Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is a species of the genus hickory (Carya) which contains a dozen or so American species that bear some type of nut. The wood is in all practicality indistinguishable unless you are a botanist. Same grain pattern, knots, and general tone and hardness.

Thank you for the feedback. I am fully aware that my GC has voided the warranty on the flooring. Not only did his laborers glue the floor down in some areas, but they also did not use a vapor barrier, (couldn't if the floor was glued down right?). There is no place in the house where any large amount of weight rests on the flooring. The cabs were all installed first and flooring installed up to the edges. Same with the fireplace peninsula and the island. The flooring was on the sight for weeks before the install, and stored for 3-4 months less than a mile from the house. We are waiting till it gets a bit colder to do the checks on the heat levels of the flooring. The problems have manifested over the colder months. The plan is to test for heat, make decisions regarding replacement of the flooring and then reinstall the flooring in the spring when we will be gone for two weeks. I am personally confident that the problems are due solely to the glue down of the floor. Every place that we have a crack or gap is at a transition of some kind where glue was used. Additionally the upstairs which was not glued anywhere, because a professional flooring crew did the job, is perfect. We do have some contraction around the walls, and because we have very thin baseboard we can see some of the gaps. These gaps are right near the walls and are mostly hidden. I feel that this type of gap is expected and is acceptable to me. I don't think cracks in the middle of kitchen floor and elsewhere are normal or expected. My husband an I installed the floating floor in our last home over radiant heat, it was Kahrs click and lock wood flooring. We had none of these problems and the systems are very similar. This is not the only problem we have had with our contractor. We are still holding back on final payment, although by the time we are issued credits the total amount isn't near enough to pay for the floor. Boxiebabe: Regarding credit card payment: even if we had paid with a credit card we are well beyond the 60 days a credit card company will allow you to dispute a charge. Did you manage to dispute the charge after 60 days? I was really curious to see if anyone thought that gluing down ALL of the flooring sounded like a solution. I do think that even if the floor was properly installed having the two peninsulas and the large connected square footage could be a problem. Perhaps the total glue down is some kind of solution. I realize that the GC is trying to cover himself by suggesting that we chose a poor material. He has stated that no one locally will work with cork and that the industry trend is away from this material because it is so problematic. Unfortunately we live in a pretty small resort community finding a "flooring expert" is not as easy as it sounds. The nearest city is 280 miles away.

It's hard to believe that an installer would neglect to put pad under a section of floor but I have seen stranger things. Maybe they ran out, wanted to finish and thought you wouldn't notice. Does it sound different if you tap on it? If it's at an edge, I suppose they can remove the quarter round and a row of wood and prove the foam is there. If it's there, could they remove the floor from the wall up to the line you describe and add another layer of padding? There are techniques for replacing boards in the middle of a floating floor. Hopefully you have an installer that is skilled at making repairs. How else would you suggest the issues be remedied? Consider that in the future, you may damage a board that requires replacement. Is the defective board near an edge? For the finish flaw, would it be possible to rough it up with some fine sandpaper and apply Minwax spray polyurethane? We use it for touchups quite often. It's a little tricky to feather it in right and to get the right sheen. It's worth a try before removing a piece. They might also be able to tape off the offending piece and coat the whole board. I am not aware of any company that offers prefinished 12' long trim. Most companies sell 78" long trim. A few have 84" or 96" trim. Ask the person who said they make 12' long trim for the name of this trim supplier. You could have a piece of longer trim custom made and finished to match but they would be justified to charge you more for it (and it would probably be quite expensive). If you don't like the look of the joint in the middle, would it be more acceptable to have a full piece in the middle with two equal size pieces on the sides? Or would that look worse to you? Floating floor trim IS glued to the subfloor so the floor will float underneath. I've seem some trim that has an aluminum extrusion that attaches to the subfloor and the trim snaps into it but that's the exception rather than the norm. I'm not exactly sure what you're describing with the quarter round. Are you saying they stopped the quarter round at the trim then put a little piece on top of the trim. That would look crappy. Is the vinyl floor lower than the wood? If it is, there may be no way to make it perfect and you'll have to put up what offends you the least. The transition could be butted into the base and quarter round could end at the trim and restart over the vinyl. Or it could be coped and lapped over the trim. Or the qtr.round could be installed first and the trim be cut to it. None of these options is ideal. The open seam sounds potentially to be the worst of your problems. It may require removing and re-installing a portion of floor. Nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. For me, the difference between a good company and a bad one is that the good company will fix their mistakes. If you picked a company to do your work, it's best to allow that company complete the work correctly unless they show they are unable. Good luck. This post was edited by JFCWood on Wed, Nov 20, 13 at 7:32

loribee and Connie, thank you for the kind words. Connie, I just spent some lovely time on your blog, totally captivated by your new kittens and your roses. (I'm a new native gardening.) I love seeing what people have done with customizing other pieces but we're just not DIY folks at all. Hubby has ZERO interest and my abilities are limited. So mostly we either have to buy ready to go or pay someone to do things. One other reason to replace these is that I can then move some of them into my office which has shorter shelves and into hubby's office which also has shorter shelves. We need a lot of bookspace. les - no, the store won't come out here and it's not custom as in them building various sizes. Plus the store is an hour away. The fitting is pretty basic - I have 67" on one side of the fireplace and 73" on the other. All bookcases are 12" deep and there is 33" and 46" wide one to be used. So 12" + 46" = 58 with 9" left on one side and 15" left on the other because of course the fireplace isn't in the middle of the wall. :) Those gaps are too wide on either side of the fireplace to look decent and if I use these cases, I can't really make something to fit the small space and match. If I use the pine ones I have more widths to choose from, 24, 30, 36, 48 so I could do a 24 and 30 on one side and 30 and 30 on the other side which, when I add in the 12" depth for the cases from the other wall, gives me an inch to spare. But I need to figure out the heat registers and look at the case bottoms better today to see if we can cut the fronts for registers or mount them on bases of some kind. I tell you, I'm exhausted by all of this. Watching them demo the ceramic tile for the wood floor is going to be a piece of cake after this. :) The other think you might consider, and I dont know for sure what would be cheaper, would be to have the bookcases made of stain-grade plywood, or paint grade that you do in a deep black brown, or a white to match the fireplace. I spent another couple of hours looking at the various manufacturers on the stores website and found a couple of entertainment units that should work. I'll ask about them when we go today. Hubby is picky. We need something for the TV, no problem, but then the 4 components (DVD, TiVo, subwoofer and CD player) need a space that is open on both the front and the back. He won't use glass or cloth doors and wants an open back. (We'll just cut what we need from the back if it doesn't come open.) But like I said, I think there are a few pieces that would work and the handyman came by last night and said that he could do the bridge stuff I wanted. It's the heat registers to solve now. And can I just say again, thank you to all of you who read and comment and hold hands through this process? I don't have anyone local here to bounce this stuff around with so I really, really appreciate it.