We have solid, site-finished, 5" hickory planks in our house. We like them, but, I'm actually writing this to tell you to be very cautious about hickory floors. We've stained our floors dark and have a hardwax oil finish. Our floors were stained dark because we did not like the strong orange/yellow undertones. Staining dark is, imo, the only way to reduce or eliminate the orange/yellow tones and, from what we experienced, hickory is not easy to stain and also not easy to stain evenly. I know that first floor you posted is blonde/brown and beautiful, but, beware.... Hickory yellows over time, with exposure to light. They call it "ambering." I may be mistaken, but I am not sure if any finish will prevent color change of the wood, itself, over time. Someone else may know more about this. But...be very careful and do your homework before you purchase. So far as humidity fluctuations and hickory, I don't think that there's any way you're going to get away with solid hickory in your state unless you are highly committed to very tightly controlling humidity levels in your home. We live in CA, where we do not experience fluctuations in humidity that are anywhere near what you get, and our floors expand a little in the summer and contact a little in the winters, and so we do see some cracks open up a bit here and there in the winters. We knew hickory was a relatively unstable wood when we installed it and so we knew we'd see a bit of movement, so we were prepared for this. It was one of the factors that led us to use a hardwax oil vs a water or oil based polyurethane. If you are uncertain if hickory is for you, or if you like the blonde/brown look of that first floor you posted and you would be unhappy if you floor had, or developed, yellow/orange undertones like the second floor, I think you need to rethink hickory. Start asking questions about yellowing over time. Some finishes yellow over time and so you will hear about this. But, wood also changes color over time. Will any finish prevent this? I don't know. Finally, know that there is significant variation in color even with select and better hickory. I think that it's possible that one of the things you dislike about the second floor you posted is that you can see where the planks meet up....one plank is dark, the next is light, maybe a solid dark plank meets a plank that's half dark and half light. This phenomenon is not so obvious is the first photo, because that photo covers a much smaller area vs the photo of the second floor, which is of the entire room. But, I'd advise thinking about this. Some planks will be dark, some will be light. Many will have both dark and light areas. One plank may have a 1/2 inch strip of light on the left. Another may have 4 inches of darker wood on the left, etc., etc. Think about how the planks will look when installed, both next to each other and also where they meet on the ends. Plank length matters so far as overall look too. Your first photo looks like it has longer planks than the second floor.

I would finish the renovation, move in most of my furnishings (at least place my area rugs and then reassess) before making any more of an issue with this. You have voiced your concern about the visual of this plank. Put it in writing in an email (that gives it a time/date stamp). In my email I would state that we have already discussed this plank (a photo in the email is excellent) and that you are willing to TRY to live with it. You would like to continue on with the renovation as planned. And you would like to see if you can "get used to it" before you ask for a plank replacement. An email in this vein does many things: time/date stamp with photo of the issue. It also smooths EVERYONE'S feathers. The GC will feel like you are trying to listen and are trying to be a "good customer" by listening to the GC. The GC will also realize that it is POSSIBLE that a plank replacement MAY be in the future....but it isn't set in stone. This type of email will be a win-win for everyone. You will document your concern and the GC will feel relaxed about moving forward with the rest of the renovation without having to worry about a single plank. As a person who loves wood variation (LOVE Hickory and Character Grade White Oak) I'm not overly excited about this plank. I would prefer to "get used to it" rather than risking a replacement.

I hate shoe molding. It always looks dirty. I thought it was just my cleaning abilities! LOL. It looks like your house was NOT built straight!! I think it is just the floor that makes the walls look like they aren't square. The gaps shown in photo #1 aren't consistent along the board. One end might have an acceptable gap and the other end looks like the photo. Once you get to the end of the room with a couple of skewed boards it looks like photo #3. If it were a smaller room instead of the open floor plan, it might not look so bad in that corner. robin069 may have a point. But the flooring installers could have simply cut a triangular piece that would fit flush to the wall. Sounds like a triangular piece might be the "fix" for now. We are so far over schedule that if we don't convert our construction loan we will get hit with extra fees. I might not gain as much fighting over this as I'll lose in bank fees for not wrapping it up ASAP. It kills me to say this, but maybe I'll have to live with it for now and redo the floors ourselves at a later date. I've installed vinyl and tile flooring as a DIY project in previous houses. It took FOREVER because I wanted it right, but they looked good. I'm guessing if I can do vinyl and tile as a DIY, I can do wood floors.

When it comes to building 'law' (you would need to look it up in your state/municipality) it the rule of thumb is: "You must allow the original contractor ONE attempt to fix his/her mistake. After that you are ALLOWED to find another professional to repair it at the ORIGINAL GC's expense." If you want some sort of compensation (ie. a free repair) then you need to allow installer #1 the first kick at the can. After that you are allowed to bring in someone else...at #1's expense. The TRICK is...to get guy #1 to pay for guy #2. This is where you WRITE IT INTO the repair contract. If #1 does NOT achieve and acceptable repair, then S/HE MUST pay for the cost to bring in another pro to finish the job. That statement gives you rights that a court will accept. As I asked before, do you have 100 EXTRA PLANKS?