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.

You need to do a little more archeological digging still. You need to know the whole construction of the floor before you can decide how best to install something new. I'd take up that plywood piece in the kitchen and see what's under it. It's higher than the surrounding floor, so needs to go. You should also be able to see from there what subfloor is under the original kitchen hardwood. It's too bad the space under your entryway is finished, but I'd still do some exploring from below to see what's under there, and to figure out the fix to stop it from squeaking. Is it drywall below or a drop ceiling? I know it probably seems like a pain to tear out drywall, but if you cut out a clean patch, like 2' x the width of the joists, it'll be relatively simple to repair. Just make sure to cut it down the center of the joists so that there's room to screw the patch piece to it later. Cut the hole under the area that squeaks the most, if you can. Have someone walk on and watch the floor from below to see what's moving. It might be as simple as pounding in a couple shims from below, or face-nailing a loose board from above. You want to find out what's underneath the hardwood. It might be laid directly on the floor joists, or there might be 10" wide boards that the hardwood is nailed to. Another thought is to take out a board in the hallway, since that's not original and you want to replace it. See what the subfloor is there. I am a bit puzzled at why, when you've stripped the kitchen down to the original hardwood, it's still higher than the hallway floor. Is your current surface perhaps not the original kitchen hardwood? Peeling back the plywood area will help determine that. BTW, I haven't heard of that stop squeaking product you linked to, so can't offer any personal opinion. And don't pour self-leveling compound over top of hardwood. It needs to go over plywood.

At this point, I would take the money and then 'live with it' for as long as possible. I would counter offer with, "Return my money and I will take the necessary steps to complete my floor project on my own." I can pretty much guarantee they will JUMP at this option. Your floor is fully functional with multiple attempts to get it to the colour you want. I would hate to see any more sanding done at this point. I know it isn't perfect, but it *might be "good enough". The colour you are attempting to create is EXTREMELY difficult to achieve on red oak. The Bona Craft Oil colours are ALL showing 'yellow' tones on white oak. That means there will be yellow tones showing through on red oak. Bona Craft oil advertises 'oiled floors with a finish'. An oil floor is OFTEN yellowish once completed. I'm wondering if the ambering is coming from the Craft Oil itself...simply because that is how it has been designed. The rest of the refinishing issues have to do with colour acceptance over areas that *might have received patch material...and patch (wood patch) will take colour VERY differently. I know this isn't what you were hoping for. I know this is very upsetting - especially after all the attempts to get this done - you will need to find your personal 'cut off' point. When do YOU decide that enough is enough? I would ask for my money back....which is probably what the company would consider acceptable...and move in and move on. Once the furniture is back into place and trim has been put back into place (etc.) you will find 90% of these issues will be hidden.

G & S, Thank you. When we were talking color, I specified that I didn't want red/orange (or as little as possible). He recommended the Natural Seal saying that it would cut down on the red/orange showing through. The color I chose was a mix: 50/25/25 Jacobean, weathered oak, classic gray. He did samples with natural seal and classic seal and the natural did make a difference in that regard. Of course I had no idea it would cause this issue. The stain was lighter and with more red than the sample demonstrated. So now we're expecting that it will have to be completely redone. Given what you've said, I really don't know what to think about the stain color, now. I don't want a lot of red to show through, and I don't want a super dark floor. Even though the stain was lighter / more red than expected, I would have been okay with it if not for all the other problems going on. Now I am unsure about stain color. Without that natural seal, the floor will look even more red. Thank you again for your help.