Thank you goodbyekitty. I would appreciate seeing some pics of hickory. We are in the process of having new kitchen cabinets of maple in a palomino/coffee glaze. Flooring of choice is hickory engineered wood, slight distressed. The flooring will cover most of the home. Because we don't want a truly dark floor we were looking at natural. However, I fear that it may be to busy and maybe not warm enough. Help. Crash 68

This is a newly installed floor. I no longer trust my installer, so I stopped the work and I am now trying sealers on my own. I only sanded the floor unprofessionally, with a small hand machine and a sanding paper, but those marks were not there before, they appeared after I applied the sealer and they go away easily with further light sanding. I never checked humidity, and neither did my installer. But I keep the AC on all the time and the floor is now about 1 month old. I will try to sand and put a second coat and report again ASAP Thank you all

We didn't move in yet so I cannot comment on it 🤷. You might want to do some reading regarding matt finish. Some people complain that is hard to live with finish, because for example foot marks while walking barefoot. I think they are some discussions on houzz regarding that

Your contractor was too aggressive with the buffing. They sanded through the Nordicseal down to bare wood. Nordicseal does not require a mechanical abrasion. You can apply the following coat without worry-ing about adhesion failure as long as is within the recommended 48 hours. A mechanical abrasion is only needed after 48 hours of drying or to knock down raised grains. Abrasion should be done lightly to avoid sanding through the finish. Best way to fix the issues you have is to redo the area and make proper adjustments to their process or redo entire project with a different product, due to their skill level.