in November we had an engineered floor laid. immediately it started splintering we called the installer back to look and he brought a person from flooring store. they said a little splintering was normal and it should stop, he gave me a stain pen to fill in. Well it didnt' stop i would say altogether we have about 75 -100 splinters on the 1200 square feet that we did. we stopped coloring them in and called again it tooks months of hounding but finally someone from the manufacturer came out he did all kinds of measurements and used metal balls. after again another month we got the report saying it was an installations problem. The installer happens to be a friend of ours. we have now contacted him again to see what we should do. Of course he says the manufacturer always blames the installer. Here's my delima. we paid him full price no friend deal here, we spent about $7900 on this floor. its a mess one splinter was 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. it tooks me months to decide what floor to put down and i am just disgusted on what i spent and what it is doing. we have spoken to our friend the installer and he wants to know what we want to do . the manufactureer says our installer used the wrong nail? should we just keep fixing these splinters ask for some money back or insist that it is tore out and replaced and could the wrong nail be making these splinters?

any advice appreciated

That makes no sense, unless I'm not seeing the big picture.

We're going to definitely need some more details here. Pictures work wonders. Nothing hit me until he "used the wrong nail" was mentioned.

"used metal balls.." Are you referring to magnets?

I think I know what they are getting at but...need more details. Are the splinters on the long side of the boards about 1/8 - 1/4" from the edge? Running parallel to the edge?

It is true, they'll try to blame the installer most of the time.

ok i will give you some detail about our installer he is actually a home builder and built our home 10 years ago and is a friend of ours. with the slow economy and home building almost non existant he is doing remodeling and other work to keep busy. i think this is the first time he has ever laid this kind of floor. no one ever said directly but it was hinted at that he used the wrong nail?
yes metal balls were magnets. and i do have pictures. my husband tried using the stain pen on a few last night but they are almost too deep it looks like crap. my husband does not want to tear out the floor because he did all the trim tear down and put back up last time and does not want to do again. we also had to move the refridgerator dishwasher stove a huge hutch and empty 4 closets , move all the living room furniture and a piano. our installer has offered to put new floor in or give us back 2000 of the 7900 we spent on floor but doesn't sound happy to do. i guess my question is do we pursue the manufacurer more and insisit they take some responsibilty or do we take manufacturers word and have the installer fix. and since hes a friend do we just fix the splinters and keep a friendship. i do of course want the plank with the six inch by 2 inch splinter has to be replaced. how do you upload photos?

we could make this easier if you just told us how thick your flooring is and what size fastener he used/

I forgot to ask how dry it is in there.

Typically manufacturers use a lower grade wood for distressed/handscraped wood floors. So it could be that or maybe even some stressed wood, not properly kiln dried or shake.