How many are you seeing? Where are they situated in the space? Can you put down some blue painter's tape and then take a photo of the room? How old are the floors? Are there any other concerns with the installation (bowing, cupping, splintering of the veneer in other areas of the plank)?

Where these issues IMMEDIATE or did they "take time" to show up?

Yup. Johnson hit it right.

The walls are on the right in those two pictures? That would reinforce the hammer/nailer strike opinion.

The installer didn't have the boot on the nail gun to jack it up to the right height to set level and square on top. I see this all the time.

If you have an inspector come out, watch his magnetic ball stop on each dented place. It's attracted to the staple there.

Alan

I count at least 10 individual instances. Floors are brand new, I noticed this the day after installation (house is brand new as well). The rest of the planks look fine, no cupping, bowing, etc. The issues were immediate.

Here are some high level pics for reference.

The one in the doorway concerns me since it will see higher traffic. I get there will always be imperfections but it just doesn't seem right to me and I worry because they are cracked, damaged, whatever you want to call it, that the finish will wear off quicker in those spots.

And to confirm what we all think...I only see the damage on the sides that were nailed down, nothing on the opposite side of each board.

Thanks for all of the feedback!

That would only be a few boards to replace. Your installer should take care of that.

Yah...sounds like "strike" damage. Especially close to walls or in tight spots like through a doorway. As WeShipFloors points out, there are only a few boards to replace. Talk to the builder and make sure the removal/replacements are done by flooring professionals and not some "guy" on the job site who knows the sharp end of a screwdriver.

The guy who installed it just does floors...and claims to do million dollar houses so I just want to make sure I wasn't critical of something that is just "normal" in prefinished engineered hardwood.

Follow up question...

I chose the hardwood floor and they said they would install matching stairs. To me the color seems too off. What do you think?

(Stair treads in red, hardwood floor blue, transition white line)

Non marked up photo as well

Not all engineered hardwood companies have matching treads available.

Definitely does not match.

@millworman, yup very true. I was just told they could stain treads to match, and I get it won't be perfect, but it just seems very noticeable. The floor is more natural/honey and the stairs are red.

@weshipfloors, yea good idea, if it transitioned smoother, at the nosings, that would work well.

Frankly I think you won't get a better match. The color is so close to natural that there's not a lot of leeway to adjust it with stain. If they used waterborne finish on the steps a coat of oil based may give it more of an amber cast and with time they would match better.

"you won't get a better match"?? Really? That is awful. Two completely different colors - they are not even close.

In the whole universe of colors they are extremely close.

You have wood that's quite close to natural color. That means there's not a lot of room to play with the color to adjust it.

How exactly would you suggest these be made closer together?

Well I'm not the floor pro - I have no suggestions on how it would be done. :-) Use the same wood perhaps??

I would expect far more from a company that I had paid to install my floors, however. This would not be acceptable to me, personally.

Do they match perfectly? No. Is it true that they're "not even close"? Also no.

As a floor professional, specifically in wood flooring, I can tell you that matching a site finished wood to something prefinished CAN be very difficult. Factory finishing usually uses different products and procedures. Even if you have the exact same type of wood, the material to make custom millwork may vary significantly from what's used in a factory. It may be the same wood but come from a different area. It may come from a single tree where flooring comes from multiple trees. It may be more select with less character, variation and sapwood. It will have been processed differently. There may well be pieces of flooring that match those treads quite well.

It's certainly not "awful" and since the colors are a couple shades apart I stand by my original statement that you probably won't get a better match. As I noted before, if they finished the treads with a waterborne finish, that might account for the slight difference.

Well I’m really not trying to be difficult about it, or even particularly picky. But the stairs are red. The top is blonde, honey colored. Two completely different colors. Now maybe it’s the screen I am looking at, and maybe you’re not seeing that great difference on your screen. But the colors that I am looking at, are absolutely very different. And I would not want that in my own home.

I totally get it won't be a perfect match. They are both acacia so that at least helps eliminate some variables in matching them. My initial quote says they would stain to match, so I expected some sort of honey/natural whatever words you want to use to describe the floor color.

Just to vent....the flooring sub apparently does not know how to cut outlet holes as well.

Upon further examination...

Your floor is a natural big leaf acacia. Those treads are not big leaf acacia. Where did they come from? I'd want to see an invoice from the manufacturer saying they are acacia. The treads have red undertones and no blonde like acacia at all.

My floor guy claims the treads are acacia

The floor is mohawk natural acacia.

Now per him...both are natural but the treads just have more red, naturally.

I'll see what further info I can find