New Construction Home - Hardwood Floors

10 years ago

Greetings. First time poster here. Just bought a new home (closed 2 days ago - yay!) that is new construction. The developer put hardwood floors down (oak) that have a Jacobean stain to them. He is a bit neurotic and we have been very careful walking on the floors. They received two coats of stain and subsequent sanding.

In the midst of moving in and moving boxes combined with his workers traipsing all over the house doing work it appears as though there are a lot of surface scratches all over. The scratches are showing as a whitish color that is distinguishable from the hardwood (which is why I'm concerned). To qualify my statement about moving - we are not dragging a single thing across the floors. Boxes are brought in and set down. Very few boxes are even slid across the floor. No furniture is dragged anywhere.

I've had a few people tell me that if the coat isn't done properly you will very easily get scratches all over the floor. I'm wondering if this is what we're seeing or if the floor is just THAT fragile. This doesn't seem right to me given what we've done since moving in. I'm not neurotic about the floors but am concerned it wasn't done properly. I would like to broach this subject with my developer while they're still addressing items in the house. Any help from the resident experts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

This post was edited by Buckster17 on Thu, Jul 11, 13 at 9:33

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Comments (3)

gregmills_gw
10 years ago
Just need to clear up a few ?s.

Two coats of stain? Or two coats of urethane on top of the stain?

Just two coats of stain holds absolutely no protection from traffic.
On the assumption that it does have some urethane applied the next question is does he plan to do another coat or is the floor finished?

Ill go out on a limb and say its finished with the fact that youre moving things in already.

In new home construction you get a lot of guys doing finishing touches and wrapping things up on their end. In result you get a lot of surface stratches. This is why i insist on waiting until the very end of the project to apply that last coat.

Youre floor is going to scratch regardless if applied correctly or not. Inproper application of finish wont be more suseptable to scratches.
If your floor was completely finished and if these scratches truely are just surface scratches and dont penetrate the stain then another coat of urethane will solve this issue. Just check the recommend cure time for whatever finish is used. A fully cured finish is stronger than one that is not yet cured 100%
knot2fast
10 years ago
Dark floors show surface scratches more than light floors.
High gloss finishes show surface scratches more than satin finishes.
Oil-based poly takes longer to fully cure than water-based poly.

Jacobean can be a very dark stain. I don't know about the other factors. It's probably why your developer was so neurotic about the floors.
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You need to do a little more archeological digging still. You need to know the whole construction of the floor before you can decide how best to install something new. I'd take up that plywood piece in the kitchen and see what's under it. It's higher than the surrounding floor, so needs to go. You should also be able to see from there what subfloor is under the original kitchen hardwood. It's too bad the space under your entryway is finished, but I'd still do some exploring from below to see what's under there, and to figure out the fix to stop it from squeaking. Is it drywall below or a drop ceiling? I know it probably seems like a pain to tear out drywall, but if you cut out a clean patch, like 2' x the width of the joists, it'll be relatively simple to repair. Just make sure to cut it down the center of the joists so that there's room to screw the patch piece to it later. Cut the hole under the area that squeaks the most, if you can. Have someone walk on and watch the floor from below to see what's moving. It might be as simple as pounding in a couple shims from below, or face-nailing a loose board from above. You want to find out what's underneath the hardwood. It might be laid directly on the floor joists, or there might be 10" wide boards that the hardwood is nailed to. Another thought is to take out a board in the hallway, since that's not original and you want to replace it. See what the subfloor is there. I am a bit puzzled at why, when you've stripped the kitchen down to the original hardwood, it's still higher than the hallway floor. Is your current surface perhaps not the original kitchen hardwood? Peeling back the plywood area will help determine that. BTW, I haven't heard of that stop squeaking product you linked to, so can't offer any personal opinion. And don't pour self-leveling compound over top of hardwood. It needs to go over plywood.
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User
10 years ago
I think I've seen what you're referring to. Scratches in the finish of a dark floor show up as light lines. There are companies that sell touchup markers in various colors, like these:
http://www.mohawk-finishing.com/catalog_browse.asp?ictNbr=119
You mark the scratch and wipe the excess off with a paper towel. This will usually make a fine scratch virtually disappear.
No offense intended, but I can't count how many times I have gone to look at scratches and the homeowners act as if the scratches appeared out of thin air. During moving, if a few grains of sand get brought in and someone drags their foot, you'll get a fine light scratch on a dark floor.
My belief is that the profile of the scratch catches the light a certain way making the scratch appear light. Scratches that don't get touched up generally don't look light after more foot traffic. I think the sharp edges of the scratch get rounded out and don't catch the light the same.

New Construction Home - Hardwood Floors

Comments (3)

gregmills_gw

knot2fast

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