I had new prefinished red oak hardwood floors installed over my entire downstairs (800 sq ft were ordered). The wood arrived on Monday to acclimate and the workers came on Thursday to start putting it down. I ordered it through a local flooring store which is highly rated in my area. At the end of day one I noticed several boards that had "splits" in them. I am not sure how to describe them other than to say that almost all of them have splits that are either just in the finish (shiny finish) or also in the wood too. Almost as if you took a razor and cut a slit. So on day two they replaced 11 boards. Replacement boards are glued down while all the rest are tongue in groove and stapled.

Since the job was finished we have had several people from the company come down to look and take some pictures. We discover more and more boards with these issues. Not sure if we just missed these extra boards or they are splitting while on the floor. My guess is I just missed them. It is hard to see them unless the light is shining on them. My floor is Natural oak color so is light. Totally now there are 45 boards that need replacing. The floor company is filing a claim with the manufacturer. They feel it was not an installation issue but the manufacturer. Personally I don't know. So far it has taken 3 months of dealing with this. They generally are not timely with call backs so I have to keep calling them. When I complained about that they said it was the flooring manufacturer and THEY have to keep calling THEM. Right now they are going to have to pull up a few boards and send this sample into the manufacturer. It is in my best interest for them to replace this floor. That is not their best interest though. Anyone have this issue before? Is it just poor quality boards or installation? Will the manufacturer be honest and say "Oops, replace this bad floor." Or will they say it was not them but the flooring company. Do I have to hire a third party (don't know cost or how to find one) to take a look? Right now I have a beautiful looking floor until you look closely. I bet in years to come the finishing on it will start peeling back.

Oh, if ultimately they just want to replace the 45 boards.... how bad is it to have that many boards that are glued down while all the rest are tongue in groove and stapled? Some of the bad boards are next to each other. Also when I go into my basement in the unfinished part I can see all the staples and little pieces of the subfloor hanging. We had tons of little splinters on the floor we had to clean up. Can this subfloor take replacing this floor?

Thanks for any help.

I just want to add that most of these splits are at the edges of the boards or about a quarter inch in. A few are in the middle of the board.

The flooring company doesnt typically warrant the product just the correct installation of the floor. Its the manufacture that warrants the product itself. Just like if you buy a car the dealer doesnt warranty the car the manufacture does unless stated otherwise. Its a pain in the neck to deal with manufactures on claims, their normal stance is you or your installer did something wrong and they never make a mistake or bad product. Id go and hire a certified nwfa inspector on your own behalf and have them do a full inspection. Look to pay between 4 and 6 hundred for the report. Dont let the manufacture choose the inspector as they most likely will have one in house that is going to look for any reason related or not to dismiss your claim.

could also be a installation related, get a magnet and see if everywhere there is a split is over a fastener. Is this a solid 3/4" floor?

Took a magnet to some of the splits and nothing magnetic. It is 3/4". How do I find an independent inspector?

Thats good! Look at the nwfa. http://woodfloors.org/certified-profess ... earch.aspx

Thanks. However do you have any thoughts about:

If ultimately they just want to replace the 45 boards.... how bad is it to have that many boards that are glued down while all the rest are tongue in groove and stapled? Some of the bad boards are next to each other. Also when I go into my basement in the unfinished part I can see all the staples and little pieces of the subfloor hanging. We had tons of little splinters on the floor we had to clean up. Can this subfloor take replacing this floor?

Its sounds like they used the right fastener size. A 2" staple on a 3/4 subfloor and a 3/4 wood floor will penetrate the bottom of the sub-floor by about a 1/4". It does very little damage to the sub-floor itself. I have never had or heard of a problem related to the staples doing structural damage to the subfloor. If the boards are adjacent to each other then that will allow the repair to be nailed in normally with a floor stapler. if its just the last row or if you have a single board to replace thats where you have to remove the bottom side of the groove to be able to fit the board back in, thus requiring the use of adhesive in place of a fastener.

Two day acclimation period huh? Heck, even LL tells people to wait a couple weeks.

I'd imagine no one pulled out a pin meter to check the moisture content either. Rule is 5% of the wood that comes may have issues and should be culled out. So 56 boards is how large of a percentage? The man won't pay for nuthing under 5%.

btw yes your subfloor can take a new floor or three.

Thank you all!

I have learned a lot in the last day or two. I do not know if they did a moisture test. The floor was put in mid June. Basically it has taken a long time because I have to rely on other people to do their jobs. When I don't hear back I call and they say they'll check, etc. Ultimately they claimed the other day it is the floor manufacturer who doesn't get back to them. Either way they agreed it was taking too long. We'll see what happens. I did check that website to see about an independent inspector. There is one not too far from me. That website did say to contact one AFTER one gets nowhere with their flooring people. I will wait to see what happens.

Acclimation is simple less than 3" wide 4% difference between subfloor and wood i.e. 6% subfloor 10% wood good to go. 3" and wider 2% difference. Have many times checked wood right out of box most cases good to go without any time period involved. Acclimation doesn't have a time limit I have read some installers in Florida have had to acclimate for 3 weeks before it was acceptable to proceed. Moisture testing is the only accurate method to assess acclimation as Stephen points out.