So you get Red Oak, then don't want to see any red? smh

Is he willing to bleach the floor before staining? That would help, but it would cost significantly more. I've done Jacobean on water popped Red Oak. I thought it was quite attractive.

It’s the orange tones I’m trying to get away from. And yes, I got red oak. My flooring person didn’t tell me it would be an issue. I sent him loads of photos of what I wanted.

Ask him to do a custom blend with some grey (weathered grey is nice) and maybe special walnut - here are three adjoining rooms all with different floors (kitchen was Oak, LR red oak and sun room white oak) also attaching before when kitchen was honey oak

A tremendous amount of 'orange' comes from the FINISH...not the stain. You can get away from this by using a high-end, 2 part (2K) WATER BASED finished. Do NOT use anything that says "oil" or "oil modified". They will turn ORANGE.

Do your samples include a coat of the finish? If not, you are only guessing at what the final look will be.

Red Oak is traditionally a floor with ++reddish/brown/orange tones. To calm these down you need ++++GREEN. Green eliminates red (any cosmetician knows this). That's why SOOO many people will recommend Jacobean as a BASE. Jacobean has ++ green. If you work with Jacobean and another stain with some green in it, you will have a REALLY good chance of getting rid of red/pink.

But ORANGE is a tough one...because BROWN is a form of ORANGE. Oh dear. Now you see the problem. Brown is a really dark form of orange.

Please, before you go ANY further, please look at the samples with a coat of finish on top. Then decide.

And if you can, please load a photo of what you were HOPING for. Perhaps that will clear things up.

OH...I just saw the MUSTARD ORANGE walls. Can you load pics of the rest of the rooms? Did you know that wall colour will dictate the 'look' of a room? Perhaps you are seeing ++ orange because you have HUGE amounts of orange/mustard on the walls?????

Have you tried covering up the wall colour (ie. priming the walls white) BEFORE you get the poor flooring guy to redo the floor? I'm wondering how much of the orange is being thrown onto the floors because of the wall colour.

That’s great information! I did think of the horrid orange walls the previous owner left me with but even in one bedroom that is blue I’m finding it very gunstocky in color. I was hoping for a more neutral but light brown. Like this but not as dark

What other stain has green? They tried a heritage brown. Alone I do not like it, it’s got an overall gray hue but I’m wondering if I mix with Jacobean I can get closer to the neutral.

He’s annoyed with me, although he never was here once while his men worked to consult with. And all of the men working can’t communicate in English. Thank you. I will pass along

Neutral isn't going to be easy. You need to start with a wood that doesn't contain red-brown tones. That's the best way. Your photo = gray/black in colour. It is the GRAY that is reading 'neutral'.

Now that you have red oak, you will need to get going on painting out the walls BEFORE you push forward with this.

The inspiration photo would NOT be enough information for someone offering a stain option. In many people's eyes, the refinisher ACHIEVED a lighter version of your photo. And just so you know, upto 30% of MALES have issues with COLOUR BLINDNESS!

Yep. That means 1 in 3 men in the trades have a mild to severe version of colour blindness. Some have very minor amounts of colour missing (ie. cannot see orange as a crisp colour nor green in it's thousands of variations.....oh dear).

Please, before you ask your refinished to offer anything else (other than a coat of finish on your samples) PLEASE PRIME THE WALLS WHITE!

All of those are way too dark for me, besides natural one. I like the current stain much better. It doesn't read orange on my screen. I would go with a light walnut with a touch of gray. Nothing dark.

You can try cutting Ebony with Natural. Start with 1:1 and adjust as needed. You can do the same with Jacobean and Natural.

So he water popped and put Jacobean down, made a huge difference!

One would think water popping would be standard practice by now.

@Gianni mirra - did the refinisher sand off ALL the colour and then water pop, and then add stain? Or did they go over the original stain with more stain?

Sand all of it off

So the color came out gorgeous, despite not wanting to go this dark. And now...there appears to be waves throughout the entire two floors. This is what’s knows as chatter, isn’t it? Tens of thousands of dollars to install brand new flooring and this guy ruins it.

You have chatter caused by drum sander and dish-outs caused by buffer. Dish-out: when soft grain is over sanded by buffer, creating a concave.