Here are some evening photos of my white oak select grade hardwood, site installed, with one coat of Bona Natural seal and two coats of Bona Traffic HD Matte. It’s a lot lighter IRL than in the photos. I agonized over what sealer to use (bought different stains, Loba 2k, all sorts of products). This combination seemed to look the closest to the natural wood (which I LOVED). The sealer did make it a tiny bit darker but it’s ok. I also included a photo of my stairs. They are red oak. It was a fortune to replace the stairs so we kept the red oak and used one coat of wheathered oak stain and two coats of Bona HD traffic extra matte (same as on the floors). Two lessons learned: Use a third coat of Bona HD traffic in high-traffic areas (our first floor gets a ton of wear with a dog and three teenagers, a third coat would have added an extra layer of protection against scratches). If you are a sheen person and like gleaming wood floors, do not use matte, use a satin finish. I had satin in my other house and I do miss the shine of a freshly washed wood floor. Although a matte does do a great job of hiding scratches. We installed white oak throughout the house (with the exception of the stairs) and even in the kitchen. I love wood floors in the kitchen - easier on the feet, knees, and not cold like a tile floor.

OK...so the order is straight for me. Your GC is your hire. Excellent. That means the GC must keep in contact with you during the fixes to all of these oopsas. When working with a 2 part finish it is NEARLY impossible to mix a small batch AND create the same gloss level. The PERFECTION is in the milliliter range. Yes. If you mix 100ml TOTAL you need to be at a level of perfection that only an Insulin syringe can create. Yes. The sheen is THAT sensitive. Sad to say but the floor plate 'cure' was worse than the disease. Once the floor plate was put back on the slightly darker area would have been completely covered. Now the gloss level around the floor plate has a very different sheen. The only fix to this is to do a buff and coat (add one more coat to the ENTIRE floor in that area.

@G & S Floor Service, thank you very much for your help. The only thing I might respectfully disagree with you on is in regards to the first 3 pictures (and arguably the gauge in the mudroom). I’ve had hand scraped floors before and never had (or seen) marks like those. Also, those marks are there and in one other place nearby and they look nothing like the “light hand scraping” everywhere else in the house. It looks like they drug a giant pitch fork along the floor twice. I’m trying to decide if we could get away with leaving them. That’s what I’m not sure of since it’s only in those 2 places and they’re so different. You can’t see it when standing directly over it, but you definitely see it and know it shouldn’t be there when you take a step or two away from it. Can the guys still fill holes and gaps now that final poly was done? And by filling gaps, are you also referencing the space between stairs and risers as well as where the stairs meet the wall? I really like the main guy and his entire crew. They’re great guys and have tried to make me happy. I want to be reasonable in my expectations and while I definitely think those

Floors look great! We did the same thing - 2 coats of bona nordic sealer on red oak…thinking I can see pink come through. Does anyone know if you can apply 3rd coat of nordic or even bona natural? Different light and angles show more pink than others.