Its hard to tell if the chips were installed like that or if during the sanding process the chips fell out.

Filling the floor would have taken care of a lot of these issues, as solid wood is not a perfect product, you are going to have little things like this pop up.

from your pictures a lot of the chipped ends can be salvaged with some filler.

problem here is nobody did anything until everything was said and done. the finisher goes over every single square inch of your floor and should have spotted these issues during sanding. but sometimes they are hard to catch, so after staining you would have noticed these, yet nothing was done.

if the boards were chipped prior to install the installer should have done something, but the finisher spent more time on the floor and didnt do anything.

heres my other problem...You are being too picky. like i had mention before, its solid wood and its not going to be absolutely perfect.

In your first picture you posted, the piece of blue tape at the very bottom of the floor...theres nothing wrong with that, yes there is a tiny piece chipped out at the butt joint but thats not something thats acceptable to complain about. then based on your last picture, it looks like you have 300 pieces of tape, you cannot be that picky. Standard rule is 5-2...from 5 feet in a standing position 2 feet infront of you in normal lighting if you can see an issue then it should be examined more closely...my guess is you were on your hands and knees crawling around your floor...dont do that. because even in a floor that for all intent and purposes is 100% "perfect", crawling around you will still find "issues"

I suggest you get the finisher back out to fill some of the worst issues and then re-evaluate.

gregmills_gw - Here is why I am so sensitive to the way this last room came out to be - this is a photo of new floor in another area of the house - same material installed by a different person (contractor had more than one guy working for him), and the result is much different - can barely see seams, let alone there are no chips at all. If the floor could be done this way to begin with, my I now have to settle with a botched job in the last room under premise "don't look too close"?

Back to my question - was the installer right saying that finisher should have used filler all over the floor before applying stain? There were no fillers applied to the floor on the last picture - yet it looks beautiful - no large spaces or chips.

Contractor insists that floors should be sanded back to bare floor and he will apply filler himself. Finisher is shaking his head saying this will never work and all filler will pop right out once seasons start changing.

My concern is that since filler wasn't applied on bare floors to begin with, now there is stain and coating in those gaps which could prevent filler from sticking to the wood, so re-sanding may not save the situation at this point.

I understand your frustration, you have one floor that looks amazing and your new floor doesnt come close.

The finisher should have filled the floor, filler does pop out depending on how much your floor moves.

When you fill the floor you fill it before the final sanding, not before staining. in anycase, you can still spot fill the floor in the trouble areas and then do a buff n coat. i am willing to bet, if whoever does this takes their time and is dilligent about using the filler, you will have a good looking floor.

Resanding the floor is an option too, but i would try my above suggestion before you start sanding off finish.

My point still stands that you went over board on the tape, you didnt have that many issues as the hundreds of pieces of tape suggest.

The chips i do agree that action is required to address these, but once again, going off your very 1st picture you posted, the very bottom piece of tape as well as the top left corner piece of tape are non issues, i cant see the top right corner very well but i suspect that too is a non issue, if you dont believe me or any other pro on here that will chime in, go spend 400 dollars on a NWFA certified flooring inspector and ask him/her if the tape in question is an issue.

The filler won't pop.

The pictures don't do justice to the damage on the floors. There are about 30 chips like you see in the pic #2 - left mark - top right, plus another 30-40 splits like you see in pic #1 between two tapes. Not to mention that there are large gaps on the short ends of the planks that are now filled with stain and poly and being very visible, in comparison to the very last picture where wood gaps are barely noticeable.

Anyway - I see another comment that filler won't pop - can you please elaborate - should we just use it all over the floor - bring furniture and call it a day or is there some merit to what the contractor says - floors should be sanded to fresh wood second time and special oak filler applied everywhere - dry, buff, stain, seal?

You both seem to be professionals - what is the recommended solution besides just closing eyes?

The filler won’t pop if you have the recommended humidity control that you are required to have. If you don’t have that, then you’re going to have filler pop among other issues.

What is your year round plan to control humidity?

I have hot water baseboard heat and no central AC in that particular room (ceiling fan represents the cooling solution). This room opens up to a deck, so my best guess doors will be open quite often for kids to go back and forth. We live in the area that is considered coastal. Back to the finisher saying that filler will not last....

Which brings me to square one - if filler is a temporary solution - how do we fix it? I see no other option than ripping it all out and reinstalling. Thoughts?

Just add filler and coat over it. As long as there is polyurethane on top, it won't fall out. It's just a bigger job for the flooring contractor to do it this late in the process.

That virtually unconditioned and high traffic room isnt really suitable for wood. You would have been much better off going with tile. No matter what you do, you’re going to have problems with that floor done in wood. I’d leave it be. It’s only going to get worse in summer. No point in wasting a bunch of effort on perfectifying something that will just end up looking worse than that in a year’s time.

Thank you all for your input. I am on the same thought track - I am paying for new construction - there is absolutely no reason for new floors to look like they are 30 years old. There were other areas of the house where new floors were added (last picture posted) and it looks beautiful. There was no filler applied anywhere else in the house - and we had whole house sanded and restrained - new added areas, flooring added by previous owner and original floors. This finisher also worked in another room - no such issues. I am glad you are seeing very bad fit between planks too. Contractor will be fighting tooth and nail... What recourse as a customer do I have with him besides holding back balance due until floor is fixed?

"What recourse as a customer do I have with him besides holding back balance due until floor is fixed?"

None really without your paying for a NWFA certified flooring inspector and ask him/her if the tape in question is an issue. IF he/she says yes you can always sue him, but of course he can also file a mechanic lien as well.

DIY'er here. I say the contrast between the two floors demonstrates second install was done differently somehow, and is unacceptable. I wonder if the first installer sorted the boards, leaving out those with end damage, and the second installer used those without trimming them? Or used a dull saw blade? Either way, I'd want it redone. How you get it redone is the issue.

And yes you do have hundreds of little dots of tape all over. But even if you pulled up the tape by those defects others are saying are "acceptable", IMO you'd still have too many bad boards!!

And if install done wrong, whether finished on site hardwood is the right option or not for this room is irrelevant. If months or years down the road you might have gaps or cupping because this room isn't properly temp and humidity controlled, that still doesn't make this install acceptable.

It's significantly different than the other room and is not acceptable. End of discussion.

I completely agree with Nancy. There are too many bad boards. They should not have put them down with with those bad ends.

Filler is commonly used in hardwood flooring. There's nothing wrong with using filler. But, I don't think it's a good solution for those widespread (and shallow) corner chips. Filler is better used to fill in small gaps here and there in a floor.

By the way, filler shows. It is not invisible. It looks fine when you have filler here and there, but not when it's everywhere.

It IS completely irrelevant to the current situation whether or not you will have good humidity control in that room in the future and what anyone's opinion is about whether or not you will have problems with the floor in the future because of that. You don't deserve a bad floor now because someone thinks you'll have problems in the future or because they think you shouldn't have used wood in the first place. You are paying for good floor install and finish now and that's what you should get.

Looking for a new crew to rip out and replace plus going to the supplier to talk about quality of his materials. Wish me luck! Will keep posted on future development.

Thank you all for your support and honest opinion!

Here is what the original floor in the rest of the house looks like - recently re-sanded and re-stained. This floor is much older than that in the previous pictures as there are barely noticeable spots from carpet track nails here and there - carpets were removed by previous owners 10-12 years ago.

I tried catching a crack between planks on the long side - to the right of the short joint. This is a good sample of what other cracks between planks look like throughout the house: