Hi - we recently hired a contractor to sand and stain our unfinished red oak floors and are unhappy with the finished product. since this is the first time we installed new floors, we really have nothing to compare it against. for starters, he mentioned multiple staining is bad (we requested for 2 coats) and will cause the polyurethane to not stick and will peel/flake in a few months. The result was only 1 stain (minwax oil base) done by him applying the stain and immediately wiping it off. this cause our wood to be minimally stained or what i saw as a faded color. he said this was the best for the wood floors cause oil has not saturated the wood. 2nd our wall edges were not properly sanded which resulted in the borders having a darker color as if someone stained the edges first. we are disappointed in the finished product but are concerned if the next person we hire for the redo will result in the same work. my gut feeling is he basically did a quick job and it shows.

Can you advise if this is "common" craftsmanship of floor contractors or did we just end up with a bad one. and what are some things we should look for or ask our next contractor (i.e. requests, specific oil stain and polyurethane brands)?

thanks in advance

He was correct about multiple coats of stain. The perimeter sand/darker look is a different story.

Hi Stephen thanks for your reply

As for the multiple coats of stain, does the same apply if its one coat but the stain is left on longer (ie 20secs) such that the wood absorbs the color?

The difference I saw was his 1 coat was left on for at most 2-5 seconds resulting in a very weak coloring. If I tell them to redo will leaving the stain on for a bit longer affect the poly?

Also, for the sand/darker look if the contractor sanded correctly I should seem a seamless stain from wall to wall? Or is this difficult to accomplish amongst flooring contractors?

I have not done alot of staining but theres others here who may chime in. But staining only once is pretty much standard industry practice. Also how much it takes depends on the wood as well. I've let some dwell for a bit on furniture which helped but furniture is not a floor.
The perimeter should blend but then that is controversial as one person sees things differently than others.

First, yes, as Stephen mentioned, 1 coat of stain is always best. If you do 2, the poly doesn't stick well.

Second, my guys usually leave the stain on for 2-5 minutes. It can vary a bit by the stain and generally less time for the darker stains.

Third, yes, the edges should blend. While I haven't seen your pictures, based on your description, it doesn't sound like they sanded/used the edger properly on those areas/didn't transition well.

We prefer to use duraseal (made by Minwax), but we often use Minwax as well - depends on the customer's color preference.

Debbie Gartner aka "The Flooring girl."
http://TheFlooringGirl.com

You can do 2 coats and we
When we do , we do wet on wet..but have done the next day as well.

We have also applied heavily with an applicator..this requires minimally 3 days to dry.

In these instances we always use OIL BASE poly,
After sufficient dry times usually 2 days .
As a rule we normally only apply one coat..

Preparation, porosity and experience all matter here.