"Yes, if you and your husband are not in accord on this, then it's sure to be exploited by the builder. And it's sure to introduce strife into your relationship as well. If you're not happy with the floors, but your husband is, then you need to pick your battles. You've had enough other issues on this build where having your husband's support to correct is vital. " this is a very good point. as are several made in this thread. movement of wood,,,floating flooring use of fillers etc. but none of it solves anything if it isn't put into effect. expecting perfect just isn't going to happen, having the correct install should be the goal. the reason I asked twice about where the foam insulation was installed, and if load calc was done for hvac is for a good reason. granted you can't see it..which seems to be your main view, but different types of foam insulation allow moisture to exit, others don't. hvac removes humidity. high relative humidity inside a house will cause wood to swell. low rh causes it to shrink. new builds have a lot of RH. moisture content of lumber used for framing, subfloor...sheetrock mud, paint all add to RH load. wooden flooring should always be put inside the house several weeks prior to install....with hvac system running. this acclimates the wood so that you don't have cupping gaps etc. I realize that this is an excellent place to vent your building frustrations...but ignoring the good advice you get here isn't solving anything. understand that you are one house. GC will build other houses & has a working relationship with insulator, hvac company, flooring co...and so on. each will do cya for each other so that the warranty runs out. and then you are left with substandard flooring...brick whatever flavor it is today. they build and move on..you live there. the one advantage you have is that the gc hasn't been paid in full. and having been to court for my own clients...it doesn't often go the way you want. its that cya good ol boy network. you & your husband need to chose what you can live with and can't live with. complaining about every little thing puts you on gc/builder/sub's sh!t list. not saying it is fair...but it is the way it is. construction is a tough field with good and bad players. chose your battles, stick to your guns & keep your complaints short to the point, factual & without getting on an emotional rollercoaster, as it will only make things worse. let your husband handle it if you can't distance yourself from your feelings. it isn't about making friends...it is about getting what you paid for in a huge investment that you will live in for years. IMO this thread is like a train wreck...one can't help but see the latest advent. I'm not trying to put you on the defensive, but as a woman in a man's field of work...these are the things I've learned. best of luck.

Just a few comments on the back/foot health issues. It's one thing to tell people to take MSM and go to the gym - and another to follow one's own doctor's orders. Some people really do have back disorders - I do. It is the result of a congenital defect that I've gone to PT and used orthotics for - all my life. Eventually, it led to one vertebrae slipping (along with the disk of course) and even more PT. I am also in a profession (teaching) that is hard on the back. At work, I stand on resilient flooring and a mat most of the day. I feel pretty good. At home, we have a tiled kitchen and a floating wood floor elsewhere. If I spend even a fraction of the time I spend standing at work standing in my own kitchen, I am in much more pain daily. We agonized over changing out the tile but are currently putting in wood. If I had to rank the surfaces I stand/work out on daily - I'd pick the floating wood flooring, by far. And yes, I wear cork soaled shoes and other cushion devices. These shoes are not over-rated or over-sold by shoe manufacturers - not to those of us who need them. My doctor says I've avoided surgery (and epidurals) better than virtually anyone else he's seen with my degree of vertebral damage (there's also arthritis there now). I do all kinds of exercises and weight lifting to keep that spine in place using muscles - put I regard that as pampering my body, frankly. I have to cater to it. We will be putting professional quality rubber mats, of the type seen in restaurants in front of the sink and the atove. They're actually very cool looking. Yes, I can slide on the wood floors - but don't. I don't find the wood floors particularly slippery, I've fallen twice on wet tile - in fact, that resulted in yet another injury and a deviated coccyx - no fun at all, that injury. The wood floor is, to me, no more slippery when it is wet than when it is dry, and I expect it to have a certain kind of traction. But the tile goes from having a lot of traction to being extraordinarily slippery when wet or greasy. Not all tile is as slippery as ours - but ours as ADA rated as above average for traction, but in places, it has worn a little and that's where it gets really slippery. I love tile and the look, but both my husband and I (he's also a teacher) feel the wood is much better on our joints. Because of our various back problems, other joints in our bodies are sometimes out of alignment, and when that's the case, standing on hard surfaces (even with cork shoes) is quite tough. Changing shoes frequently to different types helps, because foot and ankle bones tire quickly when held in place in one sort of footbed. Nothing beats having a rubber mat (or similar) though where you stand most often.

Thought I would also update this thread since it popped back up. We moved into our new build 2 months ago and ended up choosing engineered wood for most of the house, except the mudroom, laundry room and their connecting long back hallway, which got tile. I can close this area off and the dogs stay here if we are gone for several hours. Their food and water is also kept in the laundry room. The floors are Duchateau - Riverstone collection - Sava color. So far they have not shown any scratches from the dogs making the crazy run to the front door when they hear the doorbell and/or fedex! The floors have a rustic look and slight texture that will make it easier to hide any scratches and dents.

Lovely. Do you know (roughly) what the humidity was when the floor was installed? Do you have the ability to ADD HUMIDITY into your home for the winter time?? The 47% is technically in the SWEET spot for hardwoods....but it could be TOO LOW for the DAY your wood floors were installed. We KNOW the wood was NOT acclimated properly. We know that. Which means the wood could have been a little damp (not to touch but a wood moisture meter would have pick this up if the company had TESTED 10% of the planks prior to installation) before they installed it. And the wood is now SHRINKING fast enough to cause cracks or 'checking' in the finish/wear layer. Do you have a whole home humidifier for your house for winter heating conditions? Do you have the ability to add a bit more moisture into the house RIGHT NOW? Try bumping this up to 50% (no higher than 55% please). Let us know your home's ability to CONTROL humidity (remove AND subtract it from the air at the push of a button).