I'm no woodworker, but I recently had to bleach a big black water mark out of my wood floors so I became very familiar with this problem.

first of all, did he put the clear coat on yet? I hope not.

on the floor: at least he kept the bleached areas confined "within the lines" of the boards-- which will help. fixing that is not actually super difficult. do you trust your floor guy to carefully stain just those boards so they match the surrounding wood? (ask him if the boards can withstand more sanding or if the type of stain can be bleached again if it doesn't turn out right.)

or if you don't trust him, there are wood restoring experts that are like artists. get one of them.

as for the uneven bleaching on the stairs, that's much more difficult, as the stain will need to be feathered out to blend with the darker areas. SO hard to do. can the treads be sanded down more and bleached again more evenly (like the entire tread)?

Unfortunately, he already put the clear coats on there. Honestly, I do not trust his work. How would I find one of those wood artists in NJ. I’m thinking of getting some touch up stain pens and seeing if I can find a match to the planks that weren’t bleached and try a few shades to match the existing variation of my floors.

The fix is "Do Over".

classychic563

I realize this is an old thread but I was out of town and just checking old posts now. I saw that you're thinking of getting stain pens? as in those felt tip markers? I hope you didn't. they won't penetrate the top coat, the area is too large and besides, those pens are total crap. I can never get them to match, even for tiny scratches. don't think about topping it with gel stain either. it will never look right. I am a somewhat experimental DIYer willing to take some risks, and even I would not attempt to tackle this project myself, not on fresh new floors.

you had a question on where to find such good, artistic woodworkers -- I don't know. here's where I would try: google "wood restoration" in your area and ask them if they do floors and if they don't, ask them for referrals. vet them carefully. ask to see before and after pics of their work (specifically, pics of spot repair where they did not redo the entire area). ask friends and neighbors for personal recommendations too.

Do you mind me asking what stain you chose for your floors they look really nice minus your bleach situation