Hi everyone. My husband and I recently hired professionals to refinish our floors, which cover 2/5ths of our entire house. We have been unhappy with the professionals for a number of reasons, but now, after a month of trying to get them to repair scratches and extensive sanding marks from their first attempt, we can't wait any longer and have to move in since our baby is due soon. The sanding marks occurred where you might most expect them: around all the edges of a few rooms and closets and in doorways, as well as on every stair tread. Some significant scratches were apparent in at least two large closets as well as in the middle of doorways, and at a few other sites.

When the business owner finally made it out to examine the flaws, he said that the only way to satisfactorily repair these problems (since they occurred throughout the work area), was to resand, restain, and refinish the entire floor. He said any other method would result in "the blotchies." However, when he came a week later to begin the work, he told us (with no prior notice) that he was only going to resand the trouble spots. I asked him if this would create the blotchiness he was worried about, and he said that it wouldn't.

Well, there is very obvious stain variation where they sanded the trouble spots (some of which they still missed). They insist that this blotchiness will even out in 3 weeks. (However, there had been an area of uneven stain after their first attempt, about which they said the same thing, and at almost 4 weeks, it was as obvious as it was in the beginning.)

We are exhausted with dealing with this company, but we would really appreciate your opinion on two things: 1) given his first opinion that the only way to correct the flaws in workmanship was to completely redo the whole job, does it make sense that he would come in and sand & refinish only the trouble spots? And 2) are these variations in stain actually likely to blend together over time?

FYI: The floors are 40-year-old oak (red, I think), stained in Minwax's Early American.

Thanks very much.

A good floor man could make it blend. If they have machine marks all over with early american they did a pretty bad sand job. The stain color isnt going to change if its blotchy now it will be blotchy later. Most of the time if the repairs are extensive what most guys will do is resand the area to be repaired restain and finish then go back and put a final coat over the entire area to pull it all together.

In my experience it would be best to resand and start over. You can blend a smaller areas with satisfactory results but if there are several areas it can be time consuming with less than desirable results, IMO it would be best to start over.

Thanks for your thoughts, Kevin D and Mickey. They are very helpful.

Given that the business owner told me that he bought a new sander specifically to execute this spot-treatment method on our floors, I can only assume that he didn't have appropriate experience to achieve good results.

Keep us posted on the progress i would like to know what machine it is.

Hi, Mickey, here's a bit of an update. The owner's wife, the administrator and accounts person of the business, came out to view the flaws, which appear in numerous places in every room/closet/hall they refinished, and she insists that the floors look good to her and that these flaws are typical of the floors they do. (I wouldn't consider that much of a defense, but I guess she does.) There are some areas so obvious (for instance, a "repair" spot that has both lighter stain now and machine marks zigzagging in a swath about five inches wide by about 65 inches long), I don't see how someone who takes pride in their work would find this acceptable.

Regarding the spot treatment method, she said her husband has used this method before, even though she admitted this was a brand new piece of equipment he purchased to repair our floors. (She just said the sander he used was a vibrating sander. It was a hand-held electric tool. I'm not sure if that's specific enough to give you the info you were looking for.)

The staining, as Kevin D said, is still blotchy in nearly all the areas they repaired.

They apparently don't think any further repair is necessary and so of course, they refuse to refund. We really tried our best to work this out with them, but we haven't been successful, so now we have an attorney. I'll let you know what happens.

We really need to see some pictures of this one.

Hi, Jeff. I will be happy to post some pictures (we have so many!) when things are finished with this company. In the next couple days we have an independent expert coming to examine the floors and write a report. When he's done that, my husband and I will know if we are as particular as the accounts person says or if we are right in finding the quality of the work unacceptable. As I've said, we can't imagine a professional would really think this is good work, but we aren't the experts here.