We thought we did our research,scouring websites, going to flooring stores and knew what to do.WRONG. First, we bought our hardwood at an auction.Chilean cherry prefinished solid hardwood 3/4" 5" planks with 10 UV coats.Not a good idea.We bought a pnuematic stapler. practiced but when we started on the floor we were putting scrapes in the wood.(1)The CC is reddish on top but a washed out color underneath which now shows. This coating does not peel off but we have got lots of chips in it.How can we touch these up ?The planks are not exactly 5" so we were getting large gaps so my Hubby nailed a 2x4 by the plank and with a pry bar would force it closed as I stapled.He said he read somewhere that this is the only thing to do.We are now measuring every board but still having problems and from 1 to 2 boards per row its now 4 or 5 that we are prying into place.(2)Will the strain on the boards cause them to crack?At the rate we are going, it will take a month to finish.(3) Our room temp. is 64 at night and 70 when we are home. (4)Will the fluctuating temp. cause problems. We also bought a 3/4" hardwood medallion on Ebay to put in the center of the room, DUMB, (5)should we attempt it?There are no experienced medallion layers in our city.In fact the flooring places have never had an order for one. I can imagine all the head shaking as this post is read but we need help.I'm sure we'll be posting again

what city do you live in .. temp should be same 24 - 7 .. Are the withs of the planks the same .. Is the stapler causing the chips ? .. You need to make a template for the medallion .. i would try and find a pro for that ..

We live in Saskatchewan, Canada. To keep heating bills down we lower the thermastat down at night and when we are out.The widths of the planks are NOT the same which is why we have been forcing them together. A bit out but just enough to make gaps.How much of a gap if any is acceptable ? It was the user of the stapler that was causing the chipping. my husband and I , it would jump when we stapled but now I think we have that under control.We removed the ones that were too chipped but now that we have 14 rows laid you can really see a lot that are chipped.We can't pull up what we've already done and need to touch these up.
Is there an easy way to remove the 2" staples from boards if we make any more mistakes ? We did get a template with the medallion but with all the problems we are having, it seems like that is something we shouldn't attempt. There are no pros in our area to install the medallion.

Correct me if I am wrong but a simple way of avoiding scrapes is to put masking tape on the part of the nailer that is scratching the floor.

Good Luck!

Yes and you dont need to jump up and down , By the time you are finished the floor , you will need a hip replacement .. You really have to keep the heat at the same temp 24 -7 , you are going to save a few dollars now , and replace the floor later .. You can use a pair of snips to cut the staple as close to the tonuge as possiable , and pull out the rest with a set of channel locks , or recess them into the wood with a nail set .. get a 12 to 14 inch screw driver , and bang it into the floor , [not to deep]. next to the tonuge , and pull the board towards you , and have your husband nail it .. Dont go wacking the gun with a lot of force thinking it will pull the wood closer , its a air tool , and you will only dammage the gun .. You should be putting some kind of vapor barrier down as you go .. I draw a circle on the floor , useing the temp plate , and only nail the boards upto the circle , not inside , you dont want to be hitting staples with the router when you do the cut out .. I have a friend in Wellington , out side of Buff. How far are you from there , maybe i can get him to come by .. There are some really good Pros on this board , i would heed thier advise .. Good Luck ..

Wellington is about 1345 miles away as the crow flies.
Thanks for the advice. Hubby comes home today and we'll work on the floor some more. No one offered any ideas for fixing the chips and deep scratches from our mistakes. I did try to rub a wood stain on them but they just wiped off. These do appear to be deeper than the coating and into the light unstained wood so I don't know why it isn't staining the wood.
We will keep the heat consistant. Hubby already needs both hips replaced. We opted to install this ourselves because of the cost but most importantly because I have severe ashma (which is why we had to remove all our carpets) and the dust and such has got to be kept to a minimum, sawing outside, gently moving boards etc.A real pain but ...
Thanks

You will have to sand the floor and refinish it, if you want them removed. you may be able to get away with spot refinishing the chipped areas if there are not to many.

If you just want spot repair those "chips" here's what you can try. Stain won't work. Find a felt marker pen with a color that is similar to the color of your floor. Around here, I can buy furniture felt tip pens that are used for furniture touch up and they work on floors as well. Color the lighter areas. Be neat. Then, get a small can of polyurethane from the store in the same sheen (satin, semi-gloss, gloss) and using a artist fine tipped brush, carefully coat the repairs with the poly. Again, be neat. You may need to do a few coats or more. This will not be invisible but should be much better than nothing and hide the "chips" in your floors. Practice on an uninstalled board first. Either this or have the floors refinished.

Let the wood set 3 to 5 days before you continue .. Keeping the same temp ..
Staple two inches from the ends , and every 8 to 10 along the field .. If money is not the problem , you can pull up the 14 rows with a small pry bar quite easy ..

Gary-+ kls -Thanks, I'm going down to buy those felt markers today.
flooring Guy- Remove the rows we have done because of the chips and scrapes or because of us having to pry the boards to fill the gaps ? I can live with touching up the boards but still have a concern about the boards having slightly different widths.Staring over won't solve this problem will it ?
Thanks

Different width boards is in direct relation to milling them while they are at different moisture content. This would be considered defective milling, and defective wood.

If you can live with it fine .. But after you let the wood set at the same tem , and it is still gaping , its like floorguy stated ,, its in the milling .. You might want to contact the people you bought it from , and ask for what you paid for ..

Could be the very reason it was liquidated at an auction without any return, sold AS IS.

That's right . We've learned a hard lesson and like all newbie's at an auction the bidding went so fast that we paid more for it then we would have at a reputable dealer.
We bought the furniture felt tip pen and polyurethane but the felt pen, like the stain we tried before will not adhere to the scratches. Very strange because they are down to the bare wood and I can't see there being any coating there.We''ll wait for any thoughts on this.The felt tip pen does cover the side of a cut sample piece.
We are keepng the temp. consistant and waiting our 5-7 days before attempting more rows.

With those boards miss-milled and no refund here is what I would do. Its going to be slow going and it ain’t gona be pretty (well the floor will, but the work won’t). I would come to accept the fact that you are going to have to do a site finish to cure the chips, scratches, holes from nailing 2x4 etc. I would go out and buy a Dremel if you do not have one and get the planer attachment and plane the miss-milled boards down to the correct width. I would take it off of the grove side and then trim and tongs that hold the seam from fully closing. The boards have to be planed to a uniform size. Other than that you could take it to a shop that has a jointer and have them plane them to a uniform size.