Following water damage in my home, the insurance company found that approx. 80 sq ft of my hardwood flooring needed to be replaced and all the flooring ( over 1300 sq ft) needed to be refinished. After interviewing 6 companies, I choose the wrong one. Mid priced of the estimates. I now have chatter or waves, debris, what appears to be a drum mark in the master, some miner swirl marks and two major swirls. My floor is white oak, natural, satin oil based finish. Reviewing the posts on this board it appears my floors will have to be re-sanded and refinished. I have been searching the internet for questions I should have asked the flooring companies I interviewed and have been unable to locate this information. If this information is available can someone please point me to that info. Thanks

A professional floor finisher that does good work must be able to stain floors walnut color to be in business. It takes some training to blend the different machine sanders marks to make a uniform color. If the operator can not give you a price for a walnut stain on your floor, I would take a pass, immediately. If you have some conformation that they are confident they are capable of this, then either you can ask for a picture of their work, from the past or get a previous customer to talk to about their workmanship. It takes more than just getting a few bids because some companies use salesmen who can sell more than their company can produce. A referral is a good bet. Contracting with the owner who is also the mechanic and the one who makes the contact with the clients and also does the work is your best guarantee. As you may appreciate that the work cost will be spread over many years of use, so paying a little more will be a good investment.
A natural finish ought to be a piece of cake for a capable mechanic.