I have red oak flooring throughout my house. Refinished all of it and installed new red oak in my kitchen during remodel. It's all finished with three coats of Original Waterlox, a tung oil with some additives. It finishes and seals. Is waterproof and really easy to touch up. It's been throughout my house for eight years with no sign of wear. In kitchen for two -- looks beautiful. Product creates a soft, warm, natural glow. Not high gloss (although I think they have a high gloss product) and definitely not "plastic" looking. We DIY-ed it all. Rented a drum sander for main floor. I used a good Porter Cable belt sander on the kitchen floor -- the new red oak sanded easily and it's not a large room. Waterlox is easy to apply, easy to clean up. Very DIY friendly. (You might be able to save a chunk of moola and do this yourself....) Best of all, it looks fantastic! Good luck!

jscozz, The dishwasher will be a naturally moist area so it is a good idea to make sure the wood is sealed with a polyurethane sealant in order to prevent moisture from seeping into the wood. As wood gets wet, it swells. If there is a water leak under the sink or dishwasher, unfinished wood will get wet and swell. It could swell so much as to buckle the floor out into the visible area, crack the cabinets and even push out the wall studs. I'd also use a good silicone sealant and seal the gap between the wall and wood floor behind the cabinets, just to make sure water doesn't seep in there and cause black mold inside the wall.

Bleaching a wood floor isn't a big deal, especially compared to the entirety of work required to sand and refinish. It's the best way to counteract the red in Red Oak if you want a light color. What your suggesting could be problematic depending on the finish you're using. Rubio has a product called precolor Aqua (http://www.monocoat.us/precolor-aqua/) that's white with a minty green tone, but it's meant to be used with their oil finish. It's hard to apply uniformly. lazy_gardens and Couture are correct. If you bleach a floor then apply a standard green tinted stain, the wood will absorb the green stain and be too saturated to accept the white pickle. Also, since Red Oak is very grainy, you stand the chance that the green will concentrate in the soft grain and accentuate it. The Rubio product is mopped on and left. A better idea would be to bleach the floor twice, apply white pickle and a coat of sealer (we use BonaSeal which I think is now called ClassicSeal). Once that is applied you can evaluate the color and determine whether to tint the first finish coat slightly green. You could use a closet floor or an area that will be hidden to do samples. Beware that tint coats can change color as they dry so if you do a test, let it dry completely before deciding. After a tint coat you'll need a clear wear coat. Once the floor is bleached, pickled and sealed you might determine that the slight rosy tone doesn't bother you and you can just apply clear coats.

Yes, it can be spot fixed. You will need to know what type of poly and sheen was used on the original refinish. Sometimes you may need to mix your own sheen, if, the off the shelf stuff doesn't match.