Hi everyone, longtime lurker here and first-time poster. I just bought a condo in downtown DC that still had its original parquet flooring (from around 1950.) It was the typical honey/yellow/orange parquet and was in bad shape in parts (dull, worn out, paint drips, etc.) After finding out it would be too expensive to replace the parquet with plank flooring, I decided to contract a company (with A+ rating on Angie' List, used for 20+ years by my family) to sand and stain the parquet floor (cost - over $2,000 for two coats of stain and 3 coats of water-based polyurethane.) On day one the guys came and sanded the floor, laid down three samples for me to see (Minwax ebony, jacobean, and a 50/50 mix.) I decided to go with the jacobean for the first coat, but after seeing that it was too light, asked for ebony on the second coat. The workers said no problem.

I went to look at the floors after they were completed at the end of last week (there was also a situation where the workers/company said they were going to do 2 coats of the poly on one day and a 3rd coat the second, and then I caught them having only been in my unit for 90 minutes...thus rendering it impossible for both coats to have been done. The company was not apologetic at all even though I'd caught them in a boldfaced lie.) I was horrified at the work that was done. The stain is blotchy and uneven. You can see in the photos that the samples were not sanded off before the stain job began, so there are tiles that are noticeably darker. It is hard to see in the pics, but there are visible brush marks everywhere and also what looks like two long track marks running across the center.

The #2 guy at the company came to see it today and essentially tried to BS me saying it is the grain of the wood and the parquet and it will never be one even color. I absolutely understand there will be some variation from square to square, but to me this looks like a DIY job gone bad. He was not even remotely apologetic about the work.

Not knowing the intricacies of wood flooring (I'm told my parquet is a mix of red and white oak) - am I crazy here, or am I well within my rights to have this work redone? Any advice is recommended. I have told the company that I am not going to give them the remaining payment until it is redone, and if they won't redo it, I'll be using every means to get my deposit back. Thanks!