Hi, my wife and I just had the floors in our new (to us) 1926 house redone and the results left us very disappointed. We went with a very reputable refinishing company in our area, so we're not sure if our expectations were way off or if the contractor did a poor job.

Here are the links to the photos. The house had two distinct types of wood, oak and pine. The oak floors look great, but the pine floors have very uneven stains throughout.

https://flic.kr/s/aHsmr4FFm3

Please let me know if you have trouble accessing the photos. We'd appreciate any advice on how proceed with our contractor. The floors are very smooth, we just didn't expect them to look so uneven.

Thanks,
Tom

Your floors are from old growth trees and are old. What comes with old fir floorings all the character the years have developed and "stains" formed. There are bruises from rough usage like sliding chairs or furniture. When the surface has had the finish scuffed off the wood fibers are susceptible to being stained by gasses in the atmosphere. Water vapor will stain the wood surface. Darker areas like near the door may be from pets, or even dirty diapers left in a pile.
To help cover this type of minor staining I use a dark walnut color that has some red pigment which helps to even the stain penetration.
The color will even out a lot over time from the effect of light. Even incandescent lights will darken and amber the floor making a deeper color.
I hope that the floor has a sub-floor under it. Many fir floors were intended to be covered with wall to wall carpet. When single layer fir floors are sanded they become thinner and can have the top of the groove sanded thin so that traffic will break off the top of the groove causing a splinter. The tongue tries to support the top of the groove as people walk and the thin top of the groove gives.This can happen sooner when the floor mechanic tries to sand deep to get stains out. Usually the first area to start failing is in front of a doorway.

Thanks for the comments. The floor does have a subfloor throughout the house. We had expected there to be some stains, but were surprised at how different the floors look from one side of the room to the next.

In hindsight I wish we had been better educated when we decided to go forward with the project. If a darker stain would have evened things out better we would have gone with that over the one we selected.

Dark stains take more finesse to eliminate all machine scratches and usually take longer to harden before applying the first coat of finish.