@live_wire_oak I am aware white oak would have been better but I had no choice bc the living room hardwoods were already red oak and in great shape. My highly recommended contractor hired them. Which is why I paid a GC - he knows things I don't. Will I ever be as ignorant again? Absolutely not. Now I'm trying to fix it.

@greendesigns You're so correct - I am so angry they didn't walk me through it. I'm so angry at myself I trusted them.

Two choices refinish and go darker (green cancels out red so raw umber is the colorant in a custom stain) or bleach the floor first then a lot more options are available. There are chemical reactive stains which can get you a whole lot of different looks but probably way above a ploy coat finishers skills.

Fixing it involves changing your expectations and your contractor both. The one you hired can't do what you want. The wood you have can't be what you want. Resanding everything to bare wood again will let you begin again. If the old wood has enough thickness to do that. But it won't change the fact that the guy you hired can't do what the floor needs. You either accept another poly coat and live with what is and move everything back in, or you hire an actual wood professional, and wait the 3-4 months for him to be available to do the job. You don't do a repeat with the existing guy.

A CONTRACTOR is not your designer. What he thinks as to colors and materials is irrelevant.......unless a given material will not work for a given application.

You are your designer, or you hire one.

Then..... you don't have to know every single thing, or make selections and decisions via your TECHNICIAN. That is what your GC is for. The execution and install.

It would not have matter if the poly was clear. You be moaning about PINK floors.

@JAN MOYER absolutely - he's not a designer. I told him I wanted as natural and neutral as possible. He showed me the raw red oak that was going into the kitchen and said just a clear poly would do the trick and it would stay light and yes, a bit red but NOT orange/amber. We talked about it half a dozen times. My mistake was not demanding a sample. They used oil based poly that changed the color dramatically. And here we are.

@ jdesign_gw thank you, that's super helpful

You GC/his subs did use clear poly. Clear oil-based poly. Oil based poly will amber as it dries and continue to amber if it ages. Water based poly will dry as a true clear, but as Julie has pointed out, the red oak inherently has a pinkish hue. This is different, though, than the honey/amber tone that you have an aversion too. It sounds like you can forgo a stain and have them sand and refinish with a water based poly.

@arch13 Yes, exactly - we don't mind the pink - we adored the way the floor looked after they put it down and before they coated it - beautiful! I did not know an oil based poly, even when clear, has a tint. I wish I didn't take their word for it because they clearly knew but probably didn't want to suggest a more expensive product (water based clear) Our ideal would be to sand again and coat with a clear poly but in the interest of not being naive again, I asked about a stain that neutralizes the red a bit. Thanks for your answer!

Two photos for reference - this was before the living room was refinished. Currently, the floor color is identical to the color on the right. What we thought we were getting vs what we ended up getting.

I am not certain I understand your photos entirely, but if what you wanted was the washed-gray look on the left, I must tell you (A) the washed-out-gray-floor look so ubiquitous several years ago, has seen its day and gone, (B) it would have been impossible to achieve on your existing floors unless you applied pickling or some bleaching stain, and (C) the natural wood look on the right is nicer and timeless. I wish you'd shown these photos from the get-go; this entire thread would be a different set of responses.

@miranda33 The floor on the left is unfinished/raw red oak. We were assured we were getting a clear coat on that and the color would not change much. The floor on the left is very similar to what the oil based clear poly looks like now.

Either my monitor has lost its mind.......or the op has. There is NOTHING wrong with the "right side" floor tone. The left does not look like "raw red oak" . In either picture.

Do it over if you are unhappy. Have them sand......water pop or stain. It can't be solved here. Any and all stains, and coatings of anything will will change the wood tone.

What you are after is either a pre finished flooring, or a WHITE oak floor. Or leave it raw. : )

If you want Bona, a water-based finish, the sub needs to be trained and experienced in using it. It’s a different process than putting down oil-based poly.

I would speak with the contractor and remind him/her that you INSISTED on a water based polyurethane ("clear coat") and were given an oil based finish that has ambered. You need to start this conversation very quickly. It will also be helpful to have your contract ready or ANY written statement (email anyone?) that clearly states your wishes and (if you have it) clearly states the GC's response of a water based clear coat.

If you have anything in writing about this topic, you will get the sand/refinish much faster and on the GC's dime (which is owed to you anyway).

The finished floor has a great natural look that lends warmth and complements any type of decor. It’s a timeless choice, and it’s ideal to weather all the trends. It may not be what you originally wanted, but I think it’s a serendipitous spot to have ended up. It’s better than what you wanted!

@julie b. thanks, that's very helpful to know. I think that's the route we'll end up taking and I'll be sure to vet the person to do it thoroughly.

There are European products that will help minimize the color change that can be used. Scandinavian floors are all about the non-finish look. Someone has to know or find out what and how to use and the floor has to be taken down it a very clean state or will be blotchy. Bona products are probably the most accessible but there are others that may be even better. Here's one example but this is not a single srep process.

Ok, now I'm totally confused. You say that the floor on the LEFT is unfinished/raw red oak. Then you say the floor on the LEFT is very similar to what the oil-based clear poly looks like now. Did you mean the RIGHT photo is what the finished floor looks like now?

The problem with clear poly is that is doesn't give any depth or interest to the wood. Even if it doesn't yellow (which oil-based poly or paint always does), it won't give you a rich wood finish. It will look like a gym floor. Stain will give you a better result, but at the risk of repeating what everyone said, you need to re-sand the entire floor down to the raw wood, and then select MAYBE 3 or 4 (no more) stains for the wood finisher to apply to small areas so you can choose which one you like best.

It's definitely fixable, and it will cost you time and money, but it's worth it!

@diana bier interiors, llc - Apologies, I've clearly been losing sleep over the situation and screwed that up. Yes, the left is raw and the RIGHT is similar to what they look like now. My brand new cabinets are a putty grey with a navy island and the light flooring (raw red oak installed prior to the poly) ooked fantastic next to them. I understand what you're saying though, I love the look of stained floors but in this case, we wanted them to be as neutral as possible based on our other design choices. You're right - we need to go back to square one. Thanks for your response.

Post your kitchen as it exists now, with the floors as they exist now. I have concerns that a pinkish cast floor will not work as well with gray cabinets as the current finished floor.

@The Cook's Kitchen Here is the way it looks now. This is the best I can provide at the moment since I'm not at home rn. It's more amber/orangey in person. Reference the photo above for what we wanted - the warm grey cabs and the amber of the floors does not look great IRL.

I agree raw section looks correct and very good with the new cabinetry. It reads "cool" not "warm" and slightly greyish in the photo which is the direct you should go. I would probably do a very light color wash first to hold that tone. Most of it would go away with the clear coat but it will just change it slightl. I just did this with some walnut to mitigate the orange tone.

@jdesign_gw Where's the best place to get a color wash? I like that idea alot. Which did you use on the walnut? Looks amazing.

This is not an off the self thing I just made that with my tints. It was a very diluted simple mix of a small bit of black and some white in some water. I build cabinets and do finishing and am pretty familiar with flooring as well as having a few friends that are expert floor finishers here in LA.

Your gray is dark, so it can go with just about any wood tone and not clash. I still think that what you have was a happy accident. :-) I took this color straight from the unfinished wood pic you posted.

Well, maybe this would suit better? A dark neutral brown created by doing a high green stain like a walnut is what many choose to get rid of the red tones in red oak. But you do have to go pretty dark to make that work.

This pulls straight from JulieB’s sample of her water based clear coat on red oak.

If you had it bleached, and then used a greenish toner, you could get a neutral type of gray. I wouldn’t recommend that though, as it’s a much more limiting foundation for any room. It doesn’t do a lot for you cabinet colors either. A multi step process is also much more expensive and risky.

Ack! NONE of that. They all make the white cabinets look pink or orange. The existing is 1000x better than any of those. It all shows exactly why to not use red oak if you don’t like how red red looks naturally. Unless you want dark brown and to swiffer dust bunnies forevermore. Leave well enough alone.

There's nothing wrong at all with the floor as is. It looks like natural red oak looks. That's the big trend. Modern Zen. Natural woods and colors pulled from Nature. Blues and greens, with bits of stone gray or cloud white. No Winter Day All Gray. And no pink floors. If you want Millennial Pink, it should be something other than on your floors. Unless it's a rug.

What about pickling? I know that can have pink undertones, but my older interiors doors are pickled red oak, and my new cabs are the same, and they do not have a pinkish cast.

Sorry you can't see it, but your pickled oak IS pink.

You can't judge a color from a photo and then a monitor screen. This floor in this closet we just finished is the color that I would use. Even though in the photo the variation looks much more pronounced . It is white oak with a really light chemical wash that adds a tinge of gray. This type of process reacts with the tannins in the wood so the color Is subtle when done in a very dulited ratio.

To each their own. But Smoky Salmon is for sure pink. I don't think it works.

It's not pink in person, which is what matters. One of my doors upstairs, when the light from the bathroom hits it, is a little pink, but that's it.

We had oil based polyurethane on red oak floors in a 1950s ranch everywhere in the house except the den. We had old red oak planks installed that matched but they put a water based urethane on them. They were not orange at all and had a nice glow. The wood grain showed better too. They did not have that smooth shiny amber finish like the oil based. Try an area on your floors, I think you might really like the way it looks.

In person it's what I said white oak with a slight grey over tone. There's no pink, no Salmon nor anything fishy about it. Thats why I'm saying can't entirely go by a photo. Used this same floor in four different houses. I know it well. At the price point I pay would probably be less than stripping and refinishing the entire floor.

I love love those floors @jdesign_gw. It’s what I would have wanted had I been able to choose white oak in the first place. in a perfect world, I’d get my red oak floors to look just like that.

You keep insisting on "neutral" . A deep nutty brown IS neutral! When do you want to do this again?!

Sand all the floors, get a deeper brown with a green / black undertone in it!

Or??? Take your darn chances , in the attempt to turn your floor to beach sand.

Because you will need to buy a darn "beach" to do it

Dealing with wood grain and the range of tones in natural unfinished wood with stains and clear coat is an art. Keep that in mind when you choose someone. If you get the right person the result can be many, many times better than what you have now. And you get to look at it every day.

Find a contractor that uses Ciranova finishes. Their products can give you the neutral look you want. They have a product called pink blocker for red oak. The only issue is the products are hard to get and is very pricey. A lot more than Loba and Bona. They are the best for neutral stains MO.

In our current house, which we are remodeling, we had red oak flooring that had a clear poly finish on it. Though in the photo it looks lighter and more natural, it was very yellow/orange in real life, so I feel your pain! I tried several stain colors, and ended up with the Minwax Special Walnut (for the third time, lol). I included a photo so you can see how much it darkened/neutralized the color.

Before:

After:

Whether you want to go natural with a clear water-based finish or want to go darker with stain, you will still need to have your floors resanded. Also, test whatever look you want to go with first, on the bare wood.

Good luck!

@Open House Home Staging--I agree. My favorite stain is Minwax Special Walnut. Your floors look beautiful, and the wall color is enhanced as well by the darker floors.

I think the way your floors look now looks best with your gray cabinets. They warm up your kitchen and a gray kitchen can be VERY cold. I love my gray kitchen but I've warmed it up with my floors, polished brass pulls, and polished copper on display.

G&S floor service ( the only other professional here that actually works with floors) has it right. "Ciranova" (which is the product which is pictured in one of my first post above) is going to have something that will work. Finding someone to do it right is more of a challenge. A friend of mine distributes their products and is one of the top finishers around so can also advise on its use if you need.

A couple of suggestions: 1. check your lighting 2700 too warm making floor appear more yellow try bulbs rated at 3000 +, 2. floor finish Loba Supra over sanded red oak (attached picture #2). We tried classic gray and it read "blue" at night. all natural finish no stain.

.https://vimeo.com/250251854

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Here's some video. This product looks interesting. I haven't used it.

We have clear, wax finished red oak and I am totally converted to a wax finish. I hope you get what you want!