"3/4" thick 3" wide solid maple" Id s this tongue adnd groove individually nailed strips? You do not need anything approaching 3/4 of an inch for that. Every board moves independently since only one side is fastened. The length of wood changes by only a very small percentage with humidity. Large clearances are required for engineered floating flooring since the entire floor moves as a single very wide board (though cross grain construction can reduce the dimension compared to solid wood). Chapter 3 covers moisture relationship and size in wood This post was edited by brickeyee on Wed, Jun 5, 13 at 10:20

Wow, there sure area lot of opinions about shoes on shoes off. As an agent, sometimes we are requested to remove shoes. Typically it is on meticulously clean homes. Most buyers don't mind, some grumble, but I have never had a buyer say they refuse to take their shoes off. It is the sellers home. They have the right to ask people to remove their shoes. When my children were babies and crawling around on the floor, no one was allowed to wear shoes in my house. I simply didn't want my babies crawling around in what was on the bottom of people's shoes, it could be anything! Being in thousands of homes in my career, I can tell you, I have seen floors that have been damaged because of a woman's high heel. There is no doubt about the mark. It looks like a nail head path of holes. It is from a heel where the little rubber thing has come off the shoe . Most people don't ask you to take shoes off because they are afraid you will damage the floors,they don't want the outside dirt on the floor. There are some cultures where it is a must. But the bottom line is,if there were signs and most likely this agent was told when making the appointment to please remove shoes, it should have been done.

Careful with the boot tray, It is 100% rubber. Rubber and hardwood floor finishes do NOT mix. In fact, rubber will stain hardwoods! Yep. Rubber (in a mat a tray, a ball left in the corner for a few months, etc) will turn your finish a 'nicotine orange' colour. This comes from a CHEMICAL reaction between the rubber and the polyurethane finish. The only fix is to sand down the floor and start again. The boot tray would work well over a cotton mat of some sort. So long as the rubber does not come in contact with the finish, you are just fine. Many finishes say the hard furniture (like sofas, tables, etc) can be put back into place after "X" amount of days (7-10 is common). But 'soft' items like area rugs, pet beds, etc need to be kept of the floor for the full 30 days. It is the softer products that are kinda fuzzy that seem to stick to floors a bit more than rigid things like fridge/stove feet, etc. PS: So glad you liked my comments. Sometimes it takes a bit of laughter to get through a problem...and yes I'm a mum who has no problem hoovering over something new and shiny. It freaks out hubby just a little...and a little fear can be a good thing;-)

The floors have POLISH on them (someone thought that was a good idea to pep them up before the sale of the house). The POLISH is doing what polish does...it is being slowly removed. The dull splotches are where the polish is wearing off and the floor's finish is starting to show through....or where the OLD LAYER of polish used to be and is now showing through. To test my theory, you can use Windex Original Formula (has 5% ammonia = ideal wood cleaner/polish stripper). Start with an area that is not viewed by anyone (like behind a door that remains open all the time). 1. Spray (almost to the point of soaking it) a 1ft x 1ft area with the Windex Original 2. Let sit for 30 - 60 seconds (no less and certainly no more) 3. Using a clean white cotton cloth (bags sold at walmart) you wipe up the windex 4. Check the cloth for any yellow/orange/brown residue. This is the indication there is a polish on the floor...which is what you are looking for! 5. Mist the same 1ft x 1ft area again and (with a new cotton cloth) you wipe up immediately 6. Repeat the misting until the cloth comes up slightly damp looking with a hint of blue from the Windex. Once the orange/yellow tinge is no longer visible on your cloth you know the area has had the polish removed. 7. Follow steps 1-6 until the entire floor is free of the polish....I'm going to guess those little splotches will go away once the floor has been properly cleaned with Windex. Remember: Bona Cleaner is a product that is used 1 PER MONTH...not daily or even weekly. A 'damp clean' should be water only. This type of damp cleaning happens 1 per week. The over use of Bona Cleaners (or any hardwood cleaners) can and will lead to a build up of product (ignore the statement "will not leave a residue"...that's hokum! If it makes your wood look nicer then there is a residue left behind!). Tell us what happens once you tried the Windex.