Without pictures taken from standing height, it's hard to determine whether these are issues. Considering that you're taking pictures that are characteristic of a customer who would crawl around on their hands and knees looking for flaws, you might be overreacting. You're evaluating a floor, not a piece of furniture or a classic car with a $25,000.00 paint job.

I assume the scratches need another coat as you mention. This will probably hide them.

I'm inclined to let the crack filler slide since the filled cracks are minuscule, except the one that's very light at the edge of a board (pic. #3) that should be refilled or colored over before coating.

Water based finishes can make wood fibers swell. I assume the finisher didn't use one of the sealers that minimizes this. You have no reasonable choice now other than allowing the final coat to be applied, then checking for roughness.

The only thing that alarms me is the blotches. Is that what's in the last picture? I've seen marks like on the third and fifth boards from the wall occur naturally. Without more pictures I can't tell whether you're seeing something in the wood, or caused by the finisher. If it's due to the finish, the only recourse is to start over.

Thanks for the reply!

From eye level you can't see the scratches, although you can see the light yellow patches of filler. If those filler spots can be successfully colored I think I'd be fine. You couldn't see the rough planks from any level either, they just felt very rough. The blotchy spots can clearly be seen from any level, and they look particularly bad in some lighting angles. The example I posted above is an extreme, it's inside a closet and it won't be seen, although the guy doing the floors didn't know that it won't be seen. Here are some more photos from eye level:

Floors · More Info

Floors · More Info

Pretty floor! I don't see the blotches in the last two pictures but maybe they're hard to capture. I was concerned about tannin marks on the floor when you mentioned about it being at the edges. Normally, blotches caused by poor sealer application would look like the upper right corner of the closet in picture #6. They're caused by pooling the finish. This happens more frequently at edges and doorways, or where the finisher is backing their way out of an area. The spots I can see in your last two pics look like normal marks caused by light reflecting from the grain structure.

Thank you both

Sigh.. There's no reason for something like that.

It looks like the remnant of the sealer. What did they use for a sealer prior to applying the Traffic HD?

Floor was sanded/buffed to 220, and then Bona Traffic HD (Commercial Satin) was applied (nothing else in between). In my opinion it was over applied in all edges hallways and closets.

For example, this is what the baseboard next to the bedroom baseboard looks like:

If, no sealer was used. Then what you are seeing is tannin pull from the Traffic HD. When applying a waterborne finish, to avoid this issue, a sealer must be used over white oak floors. The final cut for Traffic HD should not exceed 150 grit prior to coating. 220 grit is used for in-between coat abrasions. This will require a do over.

Sorry I didn't explain fully. They "finished" the floors, not sure how low they got with the grain but it was 120-150 I believe, and then they applied Bona Traffic HD. At this point some planks were sandpaper rough, and that's when they did the 220. Then another coat (or maybe two) of the same sealer.

You will need to find out exactly what they applied.

Example:

1 sealer and 2 traffic hd or no sealer and 3 traffic hd.

The last 6 images you posted shows tannin pull. Which is caused by uneven coating when a sealer is not used over white oak. The darker spots and areas have heavier coverage. Whereas the lighter shades have less coverage. To correct this problem, a re-sand is needed.

There was no sealer, just Traffic HD (which I thought was the sealer).

Floor was sanded/buffed, then Traffic HD applied (2 coats).

Floor was resanded because of roughness, then 2 more coats of Traffic HD.

Contractor says they will "fix it" at the end without sanding. Everything I read plus your comment about tanning pull seems to indicate this is not possible and that the floor will need to be resanded.

Is tanning pull unusual? It bothers me that they were so careless with the application and might want to get someone else to fix it.

Without the use of a sealer, the risk of getting tannin pull is high with a waterborne finish. The first coat will always absorb unevenly. Have them read the label.

That is some EXPENSIVE finish to "get wrong" using 4 coats!!!!! Oh dear. Looks like the contractor is about to feel a NASTY pinch in his wallet for this mistake. A "Bona Trained" floor professional would NEVER make this mistake. A GC who uses one of his "guys" to do the floor will make this mistake on a DAILY basis. I'm going to take a stab at WHICH 'guy' was used for your floor.

Don't let them 'try to fix' it without a strong discussion with them. Point out the failure to use a sealant (which happens to be MUCH CHEAPER than the Bona finish....so they could have saved HUNDREDS of dollars of materials if they had FOLLOWED THE DIRECTIONS) means you are allowed to get a full redo...without argument.

I would be nice but firm. And I would make sure I had EVERY DOCUMENT I could find in my HAND and with HIGHLIGHTED SECTIONS that indicate where things went wrong and why....and how that "wrong" = bad looking floor.

And Bona is a PIG to work with. A 'guy' on the job site is going to be LOST drying to figure out one of the trickiest finishes available. It is a steep and EXPENSIVE learning curve. One the 'guy's' boss (Ahem...GC) is going to have to pay for.

Good luck. Start printing out every document you can find! Schedule a chat with the GC once you've read and digested EVERYTHING.

Eighteen years ago when we had to have floors refinished due to a major pipe burst, there was pooling and puddling near the baseboards in multiple areas. We were devastated - the entire renovation had taken over 6 months and insurance was not going to pay to store the furniture any longer. GC said it could be "hand-sanded" and then a light poly coat put on it; flooring guy said that was not possible to do and entire floor would have to be redone, and he was "booked up" for 3 more months.

He probably wasn't but we couldn't prove it so we just accepted it and moved back into the first floor of the house. Every now and then, I notice where this was, but with furniture and rugs in place, it's not really noticeable. When the time comes to sell the house, my children will probably have all the floors re-finished as it will be "time" to do so and help sell the house.

I just recently did these sealers and finishes to my floor myself. It was a long and tedious process. The contractor didnt want to spend the time doing it right so i did it myself. I did it exactly as bona said. I applied two coats of the bona nordic seal 4 hours apart, then waited 24 hours to apply a third coat. I waited another day before i put on the finish after making sure the floor was completely clean by using a barely damn microfiber mop.

For the finish, you have to do the coats within 3 hours of each other or the finish hardens too much (in the directions). After all those coats, no abrasion was needed because the floor was completely smooth. the trick with these sealers and finishes is to apply them at that magical point when they arent too dry or too wet. I also used a pad for the application because it was easier to use in my opinion: way way easier to get an even coat.

The directions for both products explained that the sealer ”protects the wood from the finish”. So it absolutely warns not to apply the finsh to raw wood. here is a picture of the floor directly after the second coat of the finish. We are in the process of updating the house, so excuse the 1930s vibe here, lol. we started with the floors. Also, these products dry incredibly fast. One has to have a good work ethic to get them on. You have to be quick and methodic about applying even coats.