Addendum: in reality our floors look a lot more orange than in the photo I posted.

That is maple with zero stain, just aged. Maple naturally changes color to that amber tone. Most woods amber or darken as they age. Maple also goes really blotchy when you try to do anymore than a light stain.

Just leave it alone. Any stain you put on it will have the woods natural ambering still come through the color, as it once again naturally ambers with age. Which is why you never do a past it’s prime fad color like gray. It turns to a baby poop mud color over time. It’s unnatural and ugly in the first place, before it gets to the sick baby poop color.

You also need a top 5% wood floor professional to do anything beyond just giving it a clear coat. Because it blotches like crazy the hands of the unskilled “floor guy”. Find a NWFA pro. And don’t do anything gray, white, or dark.

Make sure your finisher water pops the floor before staining (and of course the samples also) and be prepared for it still to be somewhat blotchy. Maple is a closed grain wood and it doesn't stain evenly like Oak. One can even see this on prefinished Maple floors even though it doesn't penetrate the way site applied stain does.

https://www.miragefloors.com/en-us/hardwood-flooring-maple-nougat-character-smooth/

It actually does have a light yellow stain….we found much of it leftover when we moved in here…definitely not natural.

Thanks, Timothy, I will definitely ask him about that.

Would removing the current finish, and then going back with a water-based finish (no additional stain) work for the OP? It would seem that that would at least eliminate the future ambering caused by poly. It wouldn't eliminate any additional ambering of the wood itself, of course.

Kempek01, I’m not sure. What we had discussed this far was either no stain, just poly, or maybe a med brown, but neutral, stain, then poly. As long as it holds up I’m ok with other options, as long as it won’t go yellow-orange again. I would never have chosen these floors, but starting over…..hubby was not interested in that. We have never had maple floors like here before (our last house had oak), so we’re kind of unsure.

Even waterborne finishes do not prevent wood from doing what wood does.

If you like the Provence in your first pic, look into either Naturalseal or Nordicseal by Bona. They look quite nice on Maple. Naturalseal can get one or two coats where Nordicseal should have two, and it can be tricky to apply perfectly even.

Now that I'm on my desktop I can see your pics better. Your floor does look stained. I can see the slight splotchiness. Lighter colors aren't problematic on Maple and using tinted sealer sidesteps the issue completely.

Thanks, y’all….I appreciate all the tips!

Here’s a photo of the stained part of the floor next to an unstained piece. (Seems my iPad makes it look even lighter than it actually is, and less orange…..and the natural maple isn’t quite this “white”.)

We are in a similar situarion right now, what did you end up doing with your maple floors?