I like White Oak better than Red. It works better with a certain color pallette and is less grainy when stained. I have natural color White Oak in my master bedroom. Traditionally flooring here was White Oak when stained, Red Oak when natural, but that's going quite a long way back. Two things to consider. 1) The floor in the pictures looks almost certain to be #1 Common grade. White Oak will have some substantial color variations, especially in a grade lower than Select. 2) $1.00 per square foot additional for staining sounds like a lot. We charge $0.30 per square foot to go from natural to a standard stain. It takes a bit more time to make sure you've sanded out the small scratches that typically wouldn't show up on a natural floor, but you're not adding an extra coat. You're simply applying stain instead of clear for the first coat. I could see if it was a small area and might require lots of samples but not 2000'. Maybe he's charging for the stain as a separate added operation and still applying the same number of surface coats. Or possibly he uses a better (ie more costly) crew to do the stain jobs. Or maybe I'm not charging enough!

I've done jobs with different oil products but used the Rubio only twice. One turned out perfect. It was a mix of White and Pure on rift sawn White Oak. The owner insisted on using a green finish with no solvents and I warned her it was fine except for potential issues with dog accidents. You can probably guess what happened. The second was Super White that we water popped. It ended up with some cloudy areas which points out issues with finishing technique. The floor needs to be sanded perfectly and scrupulously cleaned before oil application, and the finish needs to be removed completely or it will be cloudy. I just finished a natural color job with WOCA. It turned out nice in the end but took a bit of work. We washed the freshly sanded floor with the Wood Cleaner. The effect of the water made the floor look less smooth than desired. We tried extra coats, abraded with an abrasive nylon pad then re-oiled to the same end. Then we re-screened the floor, applied two more coats and it looks great. I think I'd forgo the cleaning step in the future. I like the idea of the Rubio and even have enough material in stock to do my own floor however I like the ease of maintenance and relative simplicity of the WOCA product line. The Rubio Soap is crazy expensive IMO. Coloring my opinion is that my local Rubio distributor is somewhat pathetic. I found a distributor in GA that carries WOCA and Rubio so that will at least put that issue to rest and give me a resource with expertise to draw on. I like the Rubio Smoke, Fumed and Precolor products for the breadth of unique looks it can achieve when used with their products. The bad? It requires more routine maintenance than poly. It's more susceptible to minor spills and stains. You are unlikely to find maintenance product for sale locally, so stock up. I have two older parquet floors in a wood that's no longer available. I plan on sanding it, wire brushing it, then applying a mix of White and Super White with the idea that the floor will go from it's current dark mahogany look, to a coffee with cream color with white in the deeper grain. I don't know that I'd use it in my own kitchen even though I can pay my own workers to change it fairly effortlessly. I am something of a skeptic when reading the claims of the wonders of the new generation of oil finishes, even though I'd like them to be true.

you are just going to have to get samples and try them out. have no idea what your room looks like or the type of light you get. what you don't want are cool gray colors. red oak is warm,,,you need a warmer gray, or a neutral gray. (BTW,,,I have Silver Half Dollar on my walls and it looks like a baby blue. I get afternoon sun in the room and they are tall ceilings. It's very blue once up. I have it paired w/Kendall Charcoal and silver travertine, so it still works. but w/a red oak floor, I'm thinking you won't like it) Get some samples! some of the colors you picked are on this,,,next to a cool, blue/gray tile floor. to me, these two tones clash. you may like it.

man, too bad they didn't spread those red ones out here and there, instead of keeping them in little groups. you sure someone didn't replace some planks down the road? I don't think you have to go dark. why don't you get some red/white oak planks and do some sample stain colors on them? this way you'll get an idea of what looks best.