We have just had a nail down Mercier maple floor installed in our kitchen during its renovation and an engineered Mercier maple floor in our family room. The kitchen floor has devloped many little dings as they worked in the kitchen. The workers did have tarps or moving pads on the floor. They keep telling me that maple is a soft wood and that these dings are normal occurrences. I am not sure how much of this is true. They have been told of some techniques that supposedly could pop up these dings. Again not sure if this will work. The contractor can't afford to rip out the floor and reinstall.

In the family room, the installer left small gaps between some board between rows. Told that sometimes it is hard to get the boards together because of the fast acting adhesive. They want to use floor putty to fill the gaps. Is this a good idea? Also they want to use putty to close gaps between the ends of the boards and the sides of the steps. Is this a good idea?

It is a beautiful floor but these installation problems have really frustrated me and my wife. Any good advice is appreciated. Thanks.

The question is can you afford to live with that floor?

All the solutions given so far just a band-aid. What do you mean by fast acting adhesive? Steaming to raise an indent will not work if the floor is prefinished. I would suggest board replacements over the filler idea.

Thanks for the reply.

We love the look of the floor but feel we should be the ones who put the dents into it and not our contractors. Would it be better to sand and recoat now or should we wait? Is hard maple softer than oak floors?

Regarding the adhesive, our general contractor's excuse for the gaps on the engineered floor was that the installer couldn't get the planks to join solidly like a nail down because the adhesive grabbed and glued the planks fast.

Also could a woman wearing high heels walking on a tarp cause dents in the floor?

Ya, and I have some Ocean front property for sale, in Arizona. I'll throw in the golf coarse in the Everglades, too.



Plain and simple... A rushed installation, and no care taken to insure your investment.


I like Jerry's take. Can you afford to live with it. or do you like the wool being pulled over your eyes.

Yes, if the heel is damaged or the cap is missing or even too hard it will damage the floor.

Thanks.

My BS meter was ringing in my ears when he said that but I needed an outside opinion to corroborate it.

Also could you corroborate if a woman with high heels walking on a tarp could dent the floor. One did when they were installing our counter tops.

Yes, high heels will damage any wood floor. No high heels worn inside is a good policy to have.

I did not see your other response before I had posted again. I am not placing blame on anyone about the high heels.

I read an article about this.

An elephant would exert around 100 lbs psi on a floor. A 125 lb lady in high heels exerts 2,000 psi on a floor, and if the heels are damaged that number could go up to 8,000 psi. Hard to believe, but the people who wrote that are a lot smarter than I am.

I wasn't trying to place blame.I was trying to understand what might have happened so as not to repeat it in the future.

Regarding the floor, we can't live with it with all the dings. The kitchen contractor has offered to snad and restain the floor. Still need to figure out what is the best product to use to protect the floor and give us the color as close to the original natural. Hope there is a water based product that will do the job so we don't have to endure the lenghth of time it takes for odors from oil based stains to dissipate.

there is no way an oil modified finish will match a prefinished natural maple. Use waterborne for the closest blend to the original finish(still going to be tough imo).

Thanks for the information. I found out that they plan to use Pacific Strong on the floors. Do you have insights into this particular product? Is it better than the Traffic product?

Any information you have will be apprciated.

Thanks

Pacfic strong was Bona's #1 waterborne for many years proir to Traffic's creation. It's not quite as durable as Traffic but still is one of the better preforming waterbornes IMO. At near half the cost pacfic strong is hard to beat.

Thanks for the information. We went back and complained to our kitchen designer that we should have a new floor. The GC involved contacted his floor guy who said he had a saw that could finely cut away the boards from the cabinets. The GC is concerned (besides if his insurance will pay for a reinstallation) that the floor guy could damage some of the cabinets causing much more costly repairs and delays. Now the GC subcontracted to this floor company, so I am not sure why he lacks confidnece in their capability to replace the floor but is confident that he can sand and recoat the floor. Is this any different from installing hardwood floors into an established kitchen? I assume this has been done in the past. I am confused. Thanks for any help.

Well, his flooring guys need to have insurance incase they damage the cabinets. All contractors need to have general liability insurance!, especially the subcontractors that damaged it in the first place. If the builder is hiring unlicensed and uninsured contractors, he cheaped out and should bare the burden of his misfortune.