Thank you. It is all red oak. No stain. Since this is my first floor I figured I would ask. I am not too familiar with what is used on flooring. I was kind of hoping they had a product out, with the amber color of marine spar, but I'm sure that wouldnt be as durable as a urethane. The only thing used is synthetic varnish now? My quotes for 450 sq ft was 1000 - 1500 to sand and coat with 3 coats. To remove and replace flooring was 6 to 7 grand A few guys would not give me honest answers. I had removed some wood and the water stains were 1/4 inch deep. Some said "it should come out" but when I asked them if they guaranteed it would, they would not. The honest ones said it was too deep and would have to come out.

I'm a second generation mason taught by my 86 year old father who has (and still does) devoted his entire life to masonry. Matching is probably the one thing that he has spent most of his time trying to master. My two cents (and what I typically tell my customers) is that matching brick and mortar is impossible. Then I explain that there are companies that will make bricks to match but the cost is typically not practical on the small jobs that I do. I also explain to them that even that "match" may not be perfect after they pay a lot of money to get a match. As far as mortar color goes, there are so many factors involved that getting a "match" is impossible. A mason can look at the mortar and see what color was used but he can't determine things like sand, cement and the ratios. Not to mention other factors that affect color such as weathering, curing time i.e. outside temp, direct sunlight etc. If you walk around a building you'll see slight color variations even now that we use pretty exact ratios. So, the best that a mason can do is toss in a bit of the color that he see's and hope for the best! I always conclude by saying that the level of match all depends on how much you are willing to spend. But, if we're talking about a 5-10K job, you probably don't want to add another 30-40% to pay me to jump through all of the hoops to find that match. If you have a 100K job, it might be worth the effort because the cost to find a match is basically fixed. Same cost for a 5K job as it is for a 100K job. But, you will never have an exact match. The reason I explain all of this, and put it in writing in my contracts, is because a "match" is very relative. What I think is a match may not look like a match to you and we won't know this until a lot of time and money has already been spent. This makes it difficult for a mason to even estimate these jobs. My first thought is: after I jump through all of the extra hoops to find this match, will I even get the job? In my experience, the typical home owner is not willing to pay for this. Unfortunately, they often go with the low bidder thinking that they will get something other than what they actually end up with. We (masons) are just like everyone else. We want/need to be paid for our time. If a guy claims that he can do something for much less then there is a real good chance that he is leaving something out. As far as brick matching goes, it never hurts to ask every mason that you can find. Most masons have a stock pile of old bricks and they just might have yours!

When on cape cod in the mid eighties, a bleach solution was used to "blanch" the shingle, rid mold, and get it closer to looking like a newer applied shingle. Sorry i dont know what the mix ratio that was used, but you might ask siders or painters in your area if the technique is still used and the mix ratio if it is.

Matching a grade other than select or clear can be tricky. Why? Because the grade represents the minimum standards a wood needs to meet. IOW, one can buy #1 common that's almost select. Then switching from #1 to #2 could result in a floor that looks way worse than #1. In these situations I often order some of each grade. In the past I've seen contractors complain that their #1 common wasn't up to snuff because they were used to it looking more like select. I'm usually the person scoffing at others here that comment about how something is horrible or needs to be redone. In your case I'm thinking that the match is unacceptable. To be fair, it's unrealistic to expect a perfect match. That makes the judgement totally subjective. If I did that floor and you requested it be redone, I'd do so without complaint.