All in all it looks decent. There are a few spots where they could have done better. The plank that has some wood missing is something that should have been dealt with before the stain. The filler should have "stuck".

A few whirl marks are kicking around but all in all it is 90% - 95% perfect. The "lower grain" is what you get when working with floors with heavy mineral streaks (red oak is KNOWN for mineral streaks). A STUPENDOUS sanding "master" could get this floor perfectly flat. But that is a huge up-tick in price! It would be a top shelf finish. Not $$. It would be $$$$$.

Is this worth a redo? Probably not. The only thing you forgot to show us are the "quarter sized dots" that are whitish. Without seeing those spots, it is hard to tell what is up with those. I would like to see them, if you have photos. They could be paint marks or they could be something more sinister. I'll reserve comment on them until I see them.

The bottom line is this: if you DON'T LIKE IT then do NOT let them continue!!!! Speak with the GC or the owner of the shop that you hired. Bring them in and ask them for their suggestions as to how to PREVENT these issues from happening "upstairs".

And Jacobean stain isn't as dark as you would think. I'm wondering if you were hoping for "Ebony" - which is the darkest option other than black paint.

Thanks for the advice. Attached is the photo showing the white spots, they're a little faint but it's there in the middle, a line of white spots all the way to the wall.

I'm glad the grain is normal but I'm not sure I can live with the swirl marks. I've asked around and no one seemed to notice swirl marks on their floors. I know it's not pervasive but it's there and my new floor already looks scratched up.

The sad thing is that there's no way to remove them but to redo the floors. I'm not even sure I want a redo because it might end up being the same. I'm meeting the contractor tomorrow so hopefully he will come up with something.

I don't actually want a very dark floor. It's just that I thought water-popping would help the wood to absorb stain so the floor would look more uniform in color.

I agree with the consensus so far, the job looks really nice, minus a few things about the edger scratches, makes you wonder about why the edger was so far from the wall in a few pictures, but none the less, it does look like a nice job, stain looks even, no obvious finish issues from your pictures, i would be very happy to have that floor.

the white spots, could be water spots, try taking a clean cloth and lightly buff it, if it doesnt clean up its something else.

Jacobean is on the darker side of the color scale but by no means is it super dark.

Looks good. Oak has an open grain, so you will feel the grain. The color is varying quite a bit, but that's oak. It does that.

My only gripe is the swirls - if they had used a different sander you wouldn't see them, but you admit that "It's not very obvious but if you're really looking at the floor, you can see it from a standing position"

If you have to stand just right and look in just the right angle to see it, no one else will see it. they will walk in ans say "aahhh ... pretty".

I can barely see the white marks. My ONE concern with the white marks would be: ADHESION failure. The fact that they run in a straight line and look nice and round would be a blessing (in disguise). That indicates DROPS of something rather than adhesion failure. But I would CERTAINLY have a closer look - just to be sure.

If those are adhesion issues then you get a WHOLE NEW FLOOR JOB! You win a brand new sand and refinish! Out of all of this, the white dots could be the biggest problem....or they could be paint drops and easily dealt with.

I'm sorry? He's going to "sand it out" and apply another coat of poly??? Oooookaaaaay....

Is this the "old hardwood"? The stuff that was already in place? If so, it is possible this higher edge is due to "lack of sanding"....but the problem isn't the sanding - it's the stain.

If this person sands DOWN the high edge on that plank, s/he will REMOVE THE STAIN! Oh dear. Then the person will have to do a STAIN PATCH....and then apply a few layers of finish over the stain patch....and then reapply a new coat of finish over the entire floor (continuous floor that is attached to that section).

This higher board edge should have been dealt with BEFORE the stain and several coats of finish had been applied. Fixing it now is *possible - for a HIGHLY SKILLED flooring professional. A stain patch is extremely finicky and can go horribly wrong very, very quickly.

If this is older wood that was already in place, I would leave it be and ask for a discount. The chances of the cure being worse than the disease is very, very, very high (75% chance of a real muck-up).

Your photos already reveal someone (or someone's crew) who is a little thin on sanding. The overall appearance of the floor is "decent" but there are areas of concern - namely the sanding marks.

With someone who has already shown some weakness around sanding, I would NOT ask that person to fix something like this. I would happily see a discount go back into my pocket at the end of the job.

If this is the older floor, then I don't think this is buckling. Buckling shows on more than one edge and on more than one plank. I think this is years of "not being sanded" properly. The highest point of the plank is the original thickness of the wood. The lower stuff is the new thickness of the wood. Every time it is sanded/refinish the wood loses as much as 3mm. This looks to me (assuming there are no other signs of buckling) like a board that has had limited sanding over multiple refinishes.

You're so right about the fix making things much worse :( The raised area near the fireplace is actually new wood and that's why we are so disappointed. He "fixed" it and it doesn't look as bad now but it doesn't look flush still. The fireplace is in the living room area in which he has fixed 2 things, the wood near the fireplace and sanding the step which was not sanded properly earlier because it was very rough to touch. I'm not sure how he kept the colors the same but he added another coat all over the living room.

Now onto the bad part, the living room now has very bad creaking sound that wasn't there before. I'm not sure whether this is caused by his fix or is it due to the wood not acclimatized properly. He started installation 2 days after wood delivery and he managed to be almost done with the living room before we could stop him. He claimed that it doesn't matter much since it's summer and the wood came from a warehouse nearby that kept their woods off the floor. The creaking sound almost sound like paper rustling and we're pretty sure it wasn't there earlier. Coupled with the raised wood near fireplace that wasn't raised at installation, I'm getting very worried that it's acclimatization issues.

He's also "fixed" a few things we brought up but we did not agree to those fixes before he did it :( He changed the wood in the few areas where we pointed out holes or broken wood and now I have a few spots that are shinier. He said he would come back later to add another coat on top all over but I don't know whether we could handle that since we have already moved in.

He's also "fixed" the kitchen area with another coat on top. He said we have a small water damage under the small undercounter fridge so we removed the fridge and he refinished that area but without first changing out the damaged wood. So now my water damage is still there and my kitchen floor is shinier than everywhere else. In addition to swirl marks everywhere, the kitchen floor is also shiny! I asked him whether he's accidentally used semigloss instead of satin but he denied that and said everything will be consistent when he comes back to add another layer on the rest of the area.

We are paying more than 30k and I feel that we're not getting the quality that we should be getting :( I feel that his "fixes" do not really fix the issues and he just want to do easy fix asap so he can get paid fast.

The gloss levels are not an issue. You still have a final coat to go down = a single continuous sheen. I'm not overly worried about the difference in gloss because they aren't part of the final coat. The raised area near the fireplace is always going to be a difficult area for anyone to get "close to". I would bet this is a very tough 'fix'.

The acclimation is a worry. The lack of acclimation can cause issues in the future. No one can say. What you CAN ask for is the random Moisture Content (MC) readings from roughly 1-5% of the planks. This should have been done before anything was installed. And you can ask for the documented SUBFLOOR MC readings (again multiple places where he added new wood). These readings will go hand in hand with well documented Relative Humidity (RH) readings for the AIR inside the home (both temperature and humidity %). These numbers will exist on all of the papers that hold the MC readings.

These documents belong to the HOMEOWNER...they are part and parcel of what you paid for. These documents back up the warranty (his and the manufacturer's). Without them he is "dead in the water" should any concerns come up.

The creaking and crinkly paper sound could be subfloor noises or rosin paper noises. Ask what was used underneath the new wood (rosin paper???craft paper??anything???).

How were the floors installed? Nails/staples/cleats/glue? Did new subfloor get added (new plywood? was it OSB or some other underlayment?)?

So...it sounds like you are losing faith in both the PROCESS and the worker. Please remember this is not finished. If his colour mixture is good enough so that you can't tell where his fixes have occurred then you are half way there. The FINAL COAT has not been applied. Gloss differences occur between different AGES of finish. Something that is 10 days old will have a different gloss that was put down 12 hours ago. Ignore it.

The acclimation is something you can dig into. If he's as good as his wage suggests, then he should be able to whip out the data sheet for you - right then and there. If you feel you have lost confidence in the team, you should speak up now - before the second level has been tackled.

Wow, I'm sorry you're having such a tough experience!! I'm sure all the other pro's here agree that we try to make the whole flooring installation and refinishing process as stress-free as possible. I agree that the original photos didn't look like a bad finishing job, however, our company never allows for swirl marks, especially all over your kitchen. A couple here or there, close up to a wall where it's inconspicuous, maybe, but those swirl marks would bother me. The finish can be resolved with a screen and re-coat of a satin sheen. (If he did, in fact use a semi-gloss by accident)

In any case, good luck, and keep us posted!

Oh, and IMO, no, I don't think they water-popped the floor. We water-pop most of our dark colors, for the purpose of making them darker because the clients are looking for a dark floor. I think the stain actually looks really good and even. Maybe since you expressed that you didn't want the dark-dark color, thats why they didn't water-pop, because they knew just how incredibly dark a water-popped Jacobean floor can be.

The Flooring Blog - Water Popping

I've asked before and he said the moisture level was fine but I doubt he checked and most likely do not have any documentation whatsoever. Floor was installed using nails and glue along the edges over Aquabar underlayment.

I know you said the gloss level is not an issue but it's making my head spin. So he did coat 4 on the living room and kitchen and that's where the glossy areas are now. So when he comes in next, he will put coat 4 on the rest of the area. Wouldn't the rest of the area have a different gloss level then? He's not putting the next coat in the living room and kitchen and I believe he shouldn't too. We're doing swedish finish and I think glitsa could only have a maximum of 4 coats.

Some of the swirl marks are rather prominent and I'm tempted to ask him to redo the kitchen from scratch, especially since he did a pretty a good job on the other level. Just not sure whether he's willing to do it.

When we were shown the stain samples, he explained how he would use waterpop and even demonstrated how to do it. I also think it did not look they waterpop the floor but we are fine with the color so far.

Now he's finished with the other level and I'm happy that it looks much better than the main level. My main gripe is that the steps on the stairs have a much darker color. Is this much difference acceptable?

Stair treads are always a headache...because they are OFTEN a different SPECIES. The tread colour is too dark for your flooring. An acceptable difference is about 1/2 step difference. This is 1-2 steps darker. That is a huge indication that the wood species on the treads is different than the rest of your floors.

I think you need to sit down (you and your partner so there can be no "he said she said" issues) and explain ALL of your concerns. There seem to be a few too many "small issues" that you aren't happy with. Please do this BEFORE the FINAL coat is applied to the other area of the main floor.

The swirl marks, the gloss levels (the final coat should be a continuous finish...not "section by section") and the stair treads being the final straw. The treads will always be the most difficult part of this job...and it can take several attempts to get them "right" (several attempts at mixing stain to get it just right).

I'm meeting him tonight but what's my recourse now? Can I ask to not pay for the refinishing so I can get another guy to come fix the main level? The other level looks much better, no swirl marks at standing position but there are still all around when I squat down to check the floor. At this point, it does not appear to be possible for the floor to be free of swirls. Are there really no swirls on other floors or are people just not looking for them?

I don't even know how he could fix he stairs. I've told him many times when the stairs was first stained that the color was too deep but he kept on saying the color would match once the finishing is done. We checked his works and gave him feedbacks and he has been ignoring them since the beginning.

At this point, with all your questions, I think you would be best served to bring in an inspector (you will need to pay for it) to have a look at these floors. If there are corrections to be made, the inspector will point them out in his/her report. If the situation is considered "satisfactory" by industry standards (yes...there are industry standards that can be found for swirls and gloss levels and different coloured treads, etc) then you will have that in hand...which will help you feel more at ease with the process.

www.nwfa.org

At this point, we are all going around in circles with the questions posed about these floors. Legal options cannot be offered over a design website. Local laws and ordinances prevail over generalized advice. But before you go that route, you will need to know if this is "acceptable" by industry standards. That means you will need to have an industry professional come in and assess what you have. To do that, you will need to hire an inspector.

Some swirls are acceptable...others are not. Without standing in the room with you, it is too hard for us to offer up WHICH swirls are allowed and which aren't...just by some words and some photos.

For instance: the inspection is done from a "standing position" in "natural lighting conditions" and the issue must be "visible from all angles in the room". Which means the swirls that you see "close up" = completely allowed. But the larger swirls that you can see from a distance of "X" amount of feet away = not acceptable.

Gloss levels are the same. Variations in gloss level are generally not accepted....unless the homeowner allows "sections" of the floor to be finished at different times with the full knowledge and agreement that the gloss levels WILL differ. Everything has a caveat.

Which is why an inspector is needed to figure out what is allowed (the installer did everything to industry standards) and what isn't (industry standards were not met = needs to be fixed by the installer).

Good luck. Let us know what the inspector finds.

The meeting went easier than expected. He volunteered to redo before we even ask. Apparently one of his crew did the "fixes" that we had not agreed to and even he was caught by surprise. That guy genuinely thought he was helping us so it's unfortunate that it made things worse. So I've withheld part of the payment and we made appointment for a redo, sand to bare and refinish.

We also found out that they went against the manufacturer's instructions by recoating Glitsa Gold Seal before 30 days. He said it shouldn't matter but at that point I felt a redo is unavoidable.

I've also decided to just live with the color difference between the floor and stairs, in case any fixes will make things worse. He offered to stain the floor a little darker to match the stairs but I'm not sure I want an even darker floor.

Thank you so much for your response to my thread! As a customer, it's really hard to know how much defects are acceptable. Thanks!