Shop Products
Houzz Logo Print
ren_xiety

How big a deal to make over minor ripples in hardwood floor

Ren-xiety
9 years ago

Hello everyone,

Long-time lurker needing to vent a little.

We are in the final stages of our kitchen renovation project. We decided to extend our existing red oak hardwood floors into the kitchen, breakfast room, and powder room to match the hardwood on the rest of the main floor (23-year-old pre-finished gunstock-stained .75 inch solid Bruce hardwood). The flooring contractor is a small, family owned company that had very high rating among many reviewers in our local version of Consumer Reports called Checkbook Magazine. I even contacted one of the Checkbook reviewers and got a personal recommendation.

This contractor weaved in matching hardwood between the family room and breakfast room a few weeks ago, about halfway through the project. They then came back last week, basically at the end of the project, to finish the new wood and refinish the old wood to match, using Golden Oak stain and three coats of oil-based poly (two semi gloss for hardness, followed by a top coat of stain finish).

We have been staying in a hotel for five days already (my adult kids mostly stayed in the house and tolerated the chemical smells by opening their windows).

The back half of the house is done, and they are putting the final coat on from half today. There are some minor issues and inconsistencies in the surface and edges that we understand are to be expected when finishing hardwood in place. The transition between the old and new wood is extremely well done and matched so that it is impossible to detect unless you know where to look, and even then the only clue is several boards that end in the same place.

However, there are also ripples running perpendicular to the hardwood (across the width of the boards/room). They are basically everywhere, but are pretty faint and can only be seen in spots where bright light reflects and glares off of the poly surface, especially if looking across the room from a low angle.

From a little online research, I believe these to be chatter marks caused by issues with the sander machine.

The owner has not yet seen these, since it was his cousins crew, not his crew, that did most of our job. Over the phone he said it is impossible to eliminate all traces of the machine when refinishing floors and that with furniture and time, we would notice it less. He is coming by for a first-hand look this afternoon.

I believe if I press the issue, they would redo the job to save their reputation. We still owe them several thousand dollars, since we only paid half up front.

In favor of a redo, I worry the ripples will continue annoy me or that some potential buyer will notice the ripples when we go to sell the house in 5-7 years. On the other hand, the finish is wonderful and floors are actually stunning as-is. As a matter of fact, the imperfections, including the ripples actually create an interesting depth effect and authenticity to the wood that screams that they were hand crafted (maybe this is a hint of the effect of distressed or hand-scraped hardwood has). Also, my family will kill me if they have to endure a week-long do over.

What to do, what to do ...

Comments (20)

  • GreenDesigns
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Call it "handscraped" instead of chatter. :) Seriously, some people pay extra for wood wtih all kinds of dings and divots in it, so maybe add some more, then another topcoat.

  • Ren-xiety
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Thanks for the input, but I'm not sure we're prepared to ding up the floor intentionally!

    Update: the owner isn't coming until tomorrow morning.

  • PRO
    Joseph Corlett, LLC
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    There should be no ripples. They should have finished with a random orbital sander, not a drum.

  • gregmills_gw
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    The line that its impossible to get out is just not true. They may not own the necessary equipment to remove them.

    Depending on how bad it is, could be justified to resand. Granted a in house refinish will not be perfect like the prefinish.

    You will get little imperfections. But theres a line between a little and a lot.
    Some pics may give us a better understanding.

    Either way if you want the "chatter" gone it would have to be resanded

  • Ren-xiety
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Well, the owner came by and said that they keep their sander (drum?) a little looser than other people so that the grain in the wood is allowed to be a little raised. I realize that this is mostly BS, but have to admit it looks good. It just has raised lines you can see in the sheen at a low angle. He claimed that to be considered chatter, it would be visible in the stain, which this is not. In any case, my family is seriously against living through any do-over, so we will need to love it as it is. He did agree to fix a couple of other minor issues. I'll try posting pictures tomorrow.

  • Ren-xiety
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You should be able to see it a bit in this photo.

  • Ren-xiety
    Original Author
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    This may be clearer.

  • gregmills_gw
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    Yeah thats bad enough in my opinion to have it refinished. Most floor inspectors or pros will agree.

    He was feeding you BS. Doesnt matter what condition youre drum is in. Knowing that it produces chatter like that means extra steps need to be taken during the buff stage.

    My drum sander has the potential to do that as well. I know that. I admit it. Ive had guys look at it and give me all kinds of answers. But i put in the time doing extra steps to prevent any of my customers floors to turn out like that.

    If you can live with that more power to ya. Just beware you have a small window of time to have that fixed before you "accept" it and lose any legal power.

  • jennui
    8 years ago

    We had two floors put in of red oak. Both floors are full of ripples. Our contractor told me that I'm crazy, I'm just looking at the grain. Refused to believe a second opinion from a very respected company. In addition to the finish being worthless all of the floor wet matched to some rooms with old flooring. House was built in 1922. The second opinion advised that the old flooring was white oak, not red. The contracted wants to take a board out of the floor to prove that it is not white oak. Is there any way to tell?!

  • gregmills_gw
    8 years ago

    i agree, any pro should be able to tell the difference. If you have a picture of the floor, id be more than happy to give you my opinion. as long as its a clear upclose shot of the floor, i have to be able to see the grain in the wood.

  • jennui
    8 years ago

  • gregmills_gw
    8 years ago

    thats white oak

  • jennui
    8 years ago

    Thank you VERY much! Pretty obvious, yes?? Now the question is what should we do?! Two floors of crappy soft red badly put down and horribly finished and everything covered with chatter. Guess the writing is on the wall and we know what has to be done!!!! Thanks again!

  • gregmills_gw
    8 years ago

    the darker the stain, the less the differences will show. red and white oak do get mixed up from time to time, If you wanted white oak installed and paid for white oak, then i would fight for white oak. If you can get a decent refinisher in and stain it dark, it would probably be liveable, but that might not be your cup of tea.

  • jennui
    8 years ago

    Thanks! Now why does the stain have these light areas? They put 2 coats of stain on the red, one on the white. The red has these light patches all over.

  • gregmills_gw
    8 years ago

    hard to say exactly, but i would probably file it under poor finishing. why did they stain the red twice?

  • jennui
    8 years ago

    To match the white oak (which they said was old red oak!) which got only one cost of stain. The living room and upstairs hall and two bedrooms have white oak. They put red oak in dining room, kitchen, pantry, powder room, side and back hallway, breakfast room, library, media room, office, laundry room, huge bathroom and master bedroom. And it's a mess, looks horrible! Our contractor says there is no chatter, no white oak, great finish and refuses to accept any opinion other than from someone he will choose to bring in! I fidget an opinion that the red oak was very low quality.

  • gregmills_gw
    8 years ago

    If your Contractor is seriously being this hard headed, i would say let him pull a board from the exsisting, but then is he going to admit he was wrong, or try to fool you by lieing saying its really red oak? who knows, hes probably not going to listen to reason from you or some guy on the internet :). I suggest you get a Certified Hardwood Flooring inspector out. he will over rule anything your contractor says in a court of law. Thats like last resort though.


  • jennui
    8 years ago

    Thanks so much. We did that. He doesn't believe than because heydays the expert is "our guy!" Shaking my head!