I recently ripped up the carpet in my house only to find nice hardwood floors throughout. They are faded though and need to be refinished. The living room, dining room and hallway all run into each other with no seperation. My question is, can I refinish each area seperately maybe putting down tape where I want to end or will this result in different coloring when I stain it? Also, can I overlap an already finished part of the floor when I go to stain the next section? Im trying to avoid doing the whole upstairs all at once.

Yes, you can do it that way. I would try to make the stop points in doorways. I don't use tape but you can if you want. To be succesful at this:
1) Sand the floors exactly the same every time.
2) Mix all the stain for the whole area all at once. Say you need 4 qts. for 500 sq.ft. of upstairs floor. Mix all 4 qts. now and save what you don't use for the next room/s.
3) When finishing, don't use the same stop point each time. Move over one or two boards each time to avoid the obvious.
4) Cross your fingers.

Rick
Are the boards running lengthwise thru the doorways, or are they running across the doorways?

Pete

Across the doorways.

Follow Gary's instructions & you should be fine. If you can tolorate looking at it, I like to sand a few boards beyond the joint where I plan to stop, and
do the finish sanding when I start the next room. ( less sanding near the joint means less chance of sanding into it)

Unless you're confident, and have a steady hand, 3M blue tape will help. Press the tape down with your finger along the joint only. Replace the tape after each operation. Pull the tape up a few minutes after applying oil finishes - less than a minute after applying water.

Pete