In my almost 30 years in wood flooring, oil finishes have been the next big thing about three times so far. I'm not sold on the "one coat" claim and most people aren't satisfied with the dry look that was mentioned. Some products can have a second coat applied for more body but I believe some cannot. There's a lot of finishes out there and a lot of misinformation. Personally I don' see a huge difference between them and an old fashioned stain and wax. Many floor dealers are skeptical of the newer oil finishes because they can't afford to have something go wrong that will cost them more money than they make on ten jobs. If you think you really want an oil finish, have your floor company sand the floor and you apply the finish. You can watch tutorials online. All you need is the finish, something to apply it with, a buffer, pads and rags. Contrary to your claim, floors were stained in the past but different methods were used. If you want to de-emphasize the red in your Red Oak pick a stain that has a greenish tint.

For people looking for a durable domestic hardwood our hickory has been a very popular option. Because you'll be finishing in place your installer should be able to stain any color you want but make sure to see how it looks on the specie and grade you choose. The hickory has a very noticeable color variation between the heart wood and sapwood and because of this will stain a little differently. As far as finish goes we usually recommend a tung oil finish because of the fact that it is spot repairable. This allows you to re-finish or touch up areas where the dogs make their loop, leap, or general jumping around. I know pointers can sometimes be a little high energy and this will allow you smooth out those areas without re-finishing the entire surface like you would need to do with a traditional poly finish. Another option that many large pet owning customers have really liked is our saw kerf texture. This does give more of a rustic feel to the surface but it also disguises many of the "accidental blemishes" that can happen with your flooring. What ever your decision we wish you luck!

I paid to have an independent, certified flooring inspector come in to evaluate my floors. His final report noted that the pinholes were caused by an improper finish. The flooring contractor applied 2 coats of polyurethane on the same day and did not allow sufficient time for the first coat to fully dry before they applied the second coat. The inspector noted a hazed appearance in numerous areas that were indicative of the previous coat not being fully dry before the second coat was applied. The wood was not a number 2 grade selection and the inspector contacted a technical adviser from the National Wood Flooring Associate and he said that there was nothing inherent to the red oak that would have caused the extensive pinholing in the finish that was observed and that this was due to either incompatible finish products being used or improper application procedures. I had a second company come in and redo the entire refinish - sanding down to bare wood and reapplying stain and 3 coats of poly and there are no pinhole visible on any floors in the house. The fact that the issue could be corrected by completing redoing the work lends credence to the original job having been poorly done. The original company tried applying a 4th coat of polyurethane but this did nothing to fix the pinholes. If you look at page 59 of this PDF, pinholes can appear in the finish of a floor if the previous coat was not fully dry (http://www.crescenthardwood.com/nwfa/ProblemsCauses.pdf). The bottom line was that I was out a lot of money from the first contractor, which was a large reputable company in my area, because they refused to fix the issue or even test to see if their finish job was the issue and had to go through the aggravation of having the entire job redone. The second company came out and sanded the floor of a closet and reapplied stain and 3 coats of poly to ensure that it was the previous finish and not inherent to the wood. The test area showed that when done correctly no pinholes in the finish formed.

SJ we were pretty clear we didn’t want yellow but I’ll ask him exactly what finish he used on that small section. We’re doing water based poly, that much I know. G & S I don’t think he has experience with additives. So maybe my best bet is to sand and restain. I really hate to do that because it will be an extra 1000 and also set our timeline back for the rest of the remodel. But trying to tint it at this point sounds a little risky if it’s not something he’s done. So if we do that sounds like we should try walnut, provincial, antique brown, and Jacobean for a green tint to counteract the red? For the record this is the sample we chose (top one) which is the 50/50 medium brown and gray. To me it looks nothing like how the floors come out.