Two years ago we installed a Mirage Maple engineered hardwood floor in our kitchen and back porch. My wife never liked it. It seemed to ding easily and people thought it was Pergo instead of hardwood. We're redoing our kitchen now and she wants to replace the floor at a cost of $4300 (with cheaper flooring). The installer has suggested, as an alternative, repairing the floor where it needs to be repaired, sanding it and changing the color to a Mahogany. I'm sure that would save us a lot of money and I understand that Mirage is the Cadillac of floors.

Will a Mahogany stained engineered Mirage Maple floor look good? I have three unopened boxes of the stuff so I have plenty to repair with. Thanks in advance for your responses.

Staining maple can be tricky, have him make some samples from the left over material first. If not sanded and preped correctly it can turn out quite blotchy.

I agree with Kevin; staining and finishing maple is difficult. One of the reasons Mirage is good is the fit and finish. If you resand the floors, that will make them like most other engineered floors. Plus changing the color and resanding won't make the existing floors perform any better. I say, do what your wife wants or you'll never hear the end of it if it doesn't turn out great.

I was afraid of that. What a waste. I hate tearing up relatively new flooring but I guess it's cheaper than divorce.