"For residential, all you need is a sealer and 2 HD." I agree 100%. I would be wary of anyone who wanted to use Traffic with no sealer and "apply it thick". There was a post here quite recently where a contractor using Traffic caused tannin pull on a White Oak floor. From the pictures it appeared it would have to be done completely over. A coat of sealer and proper technique, including application at the proper spread rate, would have saved them some grief. Learn from their mistake. https://www.houzz.com/discussions/new-hardwood-white-oak-finishing-issues-dsvw-vd~5474829?n=17 Finally, the only excuse for extra coats is that you're going to let the floor get scuffed, scratched and worn and that you have no intention of moving the furniture in the future and recoating. I do mostly higher end residential so when floors look bad, we prepare and recoat them. More coats will take longer to wear through but the floor will look worn and in need of attention well before it's worn through.

So they came this morning to fix the floors. The owner of the company told our contractor he had the Bona training but the crew he sent today were the same three people we’ve had the whole time and the head guy said he has not had the bona training. He also told my husband they used 1.5 gallons of the traffic hd. For 1462 sq ft. Good grief. I think they should have used 3.5 gallons. From what we can see so far, it’s not improved. They buffed it three times and the floor looked awful after that - I’ll attach a pic. But he assured my husband it would look ok after the poly applied. So frustrated! Guess we’ll see tomorrow how it looks. They did buy a new roller. They did not ask us to turn the a/c off but my husband did. Pic attached is after buffing.

Did you know that Bona makes their own stains? It is the chemical mix of two unrelated companies that puts your project at risk. Minwax is DIY level stain (used by many professionals so not entirely bad). Bona, even their entry level product Mega, is a professional grade product. Bona takes a SERIOUS amount of knowledge to get it to work. Some of the Bona products have a working edge of 2 minutes (120 seconds...yes...I said 2 minutes and I meant it). Compare that to Minwax oil based polyurethane working edge of 45 minutes (illegal in 11 states because of HORRIBLE VOC content). You should contact Bona and ask them what they recommend for the finish you are interested in using. Do you have a photo of your existing floor? Do you know the species of wood sitting on your steps?

At some point you will, but I still see some surface texture in your pics. This is a reason why I don't encourage people who want a bunch of coatswhen new, presumably for durability. I could understand on a commercial floor, but for most of my residential clients, when the floor gets scratched and and dingy, they want a recoat to bring it back up to par. I once had a client where we recoated her natural color floor with oil poly, giving it 4 coats total. A housekeeper walked on it, requiring coat #5. The gate guards were instructed that nobody enter and the key was put aside, yet another housekeeper with their own key went in before dry, requiring coat #6,which was a success. When the owner saw how smooth the floor was she contracted us to refinish the floor after season ended, because it looked like a sheet of plastic.