What is the issue you're trying to correct? (why do you think it is a mistake?-- too glossy, not a tough enough finish for a floor, or what?)

I have read now that moisture will cause blush spots. I have three little boys and mop my floors almost every day. And we have lots of spills and whatnot, so I would say not a tough enough finish for a floor.

I have read poly cannot be applied on top of shellac because the wax in shellac causes adhesion problems. I have read on the wood whisperer website of an experiment with this where there were no adhesive problems.

http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com/videos/shellac-under-polyurethane/?as=Shellac%20&mode=posts&ap=1

I have put a week into sanding and shellac-ing this floor. I am hoping not to ruin it at this point.

Which product did you use? If it was the de-waxed, you can lightly sand, clean and proceed with the poly

Shellac is, first, a terrible finish for a floor. I love shellac(mix my own for use in my shop), but it is not a suitable floor finish. I wonder where you got the advice to use it.

As Christopher said, if the shellac was dewaxed, you can lightly sand(scuff) and apply poly for floors---NOT just poly.

Two things, I installed unfinished maple flooring in our current house and used MinWax Poly for Floors. It is oil based, but three coats can be applied in 36 hours for a walk on finish in 48 hours. That finish adds an amber tint to the wood. It has an horrific odor until cured, so staying in the house is not pleasant.

If you do not want the amber tint, you need to use a water based poly for floors.

Second, buy whatever product you decide to use at a paint store, not a home improvement store. If you bought the shellac at a home improvement store, you got really lucky (unless you had to order the amount) the shelf life was still valid. Shellac does not sit well after mixing.

I believe the Bulls Eye product is not dewaxed, and carries a specific warning against applying polyurethane varnish over it. An alkyd or phenolic varnish would be fine, but that's also not a great floor finish with little kids.

The good news is that the shellac will sand off quickly and easily. You could live with it a while and see how it does, but the answer is likely to be not well. My favorite for a tough floor finish is a first coat of Bona Amber Seal (because I like the slight amber tone and the way it will help pop the figure) followed by Bona Traffic, a catalyzed water-based polyurethane, or Traffic HD for especially hard use areas.

I wouldn't use anything from a big box store nor the local paint store. I go the floor finishing supply house and get the same products the pros use.

Thank you all for your help. I wasn't advised to use it. I just didn't know what I was doing. I am going to leave as is for now and sand and refinish down the road.

Even though you used the wrong product, the end result looks quite nice. I've seen 'professional' jobs that looked worse.

"I am going to leave as is for now and sand and refinish down the road"

Good call. Nothing worse than re-doing a project right after you finish it. I bet after you put some throw rugs down, and get the furniture back in the room, the shellac finish lasts plenty long even if it isn't the "perfect" finish.

The gloss level will go down too in time.

Zinsser Bulls Eye Shellac is a waxed shellac. Zinsser SealCoat is a dewaxed shellac. Zinsser sells SealCoat as a pre-finish product but is just dewaxed shellac. I use the SealCoat product when I want to use a shellac. As others have mentioned there is nothing wrong with the way the floor was finished but may start showing wear sooner than other "harder" floor finishes. The benefit of shellac is that you can touch up the finish pretty easily with a bit of denatured alcohol and a bit of fresh shellac. If you do want to refinish at some point, no need to sand. You can remove most of the shellac with denatured alcohol and then go from there.