floorguy - I think I would have been much happier had you installed my floors. The things you mentioned -- minimizing the dust mess, culling out damaged planks, replacing dented boards -- are all the "right" way to do things in my opinion. That's what a contractor who has pride in his work, and who wants the customer to be satisfied, would do. By the way, the defects I mentioned are not things like mineral streaks. On some of the planks, there is a concave portion about 1/2" from the short end, so that the very end of the plank is pulled up slightly higher than the abutting plank. It looks like a "smooth dent", if that makes any sense. When I pointed this out to the installer, he said that the finish is stronger than the wood, and when it dries it sometimes pulls the end of the plank up. His solution was to lay another plank over it and smack it with a hammer so the end didn't stick up so far. It's slightly less noticeable afterward, but is still an obvious flaw that has nothing to do with the natural characteristics of the wood. You also don't sound like the kind of installer who would inadvertently leave many dents. And if you did leave dents, you would probably notice them and replace the dented planks on the spot, rather than either not noticing, or leaving this "surprise" for the customer to discover. Unfortunately the number of significant dents I've come across (at least 3 in every room) have raised a red flag. I asked the installer about the most egregious of the dents, and he admitted he should have noticed that during the install (and offered to replace the plank if it bothered me). floorguy, do you agree that having those planks cut out and new ones glued back in shouldn't be a problem? There are 5-10 planks total that would need replacement. I'd be mostly concerned that the glue wouldn't hold up as well as glue + staples, so that the plank would be more likely to work loose than the existing dented (but stapled) plank. If glued-in replacement planks are not such a big deal, I will ask the installer to replace all the ones that really bother me. And finally, what's your take on the expansion gap issue? The poster 'boxers' agreed that leaving an expansion gap is part of Hardwood Floor Installation 101. My installer made it clear that he doesn't think the expansion gap is needed, and that I'm worrying for no good reason. Yet many of the planks are butted right up against the drywall, so that when I walk the perimeter of the room I hear a lot of groaning and squeaking. Should I insist that he come back with a toe kick saw and add the gap? Maybe it would be worth hiring a floor inspector to give my opinion a little added weight? Thanks for all your replies...you've been a big help!

I realized after I posted that I just added more issues to think about; but you are correct there are tons of info and misinfo out there about floors in general. Nail polish remover is acetone, and what you removed was probably old-fashioned varnish which I think is soluble in acetone. I'm not sure acetone dissolves shellac - alcohol does that. It's not un common to have multiple different types of old finishes, for various reasons, (You might try some denatured alcohol, or vodka. I use grain alcohol which is the nuts, though sometimes hard to obtain because of laws trying to prevent people from misusing it. I actually have to leave NY and buy mine in VT, by preorder from a State source.) The cracks you see in August (and still now) are likely the narrow ones! Wait until late March rolls around after a full winter of heating. I can lose Bic pens in some of mine. That's when they are easiest to clean out, though. I wouldn't try anything other than emergency washing until the cracks are clean as there is no point moistening that junk in there. It's important that at the end of the season that the gaps are clean as they begin to swell back up. Dirt and debris trapped in the cracks as they close can compress the edges of the floor board, causing increasing gaps the next season. Of course old houses weren't built when there were effective vacuum cleaners so there's a lot of debris down there. As to washing: Murphy's has long been a standby, but has also acquired some (perhaps innaccurate) reputation as being hard to fully remove from floors prior to using poly urethane finishes. I will say this: about a decade ago I was visiting Montpelier, Pres. James Madison's plantation, (he was comtemporary pal of Thos. Jefferson) in VA. I happened to be visiting in the off season and got to wander around a bit more than most visitors. I climbed a staircase and encountered the curatorial staff working on an as-yet-unopened-to-the-public room. They were busily at work washing the floor of the room, with you guessed it: Murphy's and water. So if it's good enough for such an important and professionally cared-for house, it's probably good enough for mine. Otherwise I use Organic Linseed Oil Soap - imported from Sweden, doncha know. I got it from the site that sells the Silent Paint Remover. I find it's an excellent cleaner, smells nice and wasn't particularly expensive since I only use a little at a time. In olden days the floors were sometimes washed with lye, leached out of wood ashes, so I imagine a little Murphy's or Method won't hurt. Floors were also strewn with sand which was then swept up. (That's why you'll likely encounter sand in the cracks even if you're far from the beach.) Don't try washing unless you have a huge pile of rags on had to handdry the floor off at once. Yes, hand sanding or scraping is a one-room-at-a-time type project. More so than renting a drum sander. The only catch is how to meld the meeting point of applied finishes at the threshold when the adjacent rooms are not done all at once, if you don't have a raised threshold. One of the beauties of shellac is that it can be patched up or touched up, or joined together seamlessly anywhere, even in the middle of board in the middle of a room. It's not without its detractions however, the primary one being that it is not bulletproof the way modern poly is. OTOH, should trouble ensue you just clean the surface where the problem is of any wax and dirt and get out a brush and touch it up. It redissolves the old shellac, mixing it with the newly applied stuff and dries so the patch is invisible. Can't say that about any poly finish. You can get it completely off with rags and alcohol and start the whole thing anew if you want. The fix-ability and the reverse-ability have much to recommend it. It is also pretty easily DIY-ish, and cheap. You can search for more info using Google and here on thsi site. But be forewarned there is a LOT of anti-shellac prejudice out there by floor pros, and some people who are just repeating what someone else said. There are also some excellent reports by people who took the chance on it and are very happy. It is relatively slower to apply and more hands and kness sort of work. Don't try it unless you are in a warm-ish, but mostly unhumid time of year. You need to ventilate the room. It is not the worst stuff for breathing, but not benign either. Shellac itself (though not the carrier) is an organic product made from exudations of a beetle in India. I'm imagining you might be interested in seeing what can be learned from your floors. Here are two things to look for (get down on your knees with a good flashlight.) Look for little rows of holes running along the floor. The holes will probably close be together but the rows separated by about 21-27 inches apart. This is evidence of an early floor covering called ingrain carpet held down by tacks. Another thing to look for is evidence how the floor was finished originally (and to know if it has ever been sanded by modern methods). Drum and orbital sanders didn't exist, even sand paper as we know it didn't, so very sharp broadknives were used to scrape the floor flat and ready for finishing. If you hold a light at a raking angle in a place where the wouldn't have been much foot traffic, you may be able to see shallow 1/16th to 3/16 ths inch wide grooves on the surface. This are the still-remaining toolmarks of the original floor's finishing, you are looking at the hand-made work of the floor installer. If you can see the undersides of the boads, say y looking up at the first floor from the cellar, you may be able to see the saw pattern, which can tell you if it was made from logs using a hand-powered pit saw, circular saw, etc. This helps nail down the age of the building because of technology of locally available materials is often known pretty accurately. Have you sorted out which floors are the splintery-est? I have some fir and it has narrow, sharp, fierce splinters. The flat-sawn wide-board pine pretty mellow. Quarter-sawn oak strip is rarely that way. It's not uncommon to find many types of wood in a single house. It's worth learning the correct indentifications of both species and board type (flat, quarter, radial, T&G, butted, lapped, etc.) as sometimes choices of floor finishing techniques are limited by type of wood. Oh, I forgot to add: the reason I use old credit cards (and similar plastic things) to clean out cracks is that the edges and rounded corners are less damaging to the board sides within the groove than metal implements. Plus all the credit cards that are expired get another round of use if recycled into my floor tool box. Card companies used to send out plastic versions of fake ones they use to try and get you to apply for them. I was in plastic tool heaven, but, alas now the facsimiles are just cardboard. Another solvent to try is Soygel. It is particularly, though slowly, useful on floors. Leave it covered with plastic wrap for days, if necessary. Let time do the work, rather scraping it yourself. It also cleans up nicely which is something you can't say about most chemical strippers. All these solvents and the rags used to apply and clean off have the potential for spontaneous combustion. Either air them out on a line for days or dispose of them in a metal, closed container filled with water, and kept outside away from the house. HTH(elps) more than just adding to the overload. L. Here is a link that might be useful: source of Excellent Technical on Info on Care of Old Buildings (NPS Preserv. Briefs)

Those are all good and valid points. To clarify any confusion, solid pre-finished hardwood floors can be refinished if you ever need them to be. Theres a bit more sanding involved to get the factory finish off, but it's done all the time. The floors get sanded down, and the bevels are no longer there, leaving you with a newly site-finished floor. The little grooved edges are called micro-bevels, and the durability of your flooring greatly depends on its installation. Those microlevels won't necessarily cause your flooring to be more susceptible to water damage than a site finished floor, as long as the installation is nice and tight. Yes, your hardwood floors will expand and contract, but every wood does this. It's just a natural characteristic. Quartersawn hardwood is known to have less movement than plain sawn, so if the gaps are a concern, you may want to think about looking into quarter sawn hardwood. Having hardwood in a kitchen is risky regardless if it's prefinished or site-finished. You just need to know, as a homeowner, that certain precautions need to be put into place to ensure the longevity of your floors. (Especially in a kitchen) Another thing I wanted to touch on was the fact that you said you had carpet in an area and tile in another. This would mean (hopefully) that the tile is sitting on either cement board on top of plywood, or there is a cement subfloor where the tile is located. This would have to be addressed when the tile is removed, and you are probably going to need some subfloor prep for your hardwood floors. Most likely additional plywood to bring the elevations of the floors to the same height. Many factory finishes are, in fact, more durable wear layers than a site-finished polyurethane coatings. And that is one of the reasons why many pet owners choose pre-finished floors. As long as you're not choosing a particularly soft wood, a prefinished floor would be just fine for your home. It would make sense, having children and a pet because of the time you'd have to vacate for the finishing process of site-finished floors. It would, overall, be an easier install. The quality and longevity of your hardwood floors depend on the quality of your subfloor, and the quality of the installation, not whether you have site-finished or pre-finished material. Good Luck! Pre-finished vs Site-Finished Hardwood floors

@DavidR....the reason why we advise against painting subfloors is it causes issues with permanent flooring choices later on. Example: A glue down ANYTHING (including glued carpet) has a chemical reaction (bond failure) to the paint or the urethane sitting on the subfloor. A tile floor has bonding issues with paint = need a new subfloor surface. Vinyl has chemical reactions to polyurethane/urethane to the point that the two chemicals will stain EACH OTHER (that's right....the urethane will stain the vinyl above and the vinyl will stain the wood underneath the urethane = lose-lose situation). A sealed/painted subfloor (to eliminate pet odour) underneath CARPET (stretched carpet) is a different kettle o'fish. Any other "floor" has issues being put down over top of the painted/urethaned subfloor. I've seen it dozens of times. Homeowners want a quick "pick me up" for their raw subfloors so they stain and urethane them. They live on the stained/finished OSB and then purchase flooring a few years down the line. That's when they find out they need to REMOVE or cover up the finished subfloor. Oops. That's another $2000 renovation cost they did NOT see coming! They find out that gluing down hardwood needs to go down over raw wood, not painted/urethaned wood. Or they find out they cannot tile over the finished subfloor. Or they cannot lay vinyl planks over the urethane/painted finish because the STAINING that WILL OCCUR (no one likes their white vinyl planked floor to turn ORANGE because the urethane below it BLED THROUGH to the surface....that's a REALLY upsetting event). You see where I'm going with this. Anyway....that's more along the lines of "please don't paint the wood" response I gave. There are very few positives to a painted subfloor - your situation is one of the ONLY positives. The rest leave the owner with a bigger mess than if they had just left it alone and thrown some carpet down "in the mean time".