I had new 3/4" red oak flooring laid in my kitchen. It was integrated into my dining room..pieces from the dining room pulled up and new flooring inserted so the dining room and kitchen would look like one continuous floor. It looked great when unfinished.

I mixed my own stain using Minwax Provincial and Jacobean. All my test boards looked great. I gave the liquid stain mix to the contractor--same bucket I used for my final test strips.

Contractor stained the room. After staining we had footprints show up. Contractor sanded out those footprints and restained those sections. Then we had dark patches. So contractor resanded the entire floor...not all the way down to bare wood but most of the way and restained. It is much better now but a lot darker than I intended. I was going for a medium-dark brown..no reddish tones. I could handle the dark but we still have uneven looking colors. I expected each board to be a little different but it's almost like there are ovals or splotches of dark and light. Contractor went back over the light spots to try to make them match. It is better but not gone. We also have some areas where the stain looks gummy...like it wasn't wiped off enough.

Contractor's plan is to come back today and use a very fine sandpaper to sand the entire floor lightly focusing on the dark, gummy spots then hopefully poly. He's going to the sanding and then wait until I come home at lunch for approval before poly.

Contractor is a general contractor. He has been great in every other way. Dining room which was old wood looks good. I think he is just not experienced to deal with the new wood. I'm really sick over the floor. I'm not sure what to do. I don't think if I ask the contractor to sand down completely and start over that it will solved my problem.

So, at this point, we can either let him finish and hope for the best after it is done and everything else is put back into the room or tell him to stop and try to negotiate a price and then find a flooring contractor to take over. We have been without a kitchen for months now so the idea of delaying several more weeks is very unappealing. My original plan was to have my living room refinished this summer to match the dining/kitchen...they are the rooms that make up the first floor of my house. Hubby thinks we should let the current contractor finish the flooring then wait until 2011 (we need to save money) and have a flooring specialist redo the entire first floor. Basically live with the floor as the current contractor will do it for a year or so.

I'm just sick. The floor was the not expected expense...tile that was there before cracked. I love hardwood floors but not this one.... Any suggestions?.