I am by no means an expert, but that could be water damage. Are the boards there more raised than the others? If not, the previous owner may have sanded it down and stained over the top.
I know this is the DIY sub, but I would get a few estimates to have the floors redone wholesale. Trying to piecemeal it will almost certainly look worse than leaving it alone. You can rent a floor sander and DIY, but they’re tricky to run with no experience so you’re likely to leave the floor wavy. It’s also fairly expensive. Pros will be in and out in three days. If you do decide to DIY, the finish is applied with a lambswool applicator. blog.cityfloorsupply.com/how-to-use-a-lambswool-a…
If the stains are more than superficial, the options are going to be staining the floors darker yet or removal and replacement of the affected boards. Both of those will require refinishing and the latter is for sure a job for someone with experience. I agree with vodulas, that looks like water or pet damage that has already had an attempt at fixing it. Good luck, those are really pretty floors otherwise.
A giant floor sander, along with the sandpaper and buffing disks to actually use it (extremely expensive, not sure if easily rentable)
No, it will pretty much only look worse if you try to do it in patches. Also, depending on the wood, you may want to do pre-stain treatment, cause some woods just absorb stain really splotchily.
Depending on the finish, could be anything between a few hours to a couple days needed between layers of finish. Some require a month or more of curing before you should put furniture on top. I’d recommend against those, we have more modern finishes that are honestly just better in addition to being more convenient, despite what some people say online. YouTube side by side comparisons are my go to for finding info on this sorta stuff.
It’s probably a fair price given the amount of manual labor involved. I didn’t think it would be much until I did the job on my own French doors earlier this year.
Probably if the cost includes materials, his work looks good, and the labor is warrantied for at least a year. I'd probably opt to try to change out the wood on that frame in general though. You might want to see what your dealing with behind that wood, as it already looks like repairs have been attempted, and you want to make sure that this stops any issues back there more than superficially. If you go with the initial plan, make sure that the materials being used are of stronger quality/longer lifetime and rated for outdoor application. Get the warranty in writing somewhere if its not included on the invoice.
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