We have color! I am in LOVE with the Pallmann's Magic Oil finish we put down. Because I was trying to avoid a strong odor during the refinishing since we would be staying in the house during the process (sleeping downstairs), I decided to go with a colored Pallmann's Magic Oil rather than staining using Minwax or DuraSeal first then using the clear Pallmann's. To find a color I liked, I ordered several samples of Pallmann's from the distributor that is closest to me, in Dallas, and the samples are called "pucks." I got black, dark brown, and red brown. Straight out of the can, the colors weren't what I was looking for, but when I started mixing them, I found a great combo. I just took a plastic solo cup and a plastic teaspoon and mixed in various ratios until I got what I wanted. First was 3 spoonfuls of dark-brown and 1 of black, but that was too dark, so I added 2 more spoonfuls of dark brown (for a 5:1 ratio) and that was perfect. I was also mindful of how much total finish I needed to buy (6 liters for my project) so tried to mix in ratios that would minimize waste, and 5:1 was perfect for that. We mixed all six of the Part A containers (colored oil) in a 5 gallon bucket and stirred thoroughly, then used a small measuring container (from the paint section of HD) to measure out a small amount of the colored oil to mix with the Part B (accelerant) which is what makes it harden to a very durable finish. I think the colored Pallmann's has a different ratio of Part A to Part B than the clear, but just follow the directions on the box. Ours was 4:1, I think, so I would fill the container up 16 ounces with color, then top off to 20 ounces with the accelerant, stir with a stir stick, then trowel apply per the directions and video UFloor (the distributor/mfr.) has on YouTube. To prep, we screened the entire floor upstairs at 100 screen (we'd sanded it previously with a sanding sequence of 60, 80, 120 but had a week's worth of foot traffic and moving the last bits of furniture out so wanted to make sure the wood fibers were all the same to accept the stain evenly. Perhaps overcautious, I don't know). Screening is MUCH harder than using the vibrating square buff sander - it took lots of muscle to figure out how to control the buffer. There were a few times initially where I didn't think we were going to be able to do it - mostly when the buffer was going airborne like an ice skater doing a triple Lutz. Eventually got it under control, but managed to leave lots of marks on our freshly painted walls from the buffer handle pushing us around. Got some touch up to do. It looks so easy on YouTube but it was HARD! Then, we swept up tons of sawdust. Then, we shopvacced all the dust we could, carefully carrying around our shop vac canister so it wouldn't leave wheel marks on the floor's fibers. (Again, overcautious much?) We tacked the floor with old towels misted with paint thinner. This was stinky but my husband did it while I was at Home Depot exchanging our buffer for a new one - the first one's wheel was messed up and it was really annoying to work with. All the prep work takes forever, but I figured it was better to do it now than spend two months installing the floors and messing them up in the final stretch. Before sanding and screening, we also had taped over all the light switches, electrical outlets, covered vents and air returns - and turned off the heat - taped plastic over the ceiling fans and lights, removed all the blinds, etc, and then removed all that stuff so that when we were doing the clean up, all the sawdust would be on the floor so we could get it up before we applied the finish. OK, still with me? We are back to applying the finish. We started with the side rooms so that if we had to stop, we could end along a doorway with a full plank of wood. The first room we trowel applied - I used the trowel (which was a 10" stainless steel drywall trowel that I just took a piece of sandpaper and rounded the edges on) for the majority of the floor and my husband took a piece of the buffer pad and did the edges - like cutting in when you are painting a room. We got about 1/3 through the room and needed to stop and buff (there is a time limit on how long the product is workable, we set our phone's alarm and stopped to buff whenever it was time). The first bit was frantic as I was really worried about hurrying and the time and everything, but I calmed down soon enough and figured out this is a marathon, not a sprint. We followed the buffing sequence the instructions specified and didn't have much problem, The first buff is really "grippy" and you need to use some muscle to control the buffer or it will throw you around. The final buffs with the white pads were pretty easy, and I did those to give my husband a break. Per the tip from the Pallmann rep, we applied two coats back-to-back before moving on to the next room. Trowel application: The second room, we thought we'd try the other application method, the buffer method instead of hand-troweling. Big mistake! Maybe if we were more experienced with the buffer we could have done better, but as it was, that buffer through us both around like a rodeo bull. Grabbing the liquid oil made it really careen around, no matter how carefully or lightly we dipped into the oil pool. I had the honor of putting the first hole in the drywall - at which point DH thought he'd better take over. He was doing better than me at first, but then the buffer got the best of him and he put two more holes in the drywall in the same room! We decided to finish that room using the buffer method but to go back to troweling after that. There is no real difference in how the finished product looks, and it really wasn't faster to do the buffer with the way it was flinging us around. The only thing was my wrist was practically crippled by the end of the project, as we did almost 1500 sf in a 10 or 12 hour marathon. I was switching from left to right hand, and DH even had to take a turn troweling, but I've had to wear my wrist brace all week to give my poor arm a chance to rest. This is reaching the length of a novel, so I will just post some more pictures of the final product. We still need to do the stairs (at 2:30am we called it quits because we needed to get up for work in four hours) and baseboards and shoe molding, so these aren't the final final product, but we are getting close. It's been an adventure! We did have a few problem areas that we need to address, I will come back and post about that soon. Buffer application: Back to troweling:

You might try posting in the flooring forums... We've had polyurethane over oak for the last 14 years. This has held up well with minimal maintenance required. We refinished the kitchen area once in that time. In our remodel we are putting in some new floors and going with reclaimed oak flooring milled in downtown L.A. from beams salvaged from a railroad depot in Alabama. We will refinish all our floors at this time and going with either an oil finish or hard wax oil. Our flooring installer recommended Waca oil but the place that made the flooring recommends a hard wax oil. We ordered a bunch of sample colors of Waca oil to check out. Here is one source of samples: http://www.1877floorguy.com/wocooilsafte.html Osmo Hard Wax oil is pretty popular. We'll probably order some samples from them as well: http://worldclasssupply.com/store/OSMO-Wood-Wax-Finish-Transparent-Starting-as-low-as......html My sense is that hard wax oil gives a bit more protection than just oil. I've only seen small samples of wood with these finishes and they look different. Sounds like your finisher will be doing a waca-like treatment. You might want to check into a hardwax oil finish as well, so you know what your options are.

Sophia Wheeler--no, it's not gall. Cancork promoted this as a DIY floor. We checked each step with them along the way. We hired a local general installer because there was not a specialist in the area, and Cancork said that was fine. The subfloor was within specifications. We checked that and, again, OK'd it with Cancork. Cancork told me at the time that they didn't tell me about adding a cork underlayment because "most people don't want to do it because of the expense, so we didn't think you'd want to." As for the peeling, it is not in one of the birdbath areas. The peeling is starting from a few very small spots (like 1x2 cm) in one area of the floor. The floor was prepped properly--exactly as per specifications by Cancork before applying the poly, and they specifically said only to vacuum carefully and then run a damp microfiber over it (no cleaning product) before applying the poly. They warned me against scratching the floor or abrading it before applying the poly. In fact, we had to prep it in sock feet to keep any abrasion from happening at all. I understand that things happen, but within 6 months, when we did everything as per Cancork's instructions and now they tell me that we didn't do it properly--that is truly gall.

If, you use Ciranova's vintage reactive stain, those are comparable to Rubio Smoke and Fume. These are unpredictable. The more tannins and the more you apply will result in a stronger chemical reaction. Ciranova reactive stain product line has a dye in it. This product line is predictable. The colors are consistent. It is water soluble, cleaning and blending is easily done with a damp rag. Reactive stain alone will not protect your floors. It is a colorant only. You have to apply a protective coat. Either hard wax oil or their WB PU system. The color Nickel is very light. You will need to apply pink blocker onto red oak before applying the RS. With such a light color, you do not want to apply a oil modified PU over it. It will turn yellow and orange. For the best system stay with Ciranova. Apply one coat of Ecofix plus and two coats of Fortico 2C matte. Fortico is super tough, same category as Traffic HD and Supra AT. Fortico is a ceramic nano finish. Ecofix has a binder that will not reactivate the RS and move it around. Competitor's water base PU will move the reactive stain. The only way not to, is to spray the first coat down. You cannot apply a two component WB PU directly over RS. A one component finish needs to go down first. The product is pricey. Make sure you are using a experienced floor finisher.