Hi, My sister happened to have a furniture repair person at her house yesterday and also sometime last week b/c when they moved over the summer, some of the furniture was damaged by the moving company. I asked my sister to show him the pictures and ask him what he thought as well. He actually worked in NC for many years for the NC furniture stores doing exactly what I am having an issue with...repairing furniture before it is shipped to the customer. He eventually left b/c he did not like the deceitfulness that goes on in NC to the end-consumer and says it is actually a fairly common practice unknowingly to the consumer. In my case, it just happen to have split again too early for their liking. In conclusion, as most have said here already... He said it is not a crack from a wood knot. They rarely use pine in manufacturing furniture these days and I agree since American Drew states they "xxx" woods and pine is not listed. What he did say is that it is called a climatic crack and that the wood that American Drew used to make the piece was not dried out (enough). He did say that the red stain is definitely a primer and the piece was already repaired once before. He told my sister that the wood may not dry out for another 2-3 years and that the problem can and most likely will occur again if I settle for the repair. He said do not settle for a repair, you need full replacement. Regardless if it is due to wet wood or shipping damage from AD to Boyles, it has been repaired already. I probably can get a thousand testimonies to that from people in the field like you. I did NOT pay for a repaired piece of furniture!! I would not be so defiant if it was there upon delivery and we did not notice it, but it was not there upon delivery or when it went through Boyles QA Dept. To Duane and Mogator88 - knowing yet another confirmation that this piece has already been repaired once, I am now 100% confident that if I was to send the chest back without a full replacement being dropped off at my house at the time of pickup, I would get the same exact piece back AGAIN. They have already done it once. Now would you call AD and tell them what is going on since it was obviously repaired before. If Boyles repaired it b/c they did not feel like putting in a claim and AD knows nothing about this it is AD's reputation on the line. Or perhaps, it was a Boyle's customer that declined delivery/acceptance b/c it was damaged when it got to their house. Yes hundreds of scenarios, but one common conclusion. Again, how can Duane and the furniture repair man at my sister's house look at the picture and say it has been repaired once before, yet Boyles cannot make that determination without the actual piece in their possession. Fishy to me and you know I will be getting the same piece back, claiming by them it is a full replacement. I guess we just cannot determine if it is wet wood or just shipping damage, but I am not taking the chance. I will not dispute the charge. I agree it will probably agitate them so they will not accomodate me, but I will keep on fighting for a full replacement and will not settle for anything less after all of these confirmations of prior damage that I am receiving. Once this may-hem is done, my review of Boyles in this forum and to others by word-of-mouth will not be very favorable. Thanks again for your support and solid expertise.

Hey SJ, * Some painters will use a PAINTABLE siliconized-acrylic caulk, * Others like the patching-plaster, applied with a narrow putty-knife, then feather-sanded when dry... * Or, good-ol' spackle-compound. >>> Vacuum out all cracks though if they haven't done it. >>> You should at least prime the repaired areas. >>> Ideally, brush a thin, hazy coat of primer on repairs. Then prime entire wall. Faron

I don't know if it's old school. But, I do know that it's much easier to prime first and then you can see more clearly all the areas that need to be filled. The primer is going to fill some of the smaller cracks. It's best to caulk after primer. Plus, caulk will always adhere to a high quality primer better than it will to raw wood. The primer doesn't really need to penetrate because the caulk has done that. The painter would really have to be an idiot to use silicone caulk that he can't paint. Usually, it is the carpenters that do that to us!

Let me tell you a story. I used to work for a huge new construction painting crew. We had 35 painters or so. Many of us were specialists in spraying primer and backrolling. We used 1 1/4" nap sleeves. You can get into a lot of trouble with a roller cover that big if you don't give a crap. However, if you spread the paint out properly, you can get a wall to look as if it was rolled out with a 1/2" nap. My point is, this is a technique issue. This is why you have some areas that don't look too bad and some areas that look fine. It's not that they choose the wrong size nap. It's just because they didn't care (or were not trained properly). I'm not saying that the 3/4" nap is the best choice for rolling primer. It's not. 1/2" would be more appropriate. So, don't let this one incident ruin you image of painters. You should be able to find a painter that can paint.