Five months ago we had a contractor refinish and install hardwood floors in a house that we bought. Since the areas with new hardwood floor where right next to the areas with the existing wood, they had to try to match the colors. Since the beginning, we noticed some "waves" in the hardwood floor, especially in the new floor. What could have they done for the floors to present these "waves"? We don't wear shoes in the house, but we had friends over during the holidays wearing shoes. The floor now shows signs of extreme wear and tear, especially a lot of holes from the highheels. You can easily notice scratches and the floors are covered with holes (VERY noticeable). The contractor says this is normal, but we have owned houses with hardwood floor and have never seen something like this. What can be happening? The holes are in both the new and old hardwood floor.

If you continue to hire people in the hardwood flooring business who have not kept pace with emerging technology in finishes...well, you will have many of the drying and 'softness' issues of the finish films that you are experiencing with your floors. As for poor sanding jobs and the overall lack of good workmanship...well, you can find that in any business that is subject to 'cutthroat' competition. For the best hardwood flooring job (either installation or restoration) you need to hire an independent contractor who actually performs the work or closely supervises it. He or she lives or dies in the business by the quality of the work, so the work quality usually is of high caliber. Going with a company that sends a salesperson to you to 'sell' the job and then sends a 'sub' or a 'jobber' to do the work,...well that, in my opinion is not the best way to go. Perhaps there are companies that work that way and get excellent results, but I haven't seen it. Flooring work is a skilled 'trade' or 'craft' and there are good tradespeople and good craftspeople in the business. Your job as consumers is to find them, insist on quality materials and then pay them what the work is worth!

You need to do a little more archeological digging still. You need to know the whole construction of the floor before you can decide how best to install something new. I'd take up that plywood piece in the kitchen and see what's under it. It's higher than the surrounding floor, so needs to go. You should also be able to see from there what subfloor is under the original kitchen hardwood. It's too bad the space under your entryway is finished, but I'd still do some exploring from below to see what's under there, and to figure out the fix to stop it from squeaking. Is it drywall below or a drop ceiling? I know it probably seems like a pain to tear out drywall, but if you cut out a clean patch, like 2' x the width of the joists, it'll be relatively simple to repair. Just make sure to cut it down the center of the joists so that there's room to screw the patch piece to it later. Cut the hole under the area that squeaks the most, if you can. Have someone walk on and watch the floor from below to see what's moving. It might be as simple as pounding in a couple shims from below, or face-nailing a loose board from above. You want to find out what's underneath the hardwood. It might be laid directly on the floor joists, or there might be 10" wide boards that the hardwood is nailed to. Another thought is to take out a board in the hallway, since that's not original and you want to replace it. See what the subfloor is there. I am a bit puzzled at why, when you've stripped the kitchen down to the original hardwood, it's still higher than the hallway floor. Is your current surface perhaps not the original kitchen hardwood? Peeling back the plywood area will help determine that. BTW, I haven't heard of that stop squeaking product you linked to, so can't offer any personal opinion. And don't pour self-leveling compound over top of hardwood. It needs to go over plywood.

Wow. Alright. The grit in the finish? Thats going to be normal assuming it will get one more coat. You should only be concerned about grit in the finish after the final coat is applied. Now onto the problem areas. Staining oak dark can br tricky to get it even. What it seems your floor guy did here was added paint to his stain. And i think he added too much. Is it wrong to add paint? No. It can work in certain applications. Did he show you a sample area prior to staining the entire floor? Did you ask him to only poly half the floor? And why did he coat the room and stop the poly crossing the grain? He should have coated everything or at the very least coat it the other direction. If he is going to finish the poly coat it would have been way easier for him to blend that seem had he coated it the other direction. Lets hope hes good.