What brand are you using, and what are it's specs? There is a huge variety of quality available in the flooring industry from builder grade dreck to some very fine furniture quality finished products. If you paid $3 a foot for the material, you've got to have different expectations than if you paid $12.

Maple should most be sanded smooth regardless. It has a much more closed and tight grain than oak and is easy to get ready for finish. Also, typically in the flooring industry, grain in wood isn't filled at all. If a knothole is fairly large, the board is usually culled unless you are looking a low grade. Higher gradings of maple mostly have small tight knots with no holes whatsoever. And no rough spots.

Did an actual certified flooring inspector take a look at this or was just the factory rep there covering his butt?

Product:

http://harriswoodfloors.com/details.php?id=35&prod=Vintage-Maple-Natural

OTTOMH, I don't know the price.

I am pretty sure it was a factory rep. What is behind certified flooring inspectors? Should we be looking for one?

It reminds me of when I worked in the food industry. When an interstate shipment of produce came in and was judged to be not up to specs, a Federal inspector was called in. Thumbs up and the buyer accepted it. Thumbs down and it was rejected or accepted at a negotiated price.

There should be no open grain and "relief"in most maple flooring. However, you do say that the relief can be seen with light at the right angle, which leads me to believe that it cannot be seen when viewing at normal lighting conditions at standing height.

Tough to give you any advice here, other than to suggest that you engage a certified flooring inspector, as live wire oak mentions...or accept the flooring as is. Some consumer expectations can be unreasonable and some not.

I's like to find out more about "certified flooring inspectors". Who trains them, who accepts their judgments, how are they trained, how do I find one...? Should I worry if one turns up with a guide dog and dark glasses?

DW too some pictures this morning. 3" wide for scale.

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The floor inspectors that are certified go through a training program put on by the national wood floor association. Its the authority figure in the wood floor industry. You can go to woodfloors.org to learn more.

Looking at your pictures you took it looks like product issues. Now who installed this flooring?

Is it all installed?
Now its typical to get some bad boards in prefinish. Its the homeowners/installers responsibility to ensure that defects are NOT installed.

Now granted you had a floor rep out to look and he claims there are no defects. I suggest you get them out again (someone other than the first guy) and see what they will do. But its going to fall back on the installer. He should have inspected every board before install.

I dont think a certified floor inspector would be able to help you much but you can call and ask.

If you have a significant amount of "bad boards" in one box then the company should replace but remember its typical to get a few boards per box to be "bad"

But if everything is installed i dont think you have much options other then replacing those individual boards.

The flooring is stapled. My understanding is that to be replaced, the individual boards have to be sawn out and the replacements stapled from the top and the holes puttied over. That cure seems worse than the disease.

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This will go back to the installer. He should have either culled better, or if there were an unusually high number of unacceptable boards, he should have not installed at all.

You usually expect around a 1-2% cull rate. If you want the best quality floor, up that to 3-5%. You have to buy more in the beginning to achieve that. Rather than 5% for cuts, now you're talking a 10% overage. And instructions to the installer as to what's acceptable in the floor.

The thing is here, if you opened the box and had a high number of unacceptable boards, that's when you should have involved the retailer and manufacturer. In most industries, installation of the product constitutes acceptance of the product. It's the equivalent of ordering a large steak, eating half, and then complaining about it being underdone.

You can get in touch with a certified flooring inspector, but even if they find the manufacturer at fault with a defect, all they will do is replace the material. Labor is never covered. That's not an insubstantial reimbursement, but you will have to fight for it if you are going against a factory reps opinion.

Thanks, we are doing a lot of hand-wringing over it.