I want to change the look of my floors (hiring pros) so I'm investigating my best option. I have about 1600 s.f. of maple strip floor over concrete with radiant heat. It's at most 10 yrs old, in fair condition with lots of scratches and dings, and quite yellow. What I want is a walnut or walnut-looking floor. I'm debating refinishing the maple and finding someone with experience in staining it to the right color, which i know is tricky with maple, or ripping it out and floating a new engineered walnut plank.

Where I'd like some advice is 1) how to best tell if the existing floor is nailed or glued in the least evasive way, since if it is glued, all accounts of removing glued floors are such that I will likely go the refinish route (because of the radiant heat, I have no vents to check exposed edges) and 2) if I refinish, are the chances of achieving a good stained result so dismal with the maple that I should instead focus on just applying a tinted finish?

Thanks for the input!

You can simply ask a local finishing pro to come out and give you a bid. He/she will tell you IF the floors can be refinished to look the way you want. Some say maple can't be stained and others say they have done it successfully. If you are hiring out the work, all that matters is if the person doing the work can do it. Most likely, your floors are a glued down engineered with a thin veneer.