The first concern is that I saw a couple spots on the new flooring where the board appeared to have insect bore holes (they are like perfect circles and not aligned with the top nailing). The floors don't have a rustic look, the boards were supposed to be select and better (?)

Next is that it appears not all the top-nailing was successfully filled with filler. This occurred on the new flooring in some spots and most of the old flooring.

A piece of wood at a transition is cracked where it was nailed

and the aesthetic concern is that in the new floor most of it looks relatively uniform save for this one board with the dark streak through it, which of course is prominently located near the center of the 4' doorway from the living room to the family room. It is the only board that looks like this and I don't appreciate the "character" of this board at all.

Have you talked with your contractor about it?

No not yet, I wasn't sure if I was being too nit-picky. Since posting, however, I do feel like the issues with bore holes and the split transition piece are important to address. I'm sending him a message with photos of the issues and will see how he responds.

IDK how big a deal the top-nailing issues are, but it does bug me that they aren't consistently either all unfilled or all filled. We were asked not to walk on the flooring once the sanding was finished so I didn't really have a chance to see these issues. Maybe I should have walked on the floor anyway but I didn't want to be the reason for problems later on.

I guess the streaked board I could have noticed when we looked before sanding, but it didn't catch my eye when the raw wood was laid out.

I don't know how difficult these are to correct now that all the sealers are on and the flooring is supposedly done, but this was expensive work so I'm disappointed.

It would be a lot of spot-filling, it's about 40% of the new floor. Is that considered normal? Also, I was under the impression that for the old floor being refinished the wood filler would have been used there as well but no sign of it being used at all.

All issues are visible from a standing position, but getting down next to it is best for photography to depict the flaw clearly.

Those will be great questions for your contractor. I understand. It sounds like the new floor has worm holes and the old floor does not. Did they match the rest of the features pretty well?

Yes I believe it's a good match otherwise, but I'm no expert. There is newer (but not original) floor in the hallway that he said is also the same as the original but I think it looks terrible, covered in crazy graining. Since it's the hall I didn't ask him to replace it just to refinish to match everything else.

Okay the plan is to meet at the house and discuss tomorrow. i sent an email with photos describing my concerns. I'm not going to bring up the board with the dark streak, I've decided it's there to remind me that life isn't perfect.

Are there any durability concerns with unfilled top nailing? are these boards more likely to come loose or is this mainly a cosmetic issue?

I’m following along and hope you post an update. I’d be curious about those issues too.

Would you mind posting a photo of your floors? I think we’re going to go with select red oak flooring. Thanks!

Update: he said he would hammer down any protruding nails, would fill with putty anything glaring, that the split transition piece just needed to be filled and it would be fine, and that the worm holes were considered allowable for "select and better" (which is what he says he installed) and could be filled with putty.

So does the putty require a sealer over it? the contractor said that due to wood floor moving through expansion/contraction things (putty/nails) will shift regardless.

Here are additional photos:

original flooring family room (refinished to remove the stain)

new floor, you can see where they meet up in the middle of the fireplace bricks (and the board with the dark streak)

hall (weird flooring that isn't original but he said matched and I think has a lot more graining than the original and is not very attractive).

I don't know what to think. DH doesn't think wood filler without some type of sealer is adequate. But we also have a lot of stress in our lives and being difficult over the flooring may not be worth the energy.

I do want to add that I've been pretty worried about the pink tones of red oak, I see so much complaining about it on the internet The original floors were quite ambered so I didn't know how they would look with an unstained natural finish. Also I am not a fan of pink decor. But I don't think this floor looks too pink at all. It seems balanced by other tones and warm without dictating a color scheme.

Further information from the contractor indicated that the putty he's using is a finishing putty that doesn't require additional finish. He wanted me to go back and take a look at the split piece in the entry transition now that it's filled and see what I think.

I don't think I communicated very well that I don't care for the graininess of the oak floor... it looks like he selected some very highly grained boards for the entry transition and aligned them quite artistically. I just wanted to match what the house already had, but not necessarily highlight grainy boards. But since the hall has more boards like that to begin with maybe it blends a little better, I only noticed it in the photo not when I'm in the house.

Still, huge improvement over what was there before (1" tall threshold).

Still looking for feedback on the finishing wood filler proposal from our flooring install.

mainly is it an acceptable fix that will it really hold up over the long term?

Yes, there are wood filler that requires no finish. The issue with that is the sheen will be off, it can come loose and fall out when you vacuum. It's best that it is sealed in with a coat of poly. The contractor will not like to hear it, but it is the best path for him/her with so many nails to fill, to avoid another call back. Fill, clean, buff and re-coat will yield the best result. It should have done prior to the final sanding pass, with touch ups along the way.

Thanks for the feedback. If I don't do anything further are we looking at a maintenance nightmare or would it be livable for a while? We need to move into this house plus we have a lot of stress from my hoarder parents and their crazy. We could use the space of the bigger house but if this floor is going to be a nightmare then better to deal with it before we move.