The only standards in floor refinishing are those suggested by the manufacturer of the finishes themselves. Once the products are out in the field, finishers take these materials and incorporate them into what they do as artisans. We all have techniques we develop and use in our work and I guess your crusty old guy has techniques he's developed to produce a 'product' and a service that he offers. The finish schedule proposed for the maple certainly will give enough build to look good and provide protection and serviceability. Your guy has obviously substituted Mega for the sealers and stains designed for Traffic, but I won't say that there is anything wrong with that practice. I have developed techniques of my own that are 'off the pages' too. Your guy wouldn't be doing what he does for economic reasons; the material costs are the same. And, he wouldn't be doing what he does if the technique didn't produce excellent results...wouldn't make a lick of sense. Good luck.

Oak floor throughout living, dining and family room. Currently a "yellowish". Walls are light gray and furniture transitional. I was thinking of something more "brown" would be more modern. Advise?

If you like your current colour then go ahead and put down a new version of it. If you want something different then I would go lighter. I love the look of red oak in the 'buff'. It is a pretty wheat/sand coloured wood. So long as you work with a high-end water based polyurethane that does NOT yellow, you will have a very pretty 'pale wood' floor without much effort. Your existing finish appears to be oil based (or oil modified) which makes the floor yellow. The strong gold tones in your wood right now = the finish. Did your refinisher apply a coat of FINISH over your colour samples? If they did NOT....then you are picking BLIND. And I mean screaming and crying and tearing your hair because your beautiful gray floors turned to a muddy orange mess. Not good. Do you see the pale colour of the raw wood? You can keep that colour (very close to it) with 3 coats of water based polyurethane like Bona Traffic HD. Keep the gloss level a snick on the low side (satin is a nice low-gloss option) and you keep that pretty 'swedish blonde' look.

I would love to know how your floors turned out I’m entertaining bleaching my floors but I’m so scared I have all the right products to do it. I’ve heard good things about the Bona but I’ve also heard really good things about Rubio and a product call loba transparent in mattte. Please I’d love to hear where you are now with your floor project!!