We purchased and had installed 3/4 inch, 5 inch wide pre-finished hickory. I have two questions.
First, the flooring was nailed and glued down. It was installed directly against the baseboards without an expansion gap. Is that correct or might it pose problems down the road? Secondly, a number of the boards were dinged or had the finished chipped during installation. We're having the flooring company cut out and replace the boards. In doing so, the new boards will not be nailed but only glued. Could just gluing the boards become a problem down the road?

May cause a problem. For a 3/4" thick product..they need to allow 3/4" expansion space for movement. May be a good idea to remove the base, and re-install, on top of the hardwood, ( which may not be fun, since the base is now locked in). They will probably need to install a shoe moulding on top of the base, to trim out the gap.



Just "gluing" replacement boards is done all the time, and should be fine.

In historic homes, you cannot touch the base.

Take it off and your in deep doo-doo.
Leave a huge gap and your in deep doo-doo.

Your knowledge of wood science and the species your working with, is paramount.

So just undercut it and slide it under with glue and pin where the shoe is going. Who is going to tell. Thats the damndest stupidest law I ever hear of.

Oh, be easy on Perry. He may be a little eccentric, but adds some thought to the discussions.

Not blaming it on Perry, just the idiot who thought that law up. We have similar ones in our historic area near downtown. Makes it near impossible to do a remodel.

That does sound like a silly law but on the other end of the spectrum here we are in East Tn. where there are barely even codes and even less that are enforced. What I have to do is compete with every tom,elephant and harry that has a skillsaw and decides to call themselves a flooring installer. Be thankful you have those silly laws in place,it probably helps weed out the idiots (maybe)... Anyways when folks decide that price isn't the only thing worth considering when hiring a fllooring contractor it is often too late. A bit off topic I guess.
I always leave an expansion joint. Glueing in repairs is quite typical and should be fine( maybe you want to consider a different flooring contractor than the one who f****d your floor in the first place) The expansion joint should be covered by shoemold and quite frankly a well installed floor simply looks incomplete without it. I always install the shoemold it puts a perfect finishing touch around the floors. Thanks for reading,I hope I have been of assistance.

Jack Lawrence