In our last house we took a couple weeks and sanded about 1200 sq.ft of original wood flooring buried by wall to wall carpets for years to bare wood to remove gouges, pet stains, etc. Applied a few coats of the Bona finish and sealer and they turned out great with no waves, an even finish etc. While the new owners are enjoying them..we've moved and the new house has some pretty worn wood flooring so here we go again! The finish is quite discolored/worn in open areas and there is a fairly big color contrast between the open spots and areas under furniture/carpet. There are practically no scratches, gouges or any water spots on the floor, just worn finish and these adjacent light/dark spots. My question is whether the pro's here think a screen-and-recoat would work because its just the finish and not wood damage or if that method is not recommended unless the entire floor is worn somewhat 'uniformly' and not only in open areas. We'll do whatever is right but if I can get away with less sanding I will!! Hope that description makes sense..thanks for reading.

Personally, I'm always leary about recommending a screen and recoat if the finish is worn through in some areas and still intact in others. Even if the final finish sheen/appearance is uniform, eventually those areas that are already worn through are going to wear through again before the other areas, and you're going to be doing the work again. Also, recoating is not going to do anything in regards to the color variation.

Thanks bw. When I say color variation I really mean finish still fairly in tact (but dull) under rugs/furniture and worn in open areas from traffic/light. The person we bought the house from lived there since it was built in the 40's. I'm not so sure it would eventually wear again in the same places because we'll certainly have different furniture in different places and probably no area rugs. I had just read a bit about screen-recoat but have no experience with it and thought maybe it'd be an option since the wood is remarkably undamaged. But I was leary about if I'd get an even finish in the end since it seems like sanding floor that is worn uneven with a single pass of medium/fine sandpaper would still leave an uneven floor that I'd be applying finish to. Maybe I'll be able to get a pic up here a bit later but sounds like it may not be recommended anyway. thanks again

The possibility of contamination is very high. Typical maintenance of those early era wood floors included waxing/polishing. Homeowners typically used whatever they had laying around. The only way to ensure success is to sand down to the raw wood. A complete refinish.