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

The flush mount vent job is hideous looking. didnt sand it properly, huge gobs of filler still there. some of the heavier edger scratches are bad. although some of the buffer swirls dont look too bad. heres the issue. NWFA has a 5-2 rule. From a standing position 5ft up, to 2 ft out if you can visually see scratches its not acceptable. Because you took many pictures of the scratches up close, its hard to say if those would "pass". Now thats not to say theres nothing to be done, the vent issue is enough in my opinion to have the guys come back out. the stain splatters on the wall along with the holes, if you can prove the holes werent there prior to the refinish job then thats something they should fix as well. But because you paid the guys in full already, they may not answer their phone. But if they were a legit company they will get their behinds back out there to address the issue. Make the phone call and then take it from there.

... and the saga continues. We didn't think it could get much worse, but alas, it did. If anyone is interested in how the story ends: Because we are living there (with our cat) he said that would go room by room and move furniture. We asked for a heads up on which rooms so we could move most of it and figure out where to hide our cat. He said he would start with the two bedrooms. One day he focused on the spare room and said he wanted us to let him know what we thought so he knew how to proceed with the others. Fair enough. We said there were buffer swirl scratches and a bunch of poly issues (puddles, lines, and a big globby mess). So he came yesterday and decided to focus on the master bedroom. He said he would redo the spare room's poly globs "later" but that the scratches would "take too much time." I said I would overlook the scratches if he tried not to do them on the rest of the floor. We left to take some calls at a coffee shop around 1pm. When we returned around 3pm we couldn't get into the apartment because he had decided to sand the whole place before finishing a room! We are confused and frustrated because we could have moved our stuff properly and wanted to be sure he could do a good job before taking more of our floor. We have to camp out at a restaurant with our laptops for the next three hours and try to do work. When we return before 6pm, he is gone for the day. We are careful not to touch the floor, but notice dozens of places with debris under the poly, long hairs under the poly, a big filler smear right in front of the door and -- get this -- an outline of our bed frame in poly because he never took it out! We are fuming and unable to reach the contractor. We finally text the floor guy that we are not comfortable proceeding and that he can pick up his stuff before we leave for work. He says it is not done, but extra poly isn't going to fix those issues and we can't risk him doing this to the rest of the floor. Now we're left with a half-finished floor and will NOT be letting that man into our apartment again. If anyone has any floor specialist recommendations in NYC, I'm all ears :-) P.S. Not looking for perfection.. just a good looking floor.

To expand on millworkman's suggestion, the issue must be clearly detectable under the following conditions (these are the basics a flooring inspector would use to judge a finish): Standing position 2. 10 feet away 3. Natural daylight (cannot use the "If you stand just right at a single time of day" excuse) As Patricia points out, the marks are not clearly visible in the photos (which is standing). I would recommend doing the following. At mid-day (or close to it) turn off all the lights. Move 10 feet (3 meters) away from the area you are concerned about. Close your eyes and turn around 3 times. Open them and then quickly scan the area with your eyes. Can you SEE them CLEARLY? Or do you have to "remember" where they are? Now you know what a professional is looking for when assessing the situation. What I noticed MORE...some splotchiness of the colour in the last two photos. If anything "earns" you a refinish it would be the splotchiness. But then again you have overhead lighting on which could throw odd shadows. I photo of the room would give a better indication of colour issues. Again, take the photos during mid day with the lights off (and the windows behind you). That's the only way to tell if there is a real issue here.