I just wrote a nice first post and lost it!!

Oh well, I have been trying to find a way to stain a maple floor dark. Most of the pro's I talked too wouldn't do it. The others would but didn't have any experience. After a first attempt that came out looking very amature, swirls everywhere and lines from the drum sander, I proposed we sand the floor by hand staying in line with the boards. This removes the screen marks and lines from the drum sander, only introducing new ones that go with the floor boards. This was done with 100grit pole sander, getting right up to the baseboard. This is the only way to make sure that the swirl marks are completely gone and the color is consistent across the entire room right to the baseboard. After you think you sanded the whole floor, I waited until dark and setup a halogen light about 30 feet away from the room. Getting down on the floor you can catch the sheen of the sanding and find anything you missed. It is really that hard to see the swirl marks. It takes more time than most pros will care to spend. I went back over all the edges and still found more work that needed a second pass.

I have to feel bad for the guy refinishing my floor, he spent a lot of time on first attempt, palm sanding, screening.. But the trick to maple is that you can't have a single sand mark you don't want, they will all show with stain. We are using Bona Drifast Rosewood and Traffic top coat. The analogy is like a fingerprint on glass. You can't see it at all until it gets dusted. Then it stands out like a neon sign. If you miss one sand mark, you'll find it when you stain. Or if you use two different sanding techniques, palm sand the edge, drum sand the center of the room, it will look completely different in color between them.

Here is a link to a pic I took with my cell phone. This is right after stain, no poly. The dark area was a test water pop that was way too dark. Maybe a lighter stain would work with water. In that area I also used another color stain that was too orange for my taste. The far right and left will have cabinets so it helped to have some test areas.

The only hitch I had, was working on your hands and knees sanding 300sq feet you can work up a sweat. We found 4-5 "sweat" popped marks where the stain took too much from drips of sweat. These were spot sanded out and touched up with a rag.
http://picasaweb.google.com/mgsully/Floor?feat=directlink

I have read many a nightmare about seasoned pro's staining maple. Probably why I would never attempt it.

Yup, that's why I don't stain maple either. Too much of a chance of not getting paid. I consider my chances better playing the lotto better.

I agree. I respect the guys who wouldn't do it almost a little more than the guy who said he could. But if you are crazy enough it can be done.

We sand them like a normal stain, waterpop them, stain them the next day.

Just an fyi. We just repaired a birch floor with a few maple strips. Maple looks almost identical and no 3/4 birch available.

Sand 40-100
Edge 60-100
Screen 100

No water pop.

Used a light colored stain - duraseal chestnut or nutmeg color I forget - pretty sure it was nutmeg.

Floor is one of the nicest I've seen! No blotches. The maple boards are only slightly lighter and you can barely tell. The birch floor is apparently from the 50's (hard to believe because it had the purple stamp "Birch - No 1 common" that you see on new unfinished floors.

We never screen beyond 100. I think this is why so many people are afraid to stain maple. Screening beyond a 100 may plug up the pores of these tight grained woods.

We have also used an antique brown on maple - but we water popped, waited an hour, and proceeded. It is a little bit blotchy but still nice.

Thats cool. I got some nice distressed maple sample today. Lots of different stains on them...beautiful!

This sounds like a deja vu..I swear I thought this was a job I just completed a couple weeks ago... and I did the exact same ting..but found the pole sander to be of little use..I actually got down on my hand and knees with a hand sander..similar to a pole sander block..and we hand sanded the whole job..roughly 400 sf kitchen area..

we took this job from another crew that botched..we had some set backs too, but after i decided to hand sand..everything went came out beautifully..

It's possible but a serious challenge.It's like gluing plank flooring to a slab , possible but a total pain and very tedius and time consuming.

That being said, Maple is very unforgiving so the first challenge is sanding thoroughly enough to have no sanding lines or spinners.This means going way beyond what looks good on oak.

Then staining is no picnic .You either have to pop , pre condition or wash coat the maple before staining. Some old school guys have the know how to tint coatings which can be a big plus. Then there's the challenge of being able to charge enough for all this work.