Hi guys -
I'm somewhat bewildered with the install of my new pre-finished oak hardwood floors .
I noticed an area where the wood that butts up to nosing was approx 1/8" higher that the other boards.
(incorrect floor prep?). The installers agreed to fix the problem and replace the boards.
My concern is that in order to repair the area, they had to cut out wood and remove
tongue and groove to glue in replacement boards.
Does that compromise the stability of my floor?
This is in a main hallway, high traffic area and I'm worried that boards will lift as time goes by.

The kicker to this is that when they did the repair, not having tongue and groove to match to,
they laid the boards in going the wrong direction. Now when the natural light hits it, you can
clearly see that this was a patch job. Now the boards need to be removed for a second time.

The planks being an 1/8" higher than the nosing is a prep issue. Whether its at the actually step before the nosing was installed, or at the planks that meet the nosing, or both.

A picture would be helpful. Having a hard time picturing the rest of your concern.

I'm not picturing when you describe , they didnt have the tongue and groove to match to, & "going the wrong direction"???

A repair done right should not compromise the floor, or result in planks lifting at a later date.
You definetely shouldnt detect a "patch job" on your floor.

Seems to me, raising the the nosing would have been the better way to go. Now, without tongue and groove connections between the boards, you may indeed have a future issue.

I agree that raising the nosing would have been a better option, IF the 1/8" overwood was uniform accross the nosing. Hard to say without pictures before the 1st repair.
Removing ALL the t & g is an issue. Were they ALL removed ?

I'm still at a loss about "laying the boards the wrong direction" ?? And the shading ??

Different direction? Do you mean laid backwards/reversed, as in the long side that was the groove side is now the tongue side? Or do you mean they were running down the hall, now they run across the hall?

If just laid in reverse, you shouldn't see any difference, but if they are running the other way, then that would look pretty crappy.

When you say there's no T&G, that leads me to believe that maybe they did it the crappy way. Like they cut across the boards to eliminate having to "finger" in the replacement boards......maybe....I don't know......do you have pictures?

Were the new boards some left over from the original install?

Pictures would definitely help.

Hi again fellas - thanks for your replies. I really appreciate the advice.
I've posted a picture under "Finished Hardwood Floors" gallery that shows what I'm talking about - yes - I do mean "laid backwards/reversed, as in the long side that was the groove side is now the tongue side" (thanks bayside).
You can clearly see these boards when daylight hits. The installers are coming back to repair the area once again, however
I really am concerned about the stability of this glue/patch job in future. It is a main hallway - high traffic area.
Will the boards lift in a year or two? Any recommendations as to how I should deal with the flooring company about this?
Should they be tearing it all out and starting over??

edited by admin: images added

The workmanship of the patch itself does not look too bad, however the sheen and/or colour of the patching material is WAY off. This is what is making the patch stand out so much.

If thats a prefinished and those are outa the same box there is definetly something screwy going on there. lol

I see nosing sitting proud of the floor, or vica-versa, often. It burns my butt.

They did not use wood from the same production run, or sheen of finish. That is unacceptable in my book. Now if this floor were 10-15 years down the road, I would say that is what you get, with problems finding replacement matching wood. Not with the installation, being so new.

It honestly is from the same batch of wood. When you stand directly over it, the clr is identical.
It is just the way the light reflects off the wood when it was laid in opposite the original tongue & groove direction.
They are repairing this weekend, but my main concern is ... Will the glued in boards ( that no longer have tongue & groove)
stand the test of time or will they start to lift?
Thanks again guys!

Ok....let's clear it all up here.....this is the SAME material ,same run, etc. The installers did plank replacements and actually completely removed the tongue & groove profile. They then installed the boards in the opposite direction. So, the sheen and color variation we see in the photos is actually due to the grain raise and sanding direction of the boards when they went down the production line. WHEW!

Ok, now that being said and done, they way they did it is not correct. Glueing it with a good epoxy or urethane adhesive will be sufficient and hold up, but you do not completely remove the tongue and groove....they should still be interlocking the new boards to the old ones. If they do not know how to do it, ask them to post here, I"m sure some of us will be happy to email them a sheet on the correct way.

I cannot agree that the apparent sheen level difference is caused by the floor boards being reversed. How many times do we use a slip tongue to reverse an installation direction without none of the differences shown in those photos. Something else is definitely going on here.

The direction of the t&g has absolutly no bearing on the color or sheen level. In over half of all installations of any given wood floor the floor is reversed somewhere and actually is preferred in many situations. That patch is from a diffrent lot number a miss labeled box or something. If you still have a few cartons left pull some other boards out and lay them next to the repair and see if they look like the repair does. The only thing I can think of is some chinese manufactured wood has the end joints are milled backwards that why they reversed the direction otherwise I have no idea why the direction was changed to do a repair. Did the installer bring in the wood for the reapir or did you have enough left from the original install to patch?

This was a new floor install. The wood is prefinished USA oak - milled in Wisconsin. It all came in one shipment.
So it can't be different wood in that patched area. Direction seems to be the only explanation.
They are coming to repair it in a couple of days. My concern now is more about the stability of
glued in boards. Does that effect my warranty?

The company that installed the floor is responsible to warranty any problem that may occur as the result of installation. Anything resulting from the way the floor was installed or repaired is not under manufacturer warranty.