"If so, who does that and why?"

I see that type of layout with bamboo now and then. I think it's an Asian thing.

Personally, I'd want the entire thing redone, not just replacing random boards. It doesn't sound like your contractor hired an actual flooring subcontractor to install your wood.

Have you called the salvage place where you purchased the wood originally? I'd start there (but you probably already did that).

Well, I hope your contractor is helping you in you search. I hope that mad floor-chopper is never allowed at your job-site again, and depending on the circumstances, I'd probably fire the contractor as well, since it would seem he/she failed to properly supervise the employee (though you can make that determination based on the facts and circumstances). Are you concerned about the cost of that flooring ? What a waste. What is your contractor doing about helping you find more?

You didn't approve that decision so they should make it right.

What Cancork said. Your GC needs to pay to make it right and with a professional floor installer. One you vet before they are even allowed in your house. The idiot is not allowed back in your house.

Wow, what a bad story.

Lean on your GC. You hired him to oversee this project and to look out for mistakes like this. This is his problem now; your responsibility is to make sure he does his job.

Yup, GC has to make it right on his dime. Who in God's green earth would think of destroying old wood that way?

I think I'd be threatening to chop a certain appendage to 3", but's it's probably below that already.

That's totally nuts. Finding old wood to match existing flooring is difficult and to have it and then watch it destroyed is heartbreaking. That type of product is out there but finding it is difficult in my area and probably next to impossible in Southern California. Your contractor may have to look further afield and pay the shipping charges to find a comparable substitute. Wood from different regions has different characteristics, just as wood from different eras may have a slightly different look. You will probably have to compromise on some aspects to keep your project on track.

My experience with reusing salvage flooring is that grade and cut are probably more important to the overall continuity of the finished floor than the exact length of the boards. Rift cut and quartersawn from the same source can probably be mixed without issue but plain sawn wood just won't absorb stain to the same appearance. Hundred year old flooring was not as standardized as you might think so lacing into an existing floor can be interesting. We have found old oak with flat backs (7/8 thick), and different groove patterns on the back. In addition, the exact board width and the profile and location of the tongue and groove can vary so it usually works better to use the product in a single spot rather than trying to randomly scatter it throughout the space.

I have reclaimed flooring from several tear downs in this area and used quarter sawn oak in my kitchen. Removing and denailing old flooring is very hard work and very few people are crazy enough to do it - as my partner likes to remind me. It is gorgeous wood and I couldn't afford it if I didn't do the labor myself. There is a ton of sweat and swearing in that floor!

I'd say the installer would have to pay for the materials he damaged. Make him eat the bill.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. It has helped immensely. Turned out there were around twelve of the long pieces left and 5 or six medium. The original batch was to cover the master as well as the small landing from the main house into the sun room, (which leads to the new master, weird old house layout :) ).

So they will tear up the shorts that will be replaced with the long pieces. Those shorts of course, were once long also, and are now going to be unusable, but the GC said he will do everything he can to source some comparable wood. The sun room will be the sacrificial lamb and we will lace whatever we have to into the bits and bites left over from the old growth wood.

Not ideal, but what can ya do? I can't make the GC conjure old wood from thin air in the timeline we need. There is a set deadline for the time we can wait while he searches for salvaged white oak of the same quality through his wood sources in the region.

His dad is a carpenter, (made all our new shaker doors and in-swing windows custom to match the rest of the house), so he does have a respect for old wood and what happened. I think he was just as disappointed as we were. That being said, time marches on and we may have to lace some new pieces into that adjoining sun room. Not perfect, but we have a plan A and a plan B.

Thanks again everyone.