Davie Jones

Thank you all so much for your advice. Our flooring subcontractor insisted on finishing the job, saying that we might like the final result. Unfortunately it ended up looking like a shinier version of the same thing. If I could ask a petty question: where do you think the blame lies here? I feel that there's some shared responsibility: on one hand, I should have researched staining maple before buying the wood. On the other hand, there are products that prevent blotching (like Charles Neil conditioner), which could have prevented it. The flooring subcontractor claims to be in the business for 20 years, but it seems like they didn't use anything to prevent blotching. Is this completely our fault for using maple? Would you attribute any fault to the subcontractor's technique? (See finished photos.)

Hey all, we hired a contractor to do our hardwood floors as part of remodeling our first house. We chose grade 1 solid maple due to its low-grain uniform look, and DuraSeal Golden Oak stain. After our contractor applied the first stain application though, the floors look very blotchy and non-uniform. (See photo.) We've since learned that maple blotches very easily (I wish I knew that 2 days ago). Marc Spagnuolo's video, "Coloring/Staining Blotchy Woods", suggests using Shellac Bullseye Seal Coat before staining, along with a gel-based stain, to minimize blotching. Can we recover from this? Can we start over by sanding and use Marc's method, or are the blotches permanent? What about sanding and switching to a darker color? Thanks for any advice.