Your builder is wrong and he should have covered the floor. Also, I just wanted to comment that we are a shoes on house and all of our friends have shoes on houses (for guests anyway) and we (and as far as I know my friends) have not had any damage to our floors from shoes, including high heels (but I don't recall anyone wearing stilleto heels in our house, although I have worn high heels with the larger or 1/3" or so sqare and I am 5'11" tall and weigh well over 100 lbs:). The finish on our floor does have small scratches (just in the finish) from my boys dragging our 80 pound golden retrieve across the floor when our golden retriever had his claws out resisting. We have site finished qs oak floors with an oil finish and it is my understanding that the factory finishes are supposed to be more durable than what we have. However, the finishes on prefinished wood are really hard and any hard surface can chip when something metal with a sharp edge is dropped on it like saws, screw drivers, levels, tool belts, etc. and will get gouges in it if heavy objects with sharp edges are dragged across it like table saws, boxes with staples on them, etc. Your builder is dreaming (and really lazy) if he really believes that hardwood floors (and vinyl--the vinyl at our old house got a cut in it when the plumber dropped a big metal wrench on it that had a sharp edge) do not need to be protected during construction.

It won't help you, but here is my comment. Gluing as well as nailing is an installation method in some parts of the country, the idea being that it helps to prevent wide width flooring from moving too much during seasonal changes. Creaking noises I can understand, but 'popping' noises usually means that the floor boards are momentarily sticking to the back of the boards and releasing; that might account for the noises you are hearing. If a urethane-type adhesive was used, then I doubt the phenomenon would be happening. There are other adhesives, such as something we call the 'drytack' types, which might create conditions that would make the noises you are hearing likely to happen. How is the groove larger than the tongue? I would think that as well would not be a good thing, as it might allow more movement at the tongue and groove meeting. Anyone else have ideas for dkriggs? Oh...BTW...Happy New Year everyone!

If it is cupping, it looks pretty slight to me. Cupping--unless it's evident shortly after installation--is usually the result of moisture imbalances which are due to environmental conditions outside the contractor's control. Cupping is more evident the wider the flooring width which is why I recommend engineered hardwood for widths greater than 3" As a point of calibration, the performance standard published in NAHB's Residential Construction Performance Guidelines for Professional Builders and Remodelers is: "Cupping or crowning in hardwood floor boards will not exceed 1 /16 inch in height in a 3-inch maximum span measured perpendicular to the long axis of the board. Cupping or crowning appearing after installation may result from fluctuations in the moisture conditions in the house, causing a noticeable curvature in the face of the floor boards. Cupping or crowning caused by exposure to moisture beyond the contractor’s control is not the contractor’s responsibility." If the OP wants to minimize cupping, they'll need to control the relative humidity in the living space as well as the space below the floor. If it's a basement or crawl space, moisture controls need to be in place and some amount of conditioning may be required.

SJ McCarthythank you for your very long process description and NWFA suggestion. With all the risks that proper preparation requires I think I just have to dodge the bullet and pay someone to do it. It really isn't just applying the stain with a brush kinda thing. I emailed seven companies. Four from NWFA and three from neighbors' recommendations. Just few moments ago I had one of them here to look at the stairs. He is certified has all the proper training and certifications. He seemed knowledgeable and explained all the steps. He will have to re-sand. It will be a 3-4 day job depending on how many stain coats are needed. He uses DuraSeal stains and Bona Traffic HD water based seal and has training to work with those. Each coat needs 24-48h to dry. Then he will have to do another 2-3 coats of the seal. His professional opinion was also that the stairs did not turn yellow because of the covering, but they turned yellow because the previous company used an oil based poly. They might have also applied the seal when stain wasn't dry enough. He is almost certain that the amber coloring from the photos is oil based. He never heard of floors turning yellow because they were covered. That being said, he told me I have a good chance winning a small claims court. That the photos should be sufficient. The stairs were first finished in March, we covered the newly stained steps with protective brown contractor's paper, since there was still construction and painting happening. In July we discovered that there is yellowing present. Since July I've been contacting the company to fix it. They refused because they claim that it is not a warranty issue since it is our fault that we covered them, and that is what caused the yellowing. However, the best changes in court would be with two expert opinions. What I should have done was getting an inspector's report and document the yellowing properly. My mistake was sanding the stairs down before finding a new company. Now I cannot get an inspector to examine it. The reason I had my trusted carpenters to sand down the entire yellowed staircase was because our remodel has finished, and I didn’t want a yellow staircase in the house. I was also worried someone else wouldn't be as careful, and do more damage on brand new painted baseboards and stair skirts. Most importantly I knew sanding it down completely will be a huge mess and didn’t want all the dust on our stuff. I wanted to move into a clean house. Now, there will still be sanding just not as much as the heavy sanding. Even the walls were covered in sand. It was awful...