We (homeowners) have hired installers to put in 3/4" red oak herringbone in our top floor. All's well until we get to the stain - there are serious lap marks and marked blotching on the floor, even after a sanding and redo. The stain being used is a Mohawk wood wiping stain, suggested by installer. Are there any special techniques for staining herringbone? The installers have done a regular plank flooring before but not herringbone. Everyone is pretty frustrated at this point... Any suggestions/advice for us at this point? Thanks in advance.

The beauty of a stained herringbone floor comes from the quality of the sanding, much more than staining techniques.
This is a job for the best pros you can find. Remember that 50 percent of the floor will not be sanded with the grain, therefore a great deal of hardplating and screening needs to be done before anyone goes near the floor with a bucket of stain.

I just finished a herringbone job. Herringbone is a patterned floor, which means the grain of the floor does not run in the same direction. This means, and if you ever sanded wood you will know this: half of the floor is sanded against or perpendicular to its grain. It takes a lot of work, experience and expertise to sand a patterned floor, especially if stained. There is some tricks involved. The real pros have paid their price to find out what works, and therefore are not readily willing to share that knowledge, plus it is something that cannot be shared in many cases, as it is the experience that matters. Your best bet is to get a true professional. You will have to pay more, but it will be well worth it. Nothing looks more beautiful than a properly finished patterned floor, and you're dressed to impress, that's for sure.

As Dennis mentioned, the sanding on a herringbone floor needs to be excellent. Many sand and finish contractors exist to do things the fast and easy way and simply don't have the expertise to deal with complex jobs. That said ,, I can't judge the sanding job you had done without seeing it so I'll give some general tips

Sanding in the field typically starts with the finest grit paper that will still have the ability to cut the floor and level it. Then gradual steps up in grit need to be taken until there is a very fine scratch pattern in the wood. I typically start at 40 grit and end at 120 or even 150 grit .

ONce the sanding is done, your contractor should be buffing the floor with a disc style buffer with whatever grit abrasive or screen it takes to remove all sanding lines. This could vary from 80 to 100 grit sand paper on a hard plate and maybe end at 120 or 150 grit sanding screen under a white foam pad.

For staining herringbone, I would recommend using Bonakemi dri fast stains. They don't have certain dark colors that are the equivalent of some popular minwax colors but dri fast stain has the ability to re activate itself as you move across the floor which can eliminate the possibility of lap lines. Bonakemi stain can be applied by hand with brushes and rags or buffed onto the floor wit ha plush carpet pad.

When I stain a patterned floor , there are no defects .It looks perfect so as mentioned, you need a reputable company that has the determination to do the extra work it takes to handle this type of floor.