You don't want him experimenting on your floor, but you are OK with making an unreproducible witches brew that he can't warranty? This is a marriage mismatch. Time for a divorce.

" Is varathane a bad product? "

It is not a good product for floors, it is a DIY homeowner type product. Duraseal is mediocre professional product. Bona products would be best

When you contact a Bona supplier, ask for a couple contractors they can recommend in your area. Or look for a board with business cards in the store.

You know what you need and want. You've got the knowledge to go forward to get a good finished product. Pay off the guy for the work he's completed and get a pro who has the experience with the much better products you want to use. Or do it yourself from YouTube videos. It's not that difficult. You're going to be living with it everyday.

Ty. My husband suggested this very idea. We are do-it-yourself folks just never have finished floors before.

A good contractor can work with all products - good and bad. There is no experimenting. The process is standard, just using a different brand.

I disagree that this contractor is in the good contractor group you're referencing. Instead of investigating the readily available techniques Bona has put out on using Red Out, he comes back with dark stain to hide the wood color. Get him off my jobsite. His priority is finding something easy for him. Producing what the customer wants is not a priority. Why pull him by the nose to get what you want. Drop him.

What did you end up doing? Please post photos.

I’ve seen Pine & Prospect‘s viral video using Varathane Aged Wheat on red oak which looks beautuful but apparently pros consider it furniture-grade stain. I would love to know if there is an equivalent (or blend) from Duraseal or Bona to Varathane Aged Wheat. Someone posted their floor guy came up with a mix using 2 parts Bona Nutmeg, 1 part Bona Twig (green undertone to neutralize the red) & 1 part Country White, which we sampled but on our red oak, it came out quite greenish gold. We played around with various combinations but couldn’t nail it down to something we liked. Now considering Medium Brown mixed with Weathered Oak which has been successfully used by multiple people or Dark Walnut mixed with Medium Brown but unfortunately it’s much darker. Red Oak is such a challenge! Would love to rip it out and replace with R&Q white oak but can’t afford it… *sigh*.

Any finishing pro worth their salt can reproduce any color sample they are furnished. The problem is people coming to places like the USA have never received training in the trades but undercut those that have and folks hire them. Others that have flipped burgers all thier life see opportunity and jump on board.

@ecgb What did you end up deciding on? I'm trying to replicate Pine & Prospets results as well using DuraSeal product. Did you see the DuraSeal Intermix Collection?

@renov8ing We gave up trying to duplicate Pine & Prospect’s great looking stain, couldn’t find a combination that worked. We just had our floors sanded & stained using a blend of Antique Brown and some Bona Sand Dune, because on test samples it looked like a nice medium brown & the Sand Dune seemed to really soften our red oak’s excessively busy grain. What a fiasco, it looks terrible, mauve/taupe! The floor guy suggested applying a 2nd coat using Dark Walnut, which is risky, but it toned down (not eliminated) the taupe, we do see more brown but it’s kind of an overall odd color and the stair treads which are Select grade, took the stain a lot darker, like chocolate brown! They were going to see how a sealer looks on it today but we held off for a quote to re-sand the whole job but then we’re back to square one with selecting another stain, maybe will just do Dark Walnut. Or they can re-sand the stairs to try to make them lighter. Or poly it as is, not throw any more money at this, live with it until we save up for white oak. Such a mess! Yes, I saw a stain chart with the Intermixed Collection but not sure which one would work. We are avoiding grays.

This is what the Silvered Gray looked like 🤮.

Based off a lot of interned research, if i ab couldn’t go with 50/50 Varathane Aged Wheat and Thinner, I would try 50/50 Duraseal Medium Brown and Weathered Oak. It appears quite a bit darker than we wanted to go but i saw some great results from someone on here.

my red oak floors are veing sanded today—do you have photos of the finished project?

Here is how our

Here’s how mine turned out. We have #2 red oak. We also had to blend new with existing (20 year old floors). My floor man used pinkquelizer twice and then finished with DuraSeal natural in matte

@Michael Maffuccio Hope you still see this comment…Love your results!! I am in the same ordeal…I got the Varathane Aged Wheat and Oderless Mineral Spirits (from Home Depot) but the result was nothing like your pics and Pine and Prospects…the pinks/reds were still
Coming through…is it because of the spirits? Another question, did your guy wet the floor before staining? I red that it can help with absorption…I would really appreciate your input, thanks!! (Note: Floor underneath is the one I want to change)

I'd suggest testing it on the actual sanded floor, I think you will have a much different result than unsanded on the bottom. I did 50% Aged Wheat 50% Paint Thinner (100% mineral spirits from Sherwin Williams) not Oderless or low oder. It went on very dark, lightened up quite a bit when dry and then darkened once sealed.

@Michael Maffuccio ,…thank you so much for taking the time to reply. Will try it that way….I really appreciate it!!