Thanks mikeyvon. We have tried out a few stains and are leaning towards a medium to dark red mahogony. The color we liked the best was a two stage process - a coat of dark brown (walnut? I can't remember) followed by a coat of red mahogony later. It gave the wood grain a two-tone look that was nice. The finish made a difference - it had a purple hue until the tung oil was applied - don't know why. Since I am going to mix the stain in with the first coat of Waterlox, though, I won't be able to use a two tone stain process. I haven't tried the stain/Waterlox combo yet on any scraps. Probably will next week. Minwax makes a red sedona that is also a medium reddish brown color that might work. I like just finishing it natural, too, and just let the finish mellow out on it's own. The wood has already, in just a few weeks since I started, darkened up a little on its own. In fact, some of the cutoffs I had to make were where a board sitting in the pile got uneven exposure because it was covered by another board. The exposed parts were noticebly darker.

As a hardwood floor enthusiast, having been in the hardwood floor business all my life, it is site-finished hands down for me. Aside from the aesthetic knocks I have against prefinished floors (seams you can see and feel with your feet, a funny sheen, no choice on sheen, color fading problems, etc.) the main point I stress with my clients is maintenance. You mention small children and a dog, both of which I have to contend with on my own floors. Any hardwood floor you choose will eventually show signs of wear. With the proper finishes on a site finished floor, restoring your floors to new is very feasible. With a factory finished floor, it is virtually impossible. With the current cost of unfinished red and white oak in standard widths of 2 1/4" and 3 1/4" at extremely low prices, we have been finding that site finished floors can actually be less costly than even median factory finished floors. The difference in material price easily offsets the cost of sanding and finishing. Of course, any homeowner making this decision must consider the possible issues of dust, fumes, and time off the floors. It is imperative to find a top-notch floor finisher who works primarily or exclusively in occupied homes. You need a finisher who can keep dust to an absolute minimum (which is possible) and who uses high-end water based urethanes such as Bona, Glitsa or Basic Coatings. Each of these companies makes a commercial grade water based urethane that will be prefect for your traffic needs. They are also very low in VOC's and some are green guard certified. The best reason to use them, though, is that 5, 8, 10 or more years from now when you see a traffic pattern becoming visible, a good floor finisher can use the same finish to "re-coat" just those areas showing wear. It is possible to blend these newly recoated areas into the surrounding areas without moving all your furniture. This is typically very affordable and takes only a few hours to complete and dry. In this way you are able to indefinitely maintain your floors making it possible to avoid ever sanding them back to the wood. Unfortunately, with prefinished floors, once they wear out, all you can do is to sand them back to the wood and do exactly this process. To make matters worse, most of them now come with aluminum oxide finishes which make this refinishing very difficult. I say, why install a floor trying to avoid refinishing when refinishing will eventually be the only way to make them look good again? Get it right from the start, use the best finishes out there, the right finisher and then maintain your floors. You will have floors you love for life.

Does anyone know if you can install pre-finished hardwood flooring over existing hardwood? If so, what are the top pre-finished brands that you are aware of? Can this be a less expensive option than refinishing hardwood floors? Thanks Amy

I think the misinformation was about screening and recoating a site finished and doing a board replacement. On site finished if you have a problem its much harder to do a single board replacement and have it blend. Most times you would have to resand the entrire floor to make it look good. With factory fiished a single board could be replaced without resanding adjoining areas. Either could be screened and recoated without sanding. Comments about factory finishes scratching are sometimes due to the fact that with multi coat products the almunium oxide is left off the top coat. It tends to look milky and the idea is to make the top coat easy to repair when scratches occur so its often pure urethane with the AO below the top coat.