Hi, all.

Finally got our subfloor dry enough and had our 3/4 inch Merbau installed. It's absolutely beautiful. I think the installers did a good job--they took time to colour-match (interspersing rows of darker boards with lighter ones) and generally seemed very conscientious.

The floor was nailed, but of course in some areas rather than top-nailing they glued boards, and so there are places with dried glue on top of the boards. What's a safe way to remove the glue? I don't want to try scraping it with a flat blade unless an expert tells me that's okay. Needless to say I don't want to use nail-polish remover or paint thinner for fear of damaging the finish (pre-finished with 9 coats aluminum oxide).

What should I do to get the glue off?

Also, now that I think of it, there are maybe 10 boards in the entire 860 square feet that are cracked along the edges. If the installer, who is coming back on Thursday to have a look, tells me that is "normal" should I buy it or make him chisel the boards out and replace them?

Depends on which glue was used. Let the installer remove it. As for replacement, depends on how bad the boards look/are. Minor hairline surface cracks can happen and can be filled, an acceptable and approved procedure. Structural cracks, where they go all the way through the board, can separate and cause problems. Without seeing them, one cannot fairly determine whether replacement is needed or not.

Okay, thanks for the tips. I will let the installer remove it but of course he won't want to spend the time to find every little spot.

Hopefully most of the cracks just just be filled. They don't look to be that serious.

Once again, thanks!

We had a fair number of spots of glue left on our maple. The installer did send someone back, but they were unable to get it all. Slowly over the course of the next few weeks I worked at the larger spots that I saw. It was difficult, but with a little elbow grease I was able to work most of them off.

The installer came back to fix cracks & remove glue. Guess what they use is Mr. Clean magic erasers.

Fairly young guy installing, seems very good. He wants to take pictures of our floor for his business so he's gonna do a threshold for us at no charge. I picked out a gorgeous 5" x 46" x 1" Ziricote plank he's gonna put where our Merbau ends and carpet into the hallway begins--can't wait to see what it looks like!