We have built and owned two homes over the past 36 years. In the first we had 3, 5, and 7" Bruce prefinished red oak. We also had two large (60 and 70#) Elkhounds-- no detectable damage in 12 years. In the second, where we have lived for 24 years, we have 3" and 4" site finished red oak on nearly all of our floors. Over those 24 years, we have had a standard poodle, a great dane mix, a Newfie, a lab, a Border Collie/Golden retriever mix, a pit bull, and a doberman. Again, no real damage from the dogs except for a few scratches on our staircase from when they ran downstairs after being detected illegally upstairs. We refinished the floors last year because we wanted to take those few scratches off the staircase and wanted to make sure that the wood all matched. I do not believe that dogs are necessarily the cause of your problems. Our dogs were all in the range of 60--100 # and we really had no problems. I would sand the floors and invest in a really good finish: either multiple coats of oil based floor varnish or multiple coats of a good catalytic floor varnish. Will

OK I explain. It is a floating floor what we call in the UK engineered floor, so it is not solid throughout but a thickness of the wood mounted on a plywood base. It is a Malaysian wood, not so hard, so I suppose high heels could dent it perhaps, it is not the hardest. It is a click system not requiring glue, interesting. Now from Malaysia it says it has five factory coatings of which some contain aluminium oxide. It got worn out over the years. So a year ago I sanded the wood with the machines with the correct paper and vacuumed well. Then I applied one coat of Bona Traffic silk, you know the glossy one. I then noticed a number of parts were very coarse to the touch. So after some hours I sanded again with slightly finer paper but still coarse. Now I applied again Bona. Once again certain areas were coarse to the touch and you could see stains. So now I did a final very fine sanding but this was by hand with very fine paper particularly in the areas affected. It took me hours. Then I applied the third coat. I called the Bona representative who was at a loss!!! He gave me a bottle of Bona "refresh" it is a type of product to do another pass over. I applied it to the worse parts of the floor. Although one could see areas which were coarse to the touch and which did not look quite right the shine was sufficient to fool guests for Christmas. Now I am exactly one year on. In those area I mentioned there are now black marks. I attach some photos of the present situation with example of the black marks. (sorry I do not know how to create a new thread). I want to sand it and apply Bona again before New Year when my mother is visiting, my wife will just about tolerate me sanding on the 27th Dec. I had the suspicion it was the Bona product maybe the bottle I bought was old or had been exposed to low temperatures where I bought it from but the Bona representative told me it was very unlikely to be the case.

It's tedious, but not difficult, and hard on the knees. Use those green scrubbing pads and mild soap and water (NOT any "oil soap") to get all the water soluble grunge off, rinsing and drying it as you go. Remove any tacks staples and other embedded junk as you go. Then repeat with mineral spirits to get the stuff that is not water soluble. You now have a clean floor ... if you want to hide scratches and refresh the color, wipe on a light coat of an oil-based stain that is close to one of the middle tones of the floor boards and wipe it off immediately. You will have a floor that looks old but well cared for, and nothing you did makes it impossible to refinish later. If you want a more durable fix, lightly sand the floor, working with the grain, then wipe on the stain and then do a couple of coats of varnish. I've had floors last 10 years with this "temporary fix".

As stated above, mixing manufacturers can be tricky. DuraSeal works well with water based finishes because DuraSeal MAKES water based finishes. Minwax does not. Minwax produces oil based finishes that are illegal in 11 states. Bona is MUCH more expensive than either DuraSeal and most definitely more than Minwax. I am extremely pleased to see a professional reach for Bona stain for Bona Finish. That tells me all I need to know. @Design2 girl - If you are getting used to the colour (as it is) then feel free to see if a small discount can be given for leaving it in place. If you feel this is not the colour you want to live with, then you will need to have it sanded off and start fresh. A double application of stain is a NO-NO in the flooring industry. The second coat can and will PREVENT bonding of the finish to the wood! That means you run the risk of the floor pealing like a sun burn! Yep. In a few days to a few months the whole thing could slough off like snake skin. Not pretty. Personally I like the colour as it is right now. This mid-tone cool brown (not much yellow/orange) is very desirable. I would put down some satin finish over top and enjoy a very handsome floor.