We just moved into a new home and had new engineered hardwood installed. We had a general contractor licensed in CO install it. After a couple days we realized the edges of a lot of planks were chipping off. I actually got a huge sliver in my foot. I'd say there are around 15-20 chips all around our floor just from the last week of having it. We had a flooring specialist look at it and he said, without question it was installed poorly. He said most likely the nails were put in too strong and it caused the wood to bow and chip. He also noticed a couple planks that were coming up and a large gap between two planks.

We plan on asking if the wood can be salvaged and then have a specialist (instead of a general contractor) fix it. My question is... should we go after the contractor? Do they all have insurance for this stuff? I feel bad because he has a family hes supporting and is a genuinely nice guy. BUT I feel like $5K was just stolen from me. Any insight would be appreciated.

The contractor is responsible for a workman like job. If you do not confront him,
he may keep installing with the same method, which your inspector considered wrong. Without a complaint his next client will have the same problem from his workmanship with installation of this type of flooring.
At least you are considering salvaging some of the flooring.
His insurance may figure that it is a complete loss.

You should have an inspector who is knowledgeable about wood science inspect it. There could be other issues as in manufacturing defects like drying defects ie kiln drying improperly - too fast or not enough, bond line separation of the plies besides the installation guidelines like acclimation, subfloor/hardwood moisture content to high or low at installation time and extremely low rh.

You can find one here; http://www.nicfi.org/files/directory/NI ... 211736.pdf

Thank you both for your replies. When I click on the link it says that page is not found. Are you able to repost the link?