Hi. Mine were stained before any of the cabinets went in, so early in the process. They got 1 coat of oil-based poly as well. Guys will do 2 more coats of water based poly after everything else is done.

thanks donho, did you need to protect it during the construction? I hope we didn't make a mistake that the cabinets are already installed over unfinished oak.

They put some pink construction paper overtop of it, but at this point that is mostly in tatters. As far as I can tell, everything looks ok anyway. Hopefully there will be no surprises when it all comes up. Perhaps you could get them to put down cardboard rather than paper. That would seem better to me.

We had the oak flooring installed first (unfinished) and it was covered with a cardboard product (Ram Board) throughout the rest of the process. The cabinets, granite and appliances have been installed and all of the painting has been done. The GC has protected the cabinets after installation with panels of 1/2 foam, taped with painters tape and the panels have been removed only when work needs to be done on the cabinets (installation of appliance and knobs). The floor is now being stained and finished. There was no sign of damage to the unfinished floors. The cardboard, though, really took a beating and I'm glad that the floors were protected during construction.

Thanks for your amswers.
So it is ok to have unstained wood under the appliances?

Hope so, because that is what we have under the dishwasher and refrigerator! The floor installer did not express any concern for having these areas unfinished, nor did our GC.

We had our oak floors finished first, then installed the cabinets. GC protected floors with a cushioned foam, then plastic, and then cardboard. Floors looked beautiful when all the coverings were removed.

Regarding Ram Board, we had a floor get really damaged when the contractor put our countertops in too low and then tried to jam in our dishwasher. It was a disaster. They had to redo some of the flooring and we insisted on having it completely protected the next time, so they used Ram Board on the 2nd try. No problem!

Here is a link that might be useful: Ram Board

You should have floors completely finished before install. That they're weren't done, will not cause any problems. It just seems odd that they didn't do it....but no harm.
Your contractor should use some sort of protection on the floors. Ram Board is good, resin paper is also good. Mostly depends on how many workers on the project. Also, make certain that they use protection when moving appliances in and out of their spaces.