i had foot prints of "latex paint" on my wooden floors from the front door all the way to the back of the house ... i was doing the painting and a batch of paint from the roller hit the drop cloth and not knowing it , i step into the batch ... foot prints were everywhere ..!!! now , this paint was on my floor for "8 days" , so i called Behr up , and they told me to wet the paint area with liquid soap(mr.clean all purpose cleaner)and warm water, i did ... i had a 4" window/floor scraper ,but i reversed the blade and without any chemicals and absolutley NO damage to floors, the paint once wet , came up just like pop-corn...! the entire job took me about 1 hour .... THIS REALLY WORKS ,AND AGAIN NO DAMAGE TO THE WOODEN FLOOR PEOPLE ..!!!!!!!!! http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000PSB6OG/ref=nosim/?tag=nextag-tools-tier1-20&creative=380333&creativeASIN=B000PSB6OG&linkCode=asn

Ok...so the first thought is "Not enough finish". A floor traditionally has a total of 3 coats applied. The first coat is often a sealant of some sort. Then two coats of polyurethane after that. If they don't use a sealant...then there are THREE coats of polyurethane applied. This is the MOST COMMON way to go about finishing a floor. We've seen HUNDREDS of people having "2 coats" applied on their floors on Houzz and they are complaining because the floor is "gritty" or "not smooth". That corrects when things are done properly. The other concern I have would be "light spots". Your photo doesn't show them. I think I spy very small spots in the upper left of the photo. It almost appears "milky" or gives a bit of a bluish tinge. Am I correct? I worry that this might be an indication of adhesion concerns. Don't panic just yet. You will know if this is an adhesion issue pretty quickly. The "buffing" they are doing is what they are SUPPOSED TO DO between coat #2 and coat #3 (which is what was missing in the first place) will knock anything loose that isn't well adhered. If there is a BIG issue, then it will show itself with the buffing. Not always...but often. And they are not "removing" finish, they are buffing it. Getting it smooth and giving it a bit of "tooth" (scratching it up a bit so that another coat of finish has something to grab). That's supposed to happen. Once the buffing is finished, they need to do a bit of a tack cloth. Then the final coat goes down. That should be it. If after the third coat you see whitish spots showing up, then you need to contact them again.

Start with the most gentle solvent first: water > denatured alcohol> Goof Off. Always test in an inconspicuous corner first. Change the rag or paper towels often, so as not to spread the residue. Go to Home Depot and grab a few Formica samples from the kitchen center. They are soft enough material so as not to scratch most surfaces, yet their edges are a lot sharper than a credit card. A piece of terry towel dampened in hot water often is sufficient to loosen latex paint, especially fresh paint. Terry cloth is more abrasive than knit cotton.

When it is 'black' like that it indicates the RAW wood has been exposed to the minerals in DIRT or water (I see water stains/intrusion at the base of the wall where she's nailing). The 'dirt' is gone but the MINERALS remained LONG ENOUGH to stain the wood (not the finish...the wood itself) a black colour. This is an indication of wood damage...not finish damage. There is no scrubbing that will remove MINERAL STAINS in wood....you need to sand PAST the black stain (honestly....look stains in hardwood floors...you will come up with THOUSANDS of photos). There is no other way. Notice the black stuff to the right...that's water damage. The water evaporated but the MINERALS in the water remained long enough to stain the wood BELOW the finish. There is no cleaner in the world that will get rid of that other than a floor sander.