Chips in Character Grade Hardwood - Acceptable?

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

We chose character grade white oak, and we fully understand about knots and imperfections occurring - however we have a handful of spots where it looks almost as though a sliver of wood was splintered off, leaving gaps between planks. There is excess wood that has not been touched, so my husband and I were surprised to find these flaws when there were plenty of extra planks that could have been swapped in. Two issues are in high traffic, visible areas and I'm concerned about how an epoxy filler (our contractor's solution) will hold up and look. Our contractor is saying this is what we get by choosing character grade wood, and if we choose to have those sections replaced the cost will be on us. I have heard of chipping like this happening during installation, but don't know if that's the case here. Would you consider these acceptable? (More photos in comments) Thanks!

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PRO

Cancork Floor Inc.

7 years ago

I would say the installer failed to "cull" these boards with the splinters. I would push for full replacement of the affected planks.

Other than those few oopsas....those are beautiful floors. And yes...character grade takes a bit more effort on the installers part to cull these types of planks which is why the 5% waste is there in the first place.

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Comments (12)

JKH
Original Author
7 years ago
User
7 years ago
Never heard of 'character grade'. Have heard of reject and #3 grade----which is pretty much what you have. You also got #3 grade installation, as those gaps could have easily been avoided during installation.

Were I doing the repair, I would wait for the finish to be applied. Then use some sawdust(from the scrap pieces) and small chips mixed with the finish to make a dry slurry. Then fill the gaps. Hand sand and blend a couple applications of finish over each repair.

That method usually comes the closest to matching the rest of the wood.
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JKH
Original Author
7 years ago
In spite of the poor pics, these are actually beautiful floors and we do love them - just not loving this installation unfortunately! Glad to hear we are not unreasonable to be disappointed with how it was done. I'll ask about that method for correcting, thanks HandyMac!
JKH
Original Author
7 years ago

Here's an overall view of the floors - we had them in a previous home and the quality was wonderful. We filled knots with epoxy, but I don't remember having splintering at the edges like what we're dealing with now.
glennsfc
7 years ago
Floor looks like it was properly racked, which is good. I did very few board replacements in unfinished. A skilled hardwood installer can fit in a 'dutchman' at the edges where wood is missing...tedious, but it works. Dutchman (a wedge or piece used to conceal a flaw in construction.)
lazy_gardens
7 years ago
^^^ What CanCork said ... the installer could easily have checked for an intact edge and set the boards aside.

Then the installer could have cut out the part with the missing chunks and used the remnants to start or end an row.

The damage can happen in shipping, unloading or handling during installation ... but I've seen it in top-grade boards too.
gregmills_gw
7 years ago
What color are you going to go with? depending on that, with a good epoxy, you may never see it once its all finished.

with that in mind, i would suggest you wait until its got the stain down plus a coat of finish before you decide to replace boards.

to a certain extent your GC is right about character grade, and also the other posters comments about the installer should have caught that bad boards before install is also true too.

but the fact is, it was installed and its still possible to move forward and still possible it will turn out just fine.
JKH
Original Author
7 years ago
Thanks so much for all the feedback. We will be doing a pretty light stain - likely a light grayish brown custom mix. We have scheduled a meeting to go over in more detail with our contractor, so fingers crossed he will be open to one of these solutions!
JKH
Original Author
6 years ago
Update - Our contractor agreed to replace these planks!
FeatherBee
6 years ago
Great news!
PRO
Cancork Floor Inc.
6 years ago
Excellent. I'm sure as soon as they saw the splinters they realized they needed to make a change.

Chips in Character Grade Hardwood - Acceptable?

Cancork Floor Inc.

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Chips in Character Grade Hardwood - Acceptable?

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