I would recommend you NOT go to lumber liquidators or some bargain flooring company as there have been issues with fumes emitted from the woods that are imported from China and other areas. I would call a reputable hard wood flooring installation company- someone who you can get references from- and discuss with them your options. Personally, I think you should have the same hardwood flooring throughout your home.

Okay, I spoke with mom about the flooring company she used in Atlanta: She clarified that the amazing contractor that she used to build her screened porch did not do her floors. She used a company in Woodstock, GA called Concept One Flooring: They installed hardwoods for their Kennesaw house, then engineered hardwood floors when they moved to Marietta (this house was built on a slab, hence engineered wood). The floors in each house were gorgeous. I don't have a phone number, but I would imagine they can be found in the hone book or online. Before I got new floors, I researched local companies here on houzz, on the local citydata forum, and the local Next Door forum. Hope this helps!

Ok...first things first. Janka hardness ratings only apply to solid hardwood. Engineered planks do not work with Janka because the plied layers underneath are often 'soft woods'. Considering Janka measures how much force it takes to imbed a metal ball into the wood, it isn't possible to offer Janka scores for engineered. They just don't compute. The next thing I'm going to point out is the oddity of trying to match the ENTIRE HOUSE to a single room of existing hardwood. You have a small amount of hardwood that is dictating the rest of the house. It's not impossible but it is HIGHLY unusual. In other words, you are trying to put down more than a thousand square feet of flooring by trying to match 150 - 250sf of dining room (I don't know the size of your dining room so I'm only guessing here). That's a little like putting the cart before the horse. Usually we see this the other way around. Usually we have a house full of hardwood (big amount) but the bedrooms have carpet (small amount). The homeowners then agonize over getting a match for the smaller area. That is normal. As for your price range that you are looking at, they are too low and a little thin. The gold standard is 3/4" thickness (solid or engineered). An engineered product with 3mm or more of wear layer is the base level. The thicker the wear layer the more times a floor can be refinished. The Gold standard is 6mm wear layer (usually in the $10/sf range). If you are having a hard time finding floors that you like, you might want to think about replacing the dining room at the same time. This takes away all the pressure to work with low-grade hardwoods just to get a match to a small amount of hardwood. Solid or engineered should be more than what you are looking at for price. Prefinished wood flooring should be in the $7/sf just to start and they go up from there.

The areas that are darker were because they didn’t sand those areas during the redo, they only buffed them for the final coat of poly, from what I understand. We sent photos to the PM (before they stained!) of them leaving those areas instead of sanding the entire floor and he assured us it would blend “seamlessly”. I really hate this because the crew did work hard, but the crew leader is the one that told them to not sand everything. He will not be getting paid now which will probably mean the workers won’t get paid which truly sucks IMO. The PM finally responded saying they’ll be there Monday morning to fix it. We replied saying it needs to be a different crew, the best they have and to have his manager contact us as they began the floor refinishing a month ago and now we are having to pay an extra month of mortgage and utilities in our current home. Regarding the current state of the floors, it appears they need a complete sand and finish correct? I’m not sure I trust anyone they send out to only fix those areas. They also sanded so deep in a hallway it’s about an 1/8” difference from where they had left the previous finish. (3rd photo) Thank you all for your advice.