Well I hate to say it but think your taking advantage of your contractor, the floor looks great and no one can say absolutely either way it will not patina like the old one where any novice could tell the difference.

The vast majority of people and research I've done seems to indicate that a floor originally finished with oil and a new floor finished in water will not patina the same way. The contractor informed us originally that it should take approximately 3 months for it be noticable that it was moving in the proper direction towards looking similar, I won't even say the same because I know it will never look exact. It has been just over three months and it looks nothing like the original floor, it has only darkened slightly and has not gotten a single smidge of amber.

If the claim was that it should begin to look similar within three months and it has not how then exactly am I taking advantage?

How is the contractor supposed to know what was used on the first one initially? We're talking several years vs months. Lighting conditions make a huge difference as well.

Shouldn't a flooring contractor know that a water based finish isn't goint to produce the same patina as an oil? This seems like one of those things that someone that does wood floors should know. Also every other contractor that bid the job bid it with a coat of oil (first) and then two coats of Traffic. This also seems to indicate that they were aware that to match the floor, even close, an oil would need to be used first.

In the end I didn't mandate anything be done instead the two of us are working through possible fixes and the process is being led by the contractor, not myself.

How is he supposed to know it was oil then traffic? I'm not a finish guy but I know all finish guys don't all do it the same.

Kudo's to the contractor though for trying to please a picky customer. Too bad it's going to cost him a couple days pay for what?

Not to throw a fly in the ointment...But am I missing something here?

Didnt you question that every other contractor that bid the job was using oil, but this guy wasn't ???

In discussion with the contractor before the job, you mentioned that only the difference in wood was mentioned. Yet you knew about the difference in proposed finish compared to the other contractors.

Lowest bidder I bet.

Well, there is more than initially meets the eye here.
There will never be an exact match between the two floors, unless total refinishing is done. The oxidation of the wood is surface oriented so sanding both floors will give (maybe) a uniform look to the floor. I say maybe simply because "Brazilian" cherry does not necessarily come from the same geographic region and there are permanent colour differences from some that does come from Brazil, and some that comes from Panama, for example.
As far as the contractor knowing the type of finish that is on the existing floor; I believe he could have made an "educated" guess simply from its visual appearance.
Having said all that, I think the proper course is to let time play its part in this, but no more than a year or so. If the new floor has not made significant changes towards the look of the fully mature floor after this period, it is a safe bet to say that the only recourse would be total refinishing.

Absolutely agree Dennis, but this should not rest on the shoulders of the contractor.

Yea it's fairly obvious that this is a lowest bidder situation.

Also, I think it's fair to say that any decent installer/finish crew could safely assume that the older brazilian cherry floor there was finish with anything BUT water-based finish, based on two factors: 1. It is incredibly dark, and 2. At the time the floor was put in, (7 years prior) water-based finishes were not exactly the choice finish of many install/finish outfits.

Just my 2 cents.

UPDATE: Well after over a year the floors never looked the same, not even close. In fact the continued to look like the original picture I posted.

First in response to the last two comments, this was not low bidder, he was in fact high bidder by $100, all three bids were within $500 total.

We decoded to add 4 more room of Brazilian Cherry to the house as well as completely sand all existing floors. The simple answer, as previously noted, was simply the finish. This round as soon as we got the coat of oil down it was very evident that ALL the floors, of all three ages, were going to be amber and be dark. Our project now looks seamless thanks to the excellent contractor we hired this time around.

Floor will match eventually. This probably should have been discussed.