The only thing i can comment is on the picture. The fact that he is claiming it was a different gallon is nonsense...yes that can potentially cause a sheen difference, but not to the degree that i see. He either used something other than satin, or he didnt mix the finish well enough before applying. A finished product shouldnt have any rough spots, should it be absolutely smooth like glass? not really. but you should be able to take a tack cloth across the floor and not have it grab. The rough spots, could be from poor prep of the floor before the final coat, or too thin of application of the finish. Unfortunately they need to come back out and just re-coat the entire hallway. I really dislike the fact that they used blue tape on a freshly coated floor. If you read the inside of the tape roll its SPECIFICALLY says not to use on hardwood floors that the finish is not cured.

What kind of finish? If it's water based it's probably best to wait a week before using any water on the floor. The oil based finish would probably withstand water within a day or two.

I'm sorry to say but the colour chosen for the refinish is part of the "visual' problem. I'm going to bet dollars to doughnuts that your floor always looked like this...but a natural finish (or even a traditional brown/wood stain) would have hidden all that ails this floor. The white finish is showing off all the little concerns with your 20 year old wood. It has dried out. It has shrunk. It is 20 years old. With wood filler (and perhaps a less than perfect application of the filler) and the colour (filler takes white/stain in a very different way than the wood) you have ended up with a floor that shows DARK gaps between the planks. Dark gaps show up BEAUTIFULLY on white floors. If you have room shots of what your floors look like, this would be very helpful. And yes, Oak & Broad is correct...this floor is most likely going to "tighten up" in the summer. That means those dark gaps will close up (some will be complete and others will have 50% reduction in the gaps). When that happens, filler has a nasty tendency to SQUEEZE out and then crumble. Which is another issue entirely. What is your current indoor humidity? How does that compare (in general) to the SUMMER time indoor humidity? Is there more than a 10% increase/swing? If so, then the gapping will certainly tighten up in summer time. If you wish to reconsider the work that was done, you are welcome to talk to your refinisher and set out a plan. You can leave it alone until summer comes along and reassess the situation sometime around August. If you feel the dark gaps have resolved during the summer time, then you know what needs to be done...increase the humidity during the winter. Did your refinisher explain the possibility that the colour chosen might just show the age of the floors (gapping) during the winter? What was the discussions done when looking at how this floor would be refinished? What is the guarantee for the work? Was there a section in the contract that allows for "buyer's remorse"? Or does the contract clearly state that "what you see is what you get"? But first, some room shots and some humidity numbers.

I paid to have an independent, certified flooring inspector come in to evaluate my floors. His final report noted that the pinholes were caused by an improper finish. The flooring contractor applied 2 coats of polyurethane on the same day and did not allow sufficient time for the first coat to fully dry before they applied the second coat. The inspector noted a hazed appearance in numerous areas that were indicative of the previous coat not being fully dry before the second coat was applied. The wood was not a number 2 grade selection and the inspector contacted a technical adviser from the National Wood Flooring Associate and he said that there was nothing inherent to the red oak that would have caused the extensive pinholing in the finish that was observed and that this was due to either incompatible finish products being used or improper application procedures. I had a second company come in and redo the entire refinish - sanding down to bare wood and reapplying stain and 3 coats of poly and there are no pinhole visible on any floors in the house. The fact that the issue could be corrected by completing redoing the work lends credence to the original job having been poorly done. The original company tried applying a 4th coat of polyurethane but this did nothing to fix the pinholes. If you look at page 59 of this PDF, pinholes can appear in the finish of a floor if the previous coat was not fully dry (http://www.crescenthardwood.com/nwfa/ProblemsCauses.pdf). The bottom line was that I was out a lot of money from the first contractor, which was a large reputable company in my area, because they refused to fix the issue or even test to see if their finish job was the issue and had to go through the aggravation of having the entire job redone. The second company came out and sanded the floor of a closet and reapplied stain and 3 coats of poly to ensure that it was the previous finish and not inherent to the wood. The test area showed that when done correctly no pinholes in the finish formed.