics of the wood. We are supposed to have Red Oak #1, hand scraped floors with Mesquite Red stain. My husband describes the look of red wine dumped all over the floors. There are many boards that are pinkish red. Not at all the color we were looking for. Odd that the shoe mould IS the right color. The shoe mould doesn't match the flooring. There are some areas of the floor that are the right color.

DH is so mad that the GC didn't provide any insight or help with the selection process. No warning that they would be so inconsistent, and with so much RED! Our sample was about 4" x 6" on our floors, while they were all covered with paper. We didn't think to ask for a larger sample, because we were fine with the color in that area. We expected a mild degree of shade variation...but not color variation with some areas pinkish red.

They have given us a quote of $4800 to refinish the hardwoods in a different stain. We're ticked. The only thing they are offering is not to charge their 15% on the NEXT time around.

We're meeting with a hardwood finisher later today. It will feel good to get peace of mind if it's really a poor job and another price estimate.

I feel for you. They said this will delay our completion date by 4 days.

"Red wine" on the floors is as bad as "orange koolaid" (because that IS what it looks like, only very globby in some places), so I feel for you, too. I guess I'm lucky that they botched the job so it's starting from scratch.

Do you think your red- or pink-ness would "tone-down" over time? I was assured my orangey-ness would (from the sample he laid down).

Someone just told me (new home decorator) that they never use a full-strength stain--they always cut it in half and use "Natural" along with it. When I test stains for the next go-round, I'm going to do that to the previous color and see if I like it any better.

Let us know how it works out..... good luck.

Update: We met with another floor refinishing professional last night. They agree that there's too much red in the floors. There's also some color inconsistencies in ours. I'm not saying ours is the exact situation, but I just wanted to update the thread with more information for other readers.

They have suggested another option for us which is less expensive than going back to bare wood, re-hand scraping, re-staining, and re-finishing. This guy is suggesting to tint the 3rd coat of poly. He will use a color with a bit more brown. Then, he will apply a top coat of clear polyurethane. He says it will not dramatically darken the floors, but it will take the pinkish red out and tone it down. The quote we received is 42% of the cost of a complete refinish. We will try to get permission from our GC to allow a test in an inconspicous area like our pantry or coat closet. Then, we will try to decide if that option is really worth the gamble. Of course a complete refinish is supposed to be more of a sure thing, but this option is so much less $$, and it will leave more of the life of the floors. Since we have hand scraped, we will loose quite a bit if they are refinished.

They are thinking of using a poly tint of Antique Brown or Rosewood to tone down our Mesquite Red. I think the stain will be of a proportion around 1 cup stain to 1 gallon poly. Something of that nature, at least.

Oh - this guy told us that the floors will darken naturally over time in some areas and bleach from sunlight in others...another thing that wasn't explained by our original work crew.

If anyone has experience with this poly-tint technique, would love to hear. Hope that's not a thread hijack!

Home4sale: I'd definitely at least test to see if the tinted poly would work for you, but would be leary of "Rosewood" with the red you already want to tone-down. I'd be interested to know if anyone has done this, too.

Hubby saw the floors for the first time yesterday, and the "spiciness" of the Gunstock didn't scare him--he actually liked it. I'd just like to tone it down a bit. I mean, how can I be sure that ALL the color I don't like is a result of the botched stain job? On the globs, that's a give, but.....

Let us know how it goes.