We're in the middle of having our maple floors refinished and stained. I've noticed what look to me like "mistakes" that should be fixed, but since I don't know much about hardwood refinishing I'd like some input on whether I'm being fair if I ask them to fix these problems. Or is what I'm seeing normal/acceptable? The floor is currently stained and with 2 coats of finish on, but still need to do the top coat.

Problem areas:

- There's a few areas near the edge of the floor with what looks like circular sanding marks, where the stain appears to have set in darker.

- Several of the corners, as well as immediately around the bathroom sink, are darker than the rest of the floor. (He gave some reason for this...they had to re-do the bathroom floor and sander couldn't get to the edges, and said that dark corners are better than light corners? I didn't quite understand the reasoning.)

- There are many small areas throughout the floor where it looks like stain may have been allowed to sit...these areas are darker and I can see an "edge" that goes across several boards (so I know the extra color is not due to maple's natural blotchiness when stained).

Thanks for any input!
Amy

Doesn't SOUND too good to me, but need pics to really determine the extent of the issues.
Being as you are the home-owner, you evaluation is naturally subjective. While we all hope for furniture grade finishing on our floors, this is not reasonable to expect. So please, post a few pics; that will help in determining whether your concerns are justified. As the finisher to hold off the final coat for a few days so we can help advise you.

Thanks Dennis.

I took some pictures today.
(Go to this link and click on each jpg): www.princesspicasso.com/floors

The guy came and re-worked many of these areas by hand, and it looks probably 50% better...but because he did it spot-by-spot, it doesn't look near as even as it would if he had sanded the whole thing back down. There were a lot of spots to re-work. Apparently a lot of what we were seeing is swirls from the staining rag (not from the sander).

He says that maple is just harder to stain, but is that really the issue with these spots? From what I understand, the difficulty in staining maple is that the hard and soft spots take stain differently. Is it just harder to stain in general?

He's planning to come back tomorrow to re-work the rest of the spots. We're thinking of asking him to just re-sand the whole thing, so it will look uniformly even. Either that or let him finish the rest of the spots and leave it as-is. What do you think is reasonable?

Thanks

Maple does tend to leave a blotchy appearance but thats a little more than just the wood there. The corners dont look like they were sanded at all. I would be a little dissaponted that looks like a pretty poor sand imo. Took a second look at the pics and what kind stain did they use? Was it something you picked out or one the contractor supplied? That thing is full of lap lines like they used some wierd kind of stain. The thing will be blotchy but they shouldnt leave lap lines like that unless they used some funky kinda stain.

Not sure what kind of stain it was, it was one he already had. I don't know if they sanded the corners either, but they must have had the ability to, because a couple were ok and the rest looked dark like in the pictures. He did say that all of the circular lines are from the stain. He's re-working spot-by-spot, but I'm afraid that might make it more blotchy than before...

Well if he suplied the stain then he holds the liability and there will be no way to squirm out of the issue. Did the floor come out much lighter than expected as well?

That floor looks to me to be ready for re-sanding and finishing. I dont believe it can be brought up to any reasonable standards but touching up areas. And yes, as Kevin says, the corners were definitely not prepped properly for finishing.
The stain itself may be a large contributing factor here, either the product or application method.
I think it is best to ask your contractor to start over, he probably CAN do the job, just going to need to exercise some extra care and caution to give you what you want.

Overall it looked about the color I expected from his sample, though there were a few lighter spots that it looks like weren't coated as much as the others, like the area in the middle of this picture:

It appears to me that the contractor attempted to control the depth/intensity of the color by the way he wiped the stain off. But doing it this way risks an uneven job, especially on maple. Either that, or he is not very good at staining a floor. It also could be the way he sanded it or the brand of stain he used. IMO, it is not acceptable. If a contractor agrees to stain a maple floor, he accepts the responsibility of the outcome. He should not agree to it, then turn around and say that's how it is ( poor ) because it's maple. I agree maple can be splotchy in appearance when stained. But that is not what your concerns are. It is an uneven stain job with marks in the floor from how the stain was removed/wiped off. It warrants a do over.

Oh that looks horrible from here.

How about a over all shot of the biggest room?

First mistake never stain maple the hardest wood to stain. the best of the best would have a hard time. wood is really hard. but... thats a terrible sand job a final coat will not look any better, hope you didnt pay

YIKES!!!

That is one ugly stain job, even for Maple.

Back to bare wood, and he needs to back away and hire/subcontract someone that knows what they are doing.

Often wondered why onsite stain jobs can't get that maple stain as even like prefinished manufactuers get it. I guess they're using pigment in the finish?

prefinished is stained in panels with a roller with a diffrent kind of stain. each board is sanded perfectly prior to staining. Penetraing oil stains that are used on site have to have the excess wiped off . with prefinished each board is coated from end to end as it rolls down an conveyer belt with no wiping. you can do the same if you sanded each board and stained each board individually proir to installing. You have to have 100 percent controll to get the kind of results you see in stained prefinished maple floors. we all know that's not realistic in a site finished situation.

Totally different type of stain used in pre-finishing plants. It is more of a dye and dried under UV to speed up the process so there is no penetration of the wood by the "stain" (dye). This greatly reduces the blotchy appearance. However, even the best pre-finished maple floors will still have SOME uneveness to the tone.