Wanted to add that the contractor also did 2 coats of stain on an interior bedroom pine door adjacent to the front door (below). It is not yet varnished. He treated this door the same as the front entry door above (likely sanding only with 80 grit sandpaper, waiting 24 hours between applying pre-stain and the 1st coat of stain, spraying on the stain). I am unhappy with this door for the same reasons as the front door stain job. I asked him why there is a streak of extra stain across the bottom of the door, so then he sanded it off THAT ONE STREAK. Is this ok? What should be done at this point?

The doors are a mess,I wouldn't pay for the work. If you hadn't told us the secound door was only stained I would have said it was done with an "all in one" like Poly-Shades. I have never had success with conditioner that was alowed to cure more than 3 or 4 hours,may as well save the effort if not stained until overnight.

The first one isn't great, but not horrible. I'd give it a light sanding and then restain by hand, stain on a rag to even things out as needed.

The second one is horrible. The stiles, rails and panels all have uneven coverage. Then end grain of the raised panels, it looks like they were given no consideration at all. In my opinion, that needs to come down to bare wood. If not, it could be evened out by going darker. Since taking it to bare wood is probably not going to happen, I'd paint the door. Or burn it.

Thank you, bobismyuncle, klem1 and MongoCT! Bobismyuncle, really appreciate your technical advice. Have you ever heard of Deft Clear Wood Finish spray? A wood finisher came over to the house to give me an estimate on fixing the bad wood staining. I showed him the doors as well as the newly built wooden staircase that my contractor built and, unfortunately, stained with the same oil-based Minwax products. The stain on the red oak treads is actually a good even tone all over, it's mainly a problem of the wood still being tacky (not dry) from the 2 coats of stain, lots of particulates trapped in the wood (you can see and feel the gunky particles all over the wood), and just not cleaning up the dripping stain in some parts. The wood finisher said that rather than sanding everything down to bare wood (he quoted over $4,000 - not in our budget), he could do an easy fix and demonstrated it to me right there on one tread. This was a tacky, particulate-laden stairtread, just like all the others. He first wiped his finger along the tread and showed me that the brown stain had transferred onto his finger. He then took a rag and wiped the tread with it quickly, which turned his rag brown. There was enough stain left on the tread that it was a nice even brown color. Then he sprayed on a coat of this Deft spray on the tread, dried it with a hair dryer for 1 minute, then quickly went over the tread with a sanding sponge. He repeated the spray of Deft spray, blow drying, and sanding sponge one more time all over the tread. He then applied a fine mist spray of a water-based polyurethane (I couldn't tell the name of the polyurethane product since it was in his spraying machine). Another 1 min with his blow dryer, and it was like magic - the tackiness and embedded particles were completely gone, and instead the stairtread was now silky smooth and dry to the touch! He said that the Deft spray "blocked" the oil-based Minwax stain, to keep it from reacting with the top layer of the water-based polyurethane. He did the whole "fix" in about 5 minutes. But he wants to charge $1,500 to do this for my whole staircase (14 stairs, a 4x7 foot landing area, and handrails). Do you see this fix being a good one in the long run? He says that because he didn't apply the stain himself, he can't guarantee whatever is beneath the "fix" and so cannot give any warranty on the work, warned that the finish could peel over time. Doing these steps don't seem difficult, and I'm tempted to try to fix the rest of the staircase this way. I'll use the wood finisher's services on the doors and other projects we need to have done. Could this fix be a good option for stairs that have a good even stain on them, but just have problems with tackiness and particulates embedded in them?

All that sound's hunky-dory up to the point of "no warranty",for which I don't blame the wood finisher one bit. I'll have to say the use of Deft strike's me as unusualy since it is lacquer based. Who am I to argue with success you saw with your own eyes but I'm skeptical. The wild card here is knowing exactly what was applied in the first place ( you will recall I didn't believe that was only stain to begin with ). Because of stickyness you failed to mention earlier I'm farther convinced that is not simply stain. I origionally called it a mess,now I'm not sure but what it qulify's as a hopless mess. Bottom line,it would be brazen saying we can tell more from pictures than the wood finisher can with hands on.

Fixing someone's mistakes is always more expensive than doing it right the first time. Just say no to Craigslisters and low bidders, you will always find out why they are so cheap(up front).

You are now at the mercy of someone that knows what they are doing and rightfully deserving to be compensated well to remove your problem.