Had a prefinished floor installed so poorly that they offered to replace or strip and refinish. We choose to strip and refinish. After stripping, several damaged boards were identified and we agreed with the installer that they would be replaced. The damaged boards were not replaced, the floor was refinished, including 3 coats of polyurethane, and now there are gaps between the boards. Small, but some are wide enough that I can slip my finger nail in. The firm is now offering to screen and add another coat of poly and big refund.
2 Questions:
1) Will screening and another coat of PE help fill in the gaps? Based on my limited knowledge, I don't think that screening will do much of anything for a newly finished floor.
2) How common are gaps between boards of on site finished floors?
Thanks

Gaps are very common in prefinished and unfinished flooring. How long has floor been down, are you doing your part and running a humidifier or dehumidifier depending where you live. Gaps come from a loss of moisture due to large changes in the R/H. If the gaps are small enough that you can only get a fingernail in you are being unreasonable and should leave it alone call the company and tell them to keep their refund. Do you have any pics.

Floor is two weeks old, installed with gaps. After talking to the installer, the damaged boards include two that, in his words, were rotted. The rot was discovered after the pre finish was removed, but they stained and covered it anyway. I'm not happy, but this is my first time I've had one installed, so I appreciate any additional thoughts.

Could have been a milling issue as well. Many manufacturers of prefinished allow matched caulking for small gaps like you described. I had one that had a 1/32 to 1/8 in difference in widths out of one box, same run numbers.

Manufacturers can set their own standards for milling. You should have had them come out and look at it first. Course they will blame it on the installer cus as we all know.....manufacturers have no quality control like they claim to have.

bet is was Lumber liquidator materials....and they probably installed it too..
you get what you pay for..

I agree. It is a wood floor and it is made up of hundreds if not thousands of individual boards. Gaps are common. I think you are just studying the floor, since it is new. I bet no one else would even notice it.