We'll have to wait for the photos to load.

The darker, even looking stain pictures are from two of the bedrooms. The lighter looking floors pictured is the living room. The living room has updated led lighting so I think it makes the floors look even worse. The bedrooms currently have a soft glow yellow light.

I wanted something richer and more uniform like the picture here without the "blonde wood" coming through.

To figure this out, go ahead and take a lamp with the soft yellow light and plug it in and turn on in the living room. Turn off the LED lighting. If you feel better, then you know PART of this is the lighting (and then go out and switch the cold LED to a warmer shade...cause you know it makes the floor look better).

Jacobean is not normally used to create a deep rich floor. It is often added to another stain to CREATE a custom stain that removes some of the red in red oak. The Jacobean stain LOVES to grab the grain which is precisely what has happened.

And you will want to know if your floors were water popped. Traditionally you do NOT want to put down a second coat of stain...because it *might lead to adhesion failure. It is preferable to have a single coat of the RIGHT colour put down.

Did you view a colour swatch on your sanded floors before you chose the final option? Is there a finish on them? Are they currently raw (the photos)?

Do NOT allow a finish to go down over this floor if you do NOT like the colour. Contact the Contractor and have them come by to discuss your concerns. And please check out the floors in soft yellow lighting before doing anything else.

Ok I will try that, thank you. Yes we did a small test sample. The sample looked great. It looks good on most of the floor. The problem seems to be localized to the middle of the living room and the edges. It almost seems like they didn't put enough stain or didn''t leave long enough before they wiped it off.

To achieve the dark rich tone in your inspiration picture. Your flooring contractor needs to water pop prior to applying the stain. The light spots indicates that the pores are closed from over sanding, preventing stain from penetrating. That explains your uneven stain color.

Water popping is an additional step and will add additional cost. It's an easy process that can be applied with a rag or HVLP sprayer. It will add 1-2 hours of drying under good conditions. Caution would need to be taken to avoid crushing the grains when walking on it. The contractor would need to factor it all into their cost.

I still don't know why this is not a standard procedure. My 16 yr old can do this.

What stage is the floor currently at? Stained? Finished? What type of topcoat are you using?

I am so done with these floors.

The owner came by and says the appearance of the lightened wood towards the center of the room is due to different wood/ new wood. He could try to restain the area but wouldn't guarantee it would look fine. I decided to deal with it because I felt bad for the worker. I figured I could cover the area with a rug.

Owner leaves and workers carry in the finish. The finish says Bona Novia and we paid for and agreed in writing to 4 coats of Bona HD. We called owner and asked him why they brought it this different product. He claims he lays down 2 coats of Bona Novia and 1 coat of Traffic HD. We go back and forth and he agrees to 2 coats of Novia and 2 coats of Traffic HD. I believe they weren't expecting me to see the finish and were going to use the inferior product instead. He returns hours later with the Bona HD product. Meanwhile, his worker looks SKEPTICAL. Says the Novia is a great product. Then admits that the Traffic HD is hard to work with. I should have taken that as a warning.

I return home after the workers are gone. Workers told me they did 3 coats today and would finish the last one tomorrow. Guys... there are some dry spots throughout where seal isn't penetrating, there is hair and debris embedded into the seal and there are white lap marks throughout the floors that were not there before!!! I was told they have to buff again and then put the final coat of traffic HD. Will this buff remove the hair and debris and the white lap lines? Anyone have any idea?

I tried calling Bona directly to see if the Novia is supposed to go
under the traffic HD since I figured it may be wrong and the owner is
trying to make a little extra profit. I couldn't get through to Bona
because they opened later and I had to leave.

I don't know how this company has so many perfect reviews....

White lap lines appeared after first coat of Bona Traffic HD.

All the debris and particles can be buffed out. Novia is Bona's entry level product, below Mega. It can be top coated with HD. All of Bona's product is compatible with each other. It's hard to tell what the white lines are caused from in your picture. It can be either the stain, Novia or HD. It's possible they laid two thin coats of Novia, not giving it a good seal. What you're seeing is a color difference between Novia and HD. How many square feet and how many gallons did they show up with?

You are ending up with a light to medium stained floor, 2 coats of entry level poly and 2 coats of high performance poly. You have a contract for a dark stained floor with four coats of HD. The FC breach, so you shouldn't pay unless, FC corrects everything and fulfills the contract.

Thank you so much! We are doing half the house first so 800 sq. Ft. They walked in with 2 boxes which include 2 Bona Novia so 4 gallons of Bona Novia. Then they brought 2 gallons of Traffic HD.

Do you think it will be ok to have 2 coats of Novia and 4 coats of Traffic HD? I am going to talk to the owner.

6 gallons total, 2 gallons each coat, good for three coats.

2 coats of hd is good enough for residential. If, this is a restaurant with 1500 daily. 4 coats makes sense. I would do the two and negotiate the balance.

I asked worker how many coats of Traffic HD he used and he said 3 coats of Traffic HD. That would require 6 gallons of Traffic but they only brought 2

We still have the other half of the house to complete.

I guess they want ”dishonest company “ in their review.

"Dishonest" doesn't quite cover the appropriate ground. How about "incompetent" and "sloppy" in the next sentence?

Applying too many coats in such a close time frame will certainly cause problems. The most common are poly beads in the joints, wrinkling and streaking. This is water base, water base causes expansion. Any poly in the joints will squeeze out and form beads along the joints. Wrinkling can occur also, since the finish was never allowed enough time to harden. The new finish pulls the previous finish off the surface, when attempting to bond, causing wrinkles. Streaking is another if, applying with a standard water base applicator or T-bar. Streaking occurs if, the finish is too soft. Finish slightly pulls away from surface leaving lines. It needs a firm surface to level. A longer dry time would be needed in order to properly abrade the finish to smooth any imperfections.

3 coats in one 24 hour day is allowed, not 8 hours. They stretched the poly and applied a very thin coat. 4 gallons, each gallon covers 500-600. They applied at 700-800 sq. ft. rate. Longevity will be an issue with the finish.

It would be faster and cost them less to just do two coats of HD at the proper coverage of 400 sq. ft. They would have made more money and have time to do another project.

Waiting for owner. When looking at the floors through streaming light some of the grain looks dry or as if they have no sheen. The floors also feel slightly rough and not as smooth as previous wood floors we have lived on. I wonder if this is due to the worker using such thin coats on the floor.

The floors feel even rougher along the edges of the wall. A few of the corners, the wood slightly curves up. We have long, narrow white marks like in previous pictures throughout the floors.

I have a feeling the owner will dismiss these things. I am trying not to be petty. I even told them to leave the uneven looking staining. We paid so much for it to look this bad.

Thank you all who have responded. It has opened my eyes to how dishonest this company has been.

The owner decided to re sand and restain the living room only. He blamed the Bona Natural Seal and said he would not use again.

They restained and the color was not matching. They decided it was because they didnt use the natural seal. So after blaming the natural seal they reapplied it. Then, they applied more stain ON TOP the already stained and sealed floors. I KNEW it was wrong but they do this everyday so I trusted them. The marks came back again! They were more obvious this time! Then they applied Bona Novia and the finish began to bubble.

Owner is blaming a reaction to the floor and says if I want to resand the whole house and switch to an oil finish i would have to pay extra. He is willing to try to fix again but i dont trust it.

Should I call a certified inspector? What should I do?

That white haze and type of bubbles indicates that your stain was not completely dry before applying a water base finish over it. You have adhesion problem. You can do a adhesion test to confirm. Score the finish with a "X" stick tape on it and pull at 180 degrees. Any finish pulls, you have adhesion failure.

What brand stain are they using?

Verathane Jacobean penetrating wood stain oil base. They also used Bona Natural Seal, Bona Novia and Bona Traffic HD water based finishes.

Did they allow 72 hours minimum for drying? Test for pigment transfer? Based on the image, they did not. Which means this is a redo. The finish will flake off.

"Are my wood floors ruined?"

Not yet but every time they take sanders to it you lose more life off of it.

I called Bona and they said the problem with the white areas/hazing is from the Bona Natural Sealer which has 5% white pigmentation. This sealer should not be used with any stained floors especially a darker colored floor. It says this on the spec sheets and right on the product itself. They suggest to use a stain that includes the sealer or their Bona Intense Sealer which goes on clear.

The owner knew this because he told me he would fix it by not using the Bona Natural Sealer. Then, he told me he ended up having to use the sealer because the color of the stain wasn't matching up. he reason being that the sealer added white pigmentation to the stain and thats what created the color we had. So he decided to add the sealer again knowing this was causing issues.

The bubbling is probably from them trying to finish the re sanded floors in one day. I asked if he could re sand and start over and he says he would need more money. I don't want to pay extra! When he sanded only the living room, he created a slight difference in height between the living room and the adjoining hallway and dining room. The color is also different in the living area compared to the rest of the house. It would cost me a lot more to bring another company is as I have already paid this company half of the total and it looks like the whole floor will need to be redone.

The only certified inspector in the area does not do residential inspections. What can I do if he refuses to make things right? He told me he has lost money on this job which is not our fault.

Wait? Why would they use Bona Natural Sealant when you wanted a warm rich coloured floor? Where did that COME FROM???? Did they use this on the SATISFACTORY SIDE of the flooring???? If not then they created a SECOND mess trying to FIX their FIRST mess!

I found another ELEPHANT! Wow! Your home is FULL of them (tongue firmly in cheek...trying to offer a little bit of levity to a very sad situation):

"Then, they applied more stain ON TOP the already stained and sealed floors. I KNEW it was wrong but they do this everyday so I trusted them. The marks came back again! They were more obvious this time! Then they applied Bona Novia and the finish began to bubble."

O....M....G....(gasp)! =:< Zoinks! I am so sorry but the living room is a complete redo. Possibly the rest of the area already stained as well (because of the height variation they JUST created!).

In building law (please check your local state regulations) the general rule is the contractor is allowed ONE attempt at a 'fix'. After that, the homeowner (customer) is then allowed to find ANOTHER contractor to come in and CORRECT the issues left behind by the contractor #1. The cost of Contractor #2's correction is paid for by Contractor #1. And that's where this gets tricky.

How to get Contractor #1 to pay for his mistake TWICE???? That's where some EXCELLENT negotiating skills come in (on the customer's part).

At this point, I would call another wood flooring professional to come in and offer a quote for what it would take to FIX the floor. You then use that quote to pressure your contractor to pony-up.

Get a second opinion on this ASAP. Going into negotiations from a position of strength is what you are after. And KNOWLEDGE is strength.