We just had almost the same exact problem. In this case, the unfinished hardwood was mostly installed when the plumber started testing pressure and a fitting upstairs dumped water through the ceiling onto the sub-floor, from which it ran under the newly laid hardwood and stained the ends and cupped some planks. Why the installer finished the room instead of just pulling the damaged section, I don't know. The installation is still going on in other rooms, so I have to choose between drying this floor and sanding out the stains or having about 10 planks pulled and replaced - which will probably mean having some planks face nailed. As you can imagine the GC thinks the stains will come out with sanding. Brickeyee - thanks for your comment. I think I can accept that if we start dehumidification now, I will wait until the rest of the installation is complete (which is going to be another week, at least) and see if the boards are still cupped.

What he said ... I've done it to battered floors in rental housing and they ended up looking still old, but well cared for, like Granny had been waxing and buffing all that time. It doesn't take off much, if any wood, so your floors won't get thinner. 1 - clean up the crud, remove staples and re-set any nails that stick out, scrape up the paint drips. Etc. 2 - Run the square scuffer/sander thing. 3 - OPTIONAL: Wipe on a penetrating oil stain that's medium between the darkest and lightest wood tones (optional, but it really boosts the color) 4 - wipe or brush on a satin-finish polyurethane penetrating sealer. If you do one room at a time, stopping carefully at the door, you don't see the transitions. If you custom blend a stain, be sure to write down what you used.

The floors have POLISH on them (someone thought that was a good idea to pep them up before the sale of the house). The POLISH is doing what polish does...it is being slowly removed. The dull splotches are where the polish is wearing off and the floor's finish is starting to show through....or where the OLD LAYER of polish used to be and is now showing through. To test my theory, you can use Windex Original Formula (has 5% ammonia = ideal wood cleaner/polish stripper). Start with an area that is not viewed by anyone (like behind a door that remains open all the time). 1. Spray (almost to the point of soaking it) a 1ft x 1ft area with the Windex Original 2. Let sit for 30 - 60 seconds (no less and certainly no more) 3. Using a clean white cotton cloth (bags sold at walmart) you wipe up the windex 4. Check the cloth for any yellow/orange/brown residue. This is the indication there is a polish on the floor...which is what you are looking for! 5. Mist the same 1ft x 1ft area again and (with a new cotton cloth) you wipe up immediately 6. Repeat the misting until the cloth comes up slightly damp looking with a hint of blue from the Windex. Once the orange/yellow tinge is no longer visible on your cloth you know the area has had the polish removed. 7. Follow steps 1-6 until the entire floor is free of the polish....I'm going to guess those little splotches will go away once the floor has been properly cleaned with Windex. Remember: Bona Cleaner is a product that is used 1 PER MONTH...not daily or even weekly. A 'damp clean' should be water only. This type of damp cleaning happens 1 per week. The over use of Bona Cleaners (or any hardwood cleaners) can and will lead to a build up of product (ignore the statement "will not leave a residue"...that's hokum! If it makes your wood look nicer then there is a residue left behind!). Tell us what happens once you tried the Windex.

So is lacquer better or worse than polyurethane? I know the guy used lacquer on my cabinets. When we had to refinish one of the old bathroom cabinets he told us what he used. Benjamin Moore said only 2 states carry it, Oklahoma and Texas. That tells me it should NOT be used. It is banned in other states. It sounds like I am ready to sand? I can quit trying to get the glossy parts off where the cracks are. (Where the 2 planks meet.) They will just sand off? I moved the TV cabinet away from the wall. That wall used to have a built in entertainment center with doors and drawers, but my TV was wider, so we removed the entertainment center. We found the original flooring had not been lacquered or polyurethane where the old cabinets had been. We can see that the wood turned more yellow and darker in the rest of the room. The room is huge and includes the kitchen. 42' x 28' plus 12' x 4' hallway. I am sanding around the perimeter first except for the hall and kitchen area. Then I will move the aquarium, couches, and TV cabinet back in place against the walls. They are all sitting on soft sliders so they will not scratch the floor. Then I can sand the rest of the floor. I have no place to move the furniture so it will have to be done in sections. Once the sanding is finished and the floor is clean, I don't know if I can finish the floor in sections. Can that be done? Thanks.