Thanks for for the feedback. And fair enough on the flashlight. And yeah I mean I’m only stating that the squeak wasn’t there before and now it is. There was extensive work done to the floor so I would assume it could be related. Is this something you can repair from below, or does it have to go through the top?

It depends on the source. Wood subfloor? Exposed underneath? If yes, a repair from underneath may be possible. If one can discern that the wood is moving it may just need a finish nail or two, or epoxy injection. I hesitate to make holes in the top of a floor in an exposed area considering how they might look and that they may not fix the problem. Most of the squeaks I've seen derive from the subfloor.

I've attempted to see the link, but it isn't working. Can you upload some photos (jpg) to your next posts? Houzz is slow to upload photos...you need to allow the photos to COMPLETE the upload before you close the page.

I'm concerned about the stain missing by the mantle (whatever that means...we need photos). If there is an issue with the stain, it means you need to get down to raw wood and then start again.

Please see around the edges where stain is missing

Here are the ridges on there edge of the wood

The color can be touched up around the fireplace hearth. If, the debris should be picked off and touched up. My biggest concern is the ridges on the edge of your wood. It looks like stain was bleeding back. Too much stain got trapped in the joints. Which never dried and is working it's way up. It's a recipe for white line syndrome. Another thing, when you refinish a pre-finished floor. The bevels need to sanded off to prevent adhesion issues. Adhesion issues means more white line syndrome.

Hmm so there are no white lines now, how long does it usually take to manifest?

White line syndrome is a process where the finish goes through adhesion failure. It often starts at the edges of the planks. This can begin with changes of humidity. As the floors shrink (often in winter...but not always) the finish stretches between the planks. A contaminant (like too much stain) loosens the finish and the edges lift off the planks. When they span to gap between planks (suspended in the air like a suspension bridge) the edges start to look like white lines. This white line syndrome.

G & S is correct about the sanding down of a factory finished floor. Was your floor a factory finished product? If so, it would explain why some of the stain didn't take in areas.

WLS shows after the finish is fully cured. With Masterline, you are looking after 30 days.

Yes it was a factory finished floor and I guess I just have to wait and see what happens then. And hopefully I can have him come back and fix it if it happens.

It isn't always practical or even smart to grind down a beveled floor until the bevels are removed. Some older floors have deep bevels. Grinding them out would significantly shorten the life of the floor. You may get some white lines in the grooves, especially if the floor was previously waxed, since incomplete removal could interfere with adhesion in the bevels. The stain bleedback you have appears to be extremely minor.

Unless the nits you're seeing are much worse than the ones in your second picture, I'd leave them alone. Overall the poly finish looks excellent. No point in jeopardizing that. The first scuff, scratch or ding you get, and you will get them, will be worse than what's in your picture.

Along with the rule to evaluate a wood floor without unnatural light sources, there's also a rule that it's to be judged from a height of 50" per NWFA standards.

Most wood flooring professionals will offer either 1 or 2 year labour guarantees. Ask what you paid for.

Sanding down factory finished hardwoods is tricky. And after that it gets tricky. And if it had Aluminum Oxide as the original finish...it's a B!TCH to deal with.

Thanks for the feedback I’ll be meeting with him to discuss any defects in person this weekend. He came into do some repairs And this I think was a repair. Is this normal during repair?

Based on the outline, the finish had peeled.

Is that repairable and how does the finish peel?

Finish peeling indicates adhesion issues. It is probably more wide spread, than what you see there. Slowly it will show up. Re-sanding is how you fix a peeling finish.

Ouch. Not a positive look. Peeling looks just like peeling a postage sticker off of a cardboard box. Some of the surface of the cardboard comes with it leaving a jagged edge (as you see there) and a void of material. Now imagine painting over the box. The ragged surface will always look different (as seen above) to the intact surface.

As G & S states, the only 'real' fix is a full sand and refinish. As flooring professionals, when we see 1 area of adhesion failure (the finish doesn't stick to the thing underneath it) we ASSUME more areas have the same issue. Like ants in a kitchen. You never have just 1.

Please check the thickness of your hardwood. You can do this anywhere you find a floor vent. You can measure the amount of wood ABOVE the tongue. So long as you have 3mm of wood or more, you have enough for a full sand and refinish.

And please check the invoice. A well paid flooring professional with ++skills should cost $5/sf for a regular sand and refinish (including stain...but not water popping). A factory finished floor *might cost more because of the difficulty removing the old finish.

"I think was a repair"

Don't say if you don't know. It leads to potentially false speculation. It looks to me more like an indentation. It does not look like peeling. Is there a depression?

Yes there is a depression. I hadn’t seen it before and I saw it after he was there to do repairs. But I don’t have confirmation, that’s why I said I think...

I didn't think that looked like peeling finish but since I'm on a desktop machine, I was able to blow the picture up and get a better look than someone on a phone. That said, assuming the worst, then prescribing the most drastic remedy, seems to be rather common here.

An indentation like that is unlikely to have been made during a repair attempt unless said attempt included dropping something very heavy on the floor. It's hard to speculate what caused it but it looks like the floor was finished before the indentation.

Yes it doesn’t look like a repair and there has been no one else there that would’ve dropped anything. We aren’t living in the house and have only had socks on for about a week. And my wife would not allow another sand and recoat since our house is still accumulating dust. So I guess the question is what can be done about this spot to make it look better? Scuff and recoat?

The repair removed whatever number of coats was originally on the floor. You need to apply the same amount of poly to get rid of the outline.

In the past we have treated these by building up coats of poly, block sanding between coats, then taping off the affected boards and coating them once the indented area was built up flush with the surface.

It is odd. There's been no workman other than the floor person there yet this showed up.

So he came today and had to sand down to the floor, and he restained and added poly at once. Is that okay or would he come back every day for just a small patch

And he also scuffed up other ridges and rough spots elsewhere but that was the most extensive repair

Not ok for Minwax. Minwax requires over 24 hours to dry. It is notorious for adhesion issues. This is all due to it's unpredictable dry time. Contact Masterline to see what their recommendations are over Minwax stain.

So we just left as is and have now be in the house for a bit now it seems as if the floor is super delicate. Perhaps I’m not used to having hard woods but it just seems like this finish is crazy delicate.

The linear scratch was me vacuuming with a plastic shop vac attachment. And the Second one was from dropped hard dog toy. The third is if our wooden coffee table is moved. Is it normal for this to damage so easily?

I'm worried about the 'pock mark' in your second photo. A fully cured, fully ADHERED finish WILL NOT do that. You can see the centre of the pock is gone and the WHITE COLOURING around the edge of the mark = adhesion failure.

I'm HIGHLY suspicious this floor is going to have more and more issues. A dropped toy should dent the WOOD but leave the finish INTACT. This is the OPPOSITE. The wood is intact (not a heavy object) but the FINISH has FAILED.

I would assume the worst. If one spot fails, it is most likely it will ALL FAIL.

As for the white scratches, that can be normal for a fresh finish. Even after a full 30+ day cure they can be a little delicate.

I would recommend bringing in an NWFA Certified inspector (www.nwfa.org) and pay them for an inspection. They will perform an adhesion test to see how well that oil based poly is grabbing the Minwax stain.

While you are waiting for the NWFA Inspector to call you back, I would reach out to Masterline (as G&S suggested a few weeks ago) to find out if Minwax is an acceptable stain underneath their product. And if so, how much time they want to see from 'stain' to first coat of finish. Minwax is KNOWN for taking many many hours (some required 24-72 hours) before the first coat of finish can be applied.