Cracks as well-if you can send or post pictures it would be my pleasure to respond. Cracks must be filled or repaired prior to refinishing-however the reason why there is cracking is very important. The issues that have caused the cracking must be corrected. Are your grout joints very narrow? Is there unevenness on the floor(lippage)? if you tap around with your knuckle in the area of the cracks do you hear a hollow spot. If an installer cant apply sealant properly it generally tells me he isn't a stone installer. A new installation with cracks doesn't sound promising. Are the cracks on single tiles are does it run across a section. As far as chips and holes because the callacatta can have a varied veining structure the repairs can be made to look natural or hidden.(in many cases)

I'm not a flooring contractor. But I am 80 years old and in the 1930's when I was a kid, my father was a painting and decorating contractor. He bleached our floors with a solution of oxalic acid in boiling water. I tried it as a do-it- yourself project many years later and spilled some on the porcelain stove top and it dissolved some of the porcelain. So, you must not use steel or porcelain. I think you could use a cheap teflon coated large kettle to mix in. I don't recall the proportions either, but you might find out at a paint store or by googling. It bleached wood snow white, so it works. It is very poisonous, so I would wear neoprene gloves and eye protection and I would not braath the fumes unventillated. That said, my father did it without any protection that I can recall. Just was careful and washed off as soon as it happened if he got some on him. There was no OSHA then and things were very primative. I think you can look this up by googling oxalic acid and checking leads.

This is an issue with sanding. The finish looks good, the sanding was done poorly. I agree with gregmills_gw...get the owner of the flooring firm involved. This is not considered an acceptable job. The good news is they were able to remove the factory finish. That is normally the hard part. Sadly, this is probably a full sand/refinish once again.

You can start with Goof Off to see if it will remove some of the stain. I refinish wood floors and the norm is that we do not repaint. We don't charge anything for paint and we don't do any painting. It's stated on every proposal. Some refinishers are more tidy than others but it's unrealistic to expect they sand, stain and poly next to adjacent surfaces and not have some transfer. It could have all been masked off at extra expense but stain often gets drawn up behind the tape, necessitating a repaint. Sometimes the finish seems to make the tape stick more aggressively, pulling of paint. To me it comes down to a matter of money. If you have a faux finished surface and masking is more economical we do that (and charge for it). If you're already repainting or having new trim installed (like shoemold) that requires painting after, I wouldn't mask. Since your walls are freshly painted, Goof Off and a touchup will probably suffice. You can use yellow Frog Tape to mask against the floor when painting but follow instructions and don't leave it on too long. When removing it, do so slowly and pull back against the tape rather than pulling up. "I did not want to have to replace the spindles, but since they are now in such bad shape I am wondering if that would be easier/less expensive at this point.." Obviously not, since new spindles would also require painting in addition to significantly more labor and materials to remove and install. It would neither be easier nor less expensive.