Hi. I'm currently applying tung oil to pine flooring. I started by looking for advice on the internet and found a lot of conflicting advice. I bought some Liberon Pure Tung Oil and read the instructions on the tin. I guess with all oils, the wood will absorb it to a certain degree, then i think you will reach a point of 'saturation'. I started by thinning the oil with 50% white spirit and made up 1 Litre of this solution. (500ml Tung with 500ml White Spirit). I brushed on the oil and wiped off any excess after about an hour. Be careful and don't be too generous with the oil! It helps if you can look across the floor into a light (window) as this will highlight any missed areas. Leave it 24 hours and apply another coat. I've just finished applying my second coat today. I'm going to leave it a further 24 hours before i apply the 'neat' Tung oil. I've tested this process on a small table, so i'll check the look of this before I commit myself! A long drawn out process, but satisfying once done. It feels nice under foot, and thinking about is a lot more forgiving than varnishing or waxing(!). Tung oil is apparently very resistant to water, alcohol and food acids. Hope this helps. Warren. Here is a link that might be useful: Power Tool Warehouse.

Having your floors on different levels is not ideal, but it happens. My kitchen floor is higher than the rooms on either side, since before we moved in 20yrs ago. (The ht of 3/4" subfloor+ two layers of sheet vinyl flooring.) It's old, it's quirky, and we've adjusted. I've been watching episodes of 'Escape to The Country' on Youtube, and many of the old British homes are the same and worse. What is the large expense of making the de-tiled kitchen floor the same level as the others? Can they add a layer of 3/4" osb (or whatever is equivalent to the engineered flooring underneath existing hardwood floors), to make them ready for hardwood? Will the thinset need to be removed for wood, but not for new tile? And, is one of the rooms a later addition, with floor joists running perpendicular to original? You might get more info by X-posting to the flooring forum. Good luck!

Ok....so Murphy's Oil is KNOWN for causing adhesion issues. To the point where many refinishes won't TOUCH a floor that has been touched by Murphy's. So too many of the Method cleaning products. I know. They are "eco" but that doesn't make them appropriate for wood. Here's why: they use coconut oil based soap products. As well as "fragrance oils"...oils are a "no-no" in the wood finishing industry. Anything that leaves an "oil" residue (Murphy's oil, coconut oil, oil soap, oil anything). I've seen three different "eco friendly" cleaning products cause massive issues with hardwoods and cork. Massive. To the point where the SOLID hardwoods had to be sanded down to their "last layer" before adhesion would occur. Very sad. Vinegar won't usually interfere with adhesion...but it will age a finish faster. I have a sneaking suspicion some of this is due to residue from cleaning products. Did the refinishing company do a screening to remove the cleaning material? Did you perform a floor stripping event prior to work commencing? Use of TSP is common - did anything like that occur? Rubbing alcohol used to determine if there was any residue on the floor (not that fun to work with...but can be done in a well ventilated space)? When it comes to construction law, the contractor has to be given the right to attempt to fix the issues before they are "made" to hand it over to someone else. They only get ONE attempt...but they are required to have the "first kick at the can". And their option for 1/2 the price goes towards a full sand and refinish is a little above industry standard. The 'good guys' offer FULL price of the buff and coat can be put towards the cost of a full sand and refinish. The "don't give a r@t's backside" type of outfits will leave you without any options at all. So your company is sitting firmly between the two extremes. I'm hoping that this is material based issues (the primer and the finish were defective) for your sake. But I'm thinking it is not. When a finish fails, it is possible to scrape it off with a finger nail and it comes of in white clumps (I'm not sure if this is the same as 'cottony'). And the closet, I'm going to guess, has probably been contaminated over the years simply by having things that have touched the floor then being put into the closet...like shoes, boxes, jackets, books, bags, purses, etc. If it touched your floor and then was put into the closet, it could have taken the residue in with it (in medicine we call this "cross contamination" or "touch contamination"). Good luck. At this point, you may be down to screening off the failure and then getting back to the original finish. At that point, you might need to look at the "shine" products that offer a temporary surface. They are more work. They need to be applied every 6 months. They need to be stripped every 5 applications (every 3 years) but they can offer you a few more years of 'nice looking' floors. Long enough for you to save up for your floors to be removed and replaced. As for an engineered hardwood that can be sanded 3-4 times....that requires a wear surface of 6mm thick...or more. And 14 years ago, those floors were very rare. More often the wear layer was 2mm-3mm. Only the SUPER high end engineered had the 6mm thick wear layer.

It is possible to fill using small trim pieces but it'll end up looking bad. A good contractor would refuse to do that. Your contractor is right, the right way to fix is to pull the trim & doors and rehang and reinstall trim. If the trim has been installed for a while it may be damaged when it is removed, so plan on replacing it.