Buy prefinished. What you see is what you get with no angst of trying to get people out of their comfort realm to do something that they have no familiarity with. That is a disaster in waiting. Whatever your reservations are about prefinished, overcome them.

I absolutely agree that the prefinished option is "what you see is what you get" and that is a huge positive. However we really don't like the microbevel, and we'd likely have to pay extra for this feature that we don't want - every extra $1 in price adds $5000 to our project and that adds up quickly!

Trying to direct contractors to do stuff that they haven't done before adds $$$ to the costs on their part, and on your part. If they have to redo it (likely) they don't want to be out too much money. So, likely that in addition to a higher than normal fee for the labor intensive nature of what you want, they would have waiver stating that why you get is what you get. No redo without more money. So, where a normal Sand and finish would be in the $5 a square, they might charge $7-$8 a square. You get to pay for their education.

Prefinished is absolutely the way to go for a floor like you describe. Unless a local contractor already has a couple of floors in his portfolio. Even then, a $8 a square, Prefinished is likely a lot cheaper than you'd end up with trying to teach old dogs new tricks.

I'm going to point out the Elephant in the room - the Red Oak. The inspiration photos you are showing are European Oak. So why not go with European Oak?

I've lived in Germany where European Oak is THE oak product used for floors and it NATURALLY turns these pale colours - nothing else needs to be done.

So why not START with the RIGHT wood? I've seen dozens of European Oak floors with a water based poly that have turned silver in SUNLIGHT. Yep. After 10 years...they did it themselves.

So that being said....I would look to European Oak (start with the right material...you won't have to fight so much) and look at water based polyurethane. Done and Done.

Now, to be clear, water based polyurethanes (especially the big boys) are VERY VERY VERY different from oil based. Here's an example: Oil based has a "working time" of 45 minutes. That means you can piddle around and muck about and push it around for 3/4 of an hour before you have to move on to another spot.

Compare that to water based: Bona Traffic has a 2 MINUTE working wet edge!!!!! TWO MINUTES!!!! Now imagine the PROBLEMS Chuck in a Truck will have with something that is 10-20 times faster. In a HEART BEAT they will have mucked up your floor....and that's just the first 100sf feet. Imagine the other 4000+ sf. Yuck...sigh...heart break in a can.

Go ahead and hunt down someone who is NWFA Certified Installer/Sand & Refinisher: www.nwfa.org (click on 'Certified Professionals' and go from there).

But start with the right material = European Oak. It gets MUCH EASIER from there.

Thank you! I had no idea that European oak is so different. I'll check it out.

I have also made some calls and found that the experienced contractor will travel to my area or the Pallman rep can be onsite for an inexperienced contractor. I'm making some progress.

but I welcome any additional comments - the more info the better!

You don't necessarily need European oak but you certainly do need white oak to get the color in the top picture. Red oak turns very pink when pickled.

Instead of a thinned paint, you're better off using something like Bona DriFast White followed by two coats of non-yellowing urethane like Mega Clear HD. Anyone who can do a stained floor should be able to master the Bona White. The key to minimizing tannin pull is to avoid puddles and drips. A coat of BonaSeal before the urethane might help avoid it.

There are finishes out there that have VERY SPECIFIC rules to follow when applying to White Oak. The water based finishes seem to show more tannin pull = requires brand-specific sealant designed specifically for white oak (Loba has a few such requirements for each of their polyurethanes).

Just a little FIY with white oak being "bleached". And yes...jfcwood is correct. White paint is not the way to go about this. A white additive that does NOT weaken the polyurethane bond is required. Example: Loba suggest working with the German wood tint line produced by Mixol. But without the sealant specific to white oak, you will get a "yellowing" of the white.

Loba and Bona also have their own lines of stains. These should be coupled with the finish.

Excessive color variation? That's a new one. White oak typically can have wide variations. I wonder if they say that as a CYA measure

I have a sample bottle of the Nordic Seal but haven't used it yet. I'm skeptical of anything that requires an even amount to impart color to a floor. That said, we're using Bona AmberSeal on a job now.

Are you saying that because the sealer is meant to build on the wood, that if it isn't a uniform thickness then the color will not be uniform? And that differs from stain because stain is meant to be wiped off so the variation is consistent with and highlights the grain of the wood so it has a more natural appearance? Or did I just make that up?

hnelson, you have that exactly correct. Penetrating stains as used on floors are applied, saturate the surface and the excess is wiped off. This avoids lap marks. A colored sealer requires that the application be very uniform. The more drastic the color is, the more likely it is to be inconsistent. The colored sealer also doesn't make the grain stand out like a penetrating stain and it can even out color variations in the floor.

For example, we often need to match the color of an older oil-modified polyurethane on a floor adjacent to one we're refinishing. If we stain the wood to make it more amber, the grain is too prominent. The preferred option is to tint the new urethane to mimic the ambering of the existing.