Update: We met with another floor refinishing professional last night. They agree that there's too much red in the floors. There's also some color inconsistencies in ours. I'm not saying ours is the exact situation, but I just wanted to update the thread with more information for other readers. They have suggested another option for us which is less expensive than going back to bare wood, re-hand scraping, re-staining, and re-finishing. This guy is suggesting to tint the 3rd coat of poly. He will use a color with a bit more brown. Then, he will apply a top coat of clear polyurethane. He says it will not dramatically darken the floors, but it will take the pinkish red out and tone it down. The quote we received is 42% of the cost of a complete refinish. We will try to get permission from our GC to allow a test in an inconspicous area like our pantry or coat closet. Then, we will try to decide if that option is really worth the gamble. Of course a complete refinish is supposed to be more of a sure thing, but this option is so much less $$, and it will leave more of the life of the floors. Since we have hand scraped, we will loose quite a bit if they are refinished. They are thinking of using a poly tint of Antique Brown or Rosewood to tone down our Mesquite Red. I think the stain will be of a proportion around 1 cup stain to 1 gallon poly. Something of that nature, at least. Oh - this guy told us that the floors will darken naturally over time in some areas and bleach from sunlight in others...another thing that wasn't explained by our original work crew. If anyone has experience with this poly-tint technique, would love to hear. Hope that's not a thread hijack!

I had a kempas floor installed in the dining room and foyer in my newly built home in 2007. It still looks GORGEOUS. I only use warm water and a microfiber mop to clean and it looks amazing. The color is so rich and complements my warm golden yellow walls beautifully. I have not experienced any issues that the above responses have thank god. That being said, about a year after I moved in I ran into a fiend whom apparently knew one of the installers. She asked me how I liked my floor. I, of course, raved about it. She then went on to say that the installer HATED IT. They had to purchase extra due to the splitting that occurred when they were nailing it. This was news to me. The installer did a wonderful job despite his frustration and the floor has performed beautifully.

Yeah one finished room. (Of course still full of dust) They finished our bedroom yesterday. Still have to enventually come back and do the closet, but for now have moved on to the great room. camlan..Their doing the same thing here. Running the wood with no seams from room to room. I hope ours eventually "glow" right now they just glow of dust, but it still is looking nice. judydel. I like to buy rugs at TJ Max HomeGoods. Patty Cakes.. Oh no. The stairs is what inspired us to do this hardwood job. We just finished painting the stairs yesterday. The carpet that was on the stairs was old, dirty and ugly. It had to come up. My kids are teenagers, so hopefully safety wont be an issue. We'll see if they become too loud, etc., we can always eventually add a runner to them. beth..Your floors, rugs and house are beautiful. Thanks for sharing the photos and experience. work.. Thanks for the advice. I'll remember this for the near future. Id love a sweeper I could run on the floor and not have to worry about damage.

I just wanted to thank you all for taking the time to answer me. Your responses really helped. The wood floors are all original oak, except for in the kitchen, where we think they are pine (and never meant to show, but we stripped them anyway!) I actually have high gloss finish in the kitchen, by accident. See, we did the LR and DR floors in 2001 and used semi-gloss and a medium stain. In 2003, we did the kitchen and stripped the floors and I bought high-gloss poly by mistake, and didn't realize it until it dried! I do like it, very much. But I just wondered, in that big expanse of my LR and DR, would the high gloss finished be too much gloss, know what I mean? My instincts tell me to go for it, but I still have some doubts. We definitely need a new topcoat, though. I don't want to ruin the floors! I did cover up the floors partially in the LR when my daughter started to walk. It's just a carpet remnant, no pad underneath, but I think I should keep it for the kids for now. I wasn't thinking how the hardwood floors would work out with babies! Here are some updated pictures of the house. Since I took those pictures on the pbase site in 2004, we've done a few more updates - new fence, stripped/sanded/painted the front porch gray (and I'm still working on the trim, that's why there are no new pics of the front porch - but it looks so much better!), and totally finished the basement. WHEW! And two babies in that time, too. :) Thank you all for your complements and opinions! I think I might try the high gloss. Here is my site with the older/remodeling pics: http://www.pbase.com/yellowduck and here are the current house pictures, minus the front porch: Here is a link that might be useful: The house