I do not see how that can be true. A post above said $50 a tread....not knowing but assuming you need anywhere from 13-18 treads, thats roughly 900 right there....labor should be the exact same no matter what. Request a break down quote for him to itemize everything. Or better yet, find a different installer... btw, maple stains just as good as anything else. the majority of wood products on the market are maple. From cabinets to floors, most are maple based due to its staining abilities and smooth grains. I build custom drum sets and use maple 99% of the time, sometimes birch. I stain all kinds of different mixed colors and tones. I have never conditioned the wood, and have never had any issue with staining the wood. Most customers even order a ebony stain. However....walnut grains and natural tones can not be beat by anything IMO. It is a beautiful wood. If that is what you want, go for it. Get various bids, etc. If you love something, do it right from the begining. Everytime you look at your staiway and see a maple wood with a walnut stain, it will look great, but you will always regret not real walnut!

Finish: Pacific Strong, a discontinued Bona waterbased urethane finish in two coats was applied over Duracraft stain. Chipping: small 1/8th" or bigger pieces of wood individually chip out from the wood floor upon light contact by shoes, full plastic laundry basics, kitchen garbage cans.An opening is left in the floor which is blond, like bare oak. It's not flaking off as I've seen can happen with drums during refinishing, nor are their wavy lines periodically. Rather it's chipping off with contact, as when a tree limb is placed in a chipper/shredder machine outdoors. As to the stairs, well both the stain and the finish are gone on the edges of the steps (the rounded part at the stair end). Bare wood remains and is very slippery compared to the rest of the step, where stain and finish give it a rougher surface texture. You can see the difference on the step and you can feel the lack of any finish on the edges, precisely where it is needed most. We keep the house humidified and run house temp at 64 in the winter. We don't abuse our floors. Thanks for your response. In all my many years owning several homes, I have never encountered anything like this.

Sanding with more than 150 grit can close the pores and prevent stain from penetrating. Plus, a stain will just penetrate a little below the surface of the wood, more so in less dense wood and very little in denser wood. Oak has two different grains with with those two different stain absorbing properties, so there will always be darker and lighter areas. You can try resanding, or try leaving the stain on longer---the dense part of the oak will absorb less while the softer grain will absorb more color.

I like the first one in the second grouping. The top of the newel post looks a little darker. It looks wonderful with the lighter floor. I also wouldn't worry about the spindles, I think yours are lovely, I have a lot of mission stuff in my house mixed with Traditional and it looks good to me. The goose...I know you didn't ask, but here's some staining advise. Try mixing Minwax English Chestnut and Minwax golden Pecan buy the smallest cans (oil based) start with 3 parts English Chestnut and 1 part Golden Pecan, and adjust from there...if you want it darker add more Chestnut, if you want it lighter add more Pecan... Your newel post looks to be either cherry or Quarter-sawn white oak...when trying the stain on your wood sample scraps be sure to try it on the same wood as your newel post. If you're interested, I can show you samples of this stain on wood pieces in my house, it looks very much like the color squirrel posted in the first photo. Joann