First, let my say thank you for all the help the members on this site have given me. I have been reading for awhile, but this is my first post. So I ordered 30 boxes of 3" wide, 3/4" thick natural white oak prefinished hardwood floors. When the boxes arrived I opened about three boxes. What I found is alot of dents, and what appears to be bumps in the finish. This is probably on about 60% of the boards. This doesn't look right to me. I call the place I got them from, and they sent my pictures to the mill. The response I got was that this is "normal". But I don't think it is. Also alot of the pieces are not straight when I tried to lay them, they said that the nailer will push them in, does that sound right? Here are some pictures of the peices, please let me know your thoughts.

[img][IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn139/spydergst1/20140320_191734.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn139/spydergst1/20140320_191049.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn139/spydergst1/20140320_190840.jpg[/img][/img]

[img][IMG]http://i303.photobucket.com/albums/nn139/spydergst1/20140320_190330.jpg[/img][/img]

They are correct about the bowed boards the nailer will pull them in to a certain extant. But to me the finish looks like crap. I see white boxes so it is probably from LL and made in China.

They are not from LL but from a place in florida, however the mill is based out of the USA. So they are domestic. But yeah they are telling me that finish is normal.

That was my way of fishing around to see if you would say who it was from.
No one ever wants to volunteer that information.

Oh I have no problem telling you where I got them from. I got them from Hurst Hardwoods out of Florida. They disagree that the finish I recieved is bad. They keep telling me that it is normal. Bubbles and bumps in the finish is not normal. I have engineered hardwood in my basement and it looks no were near the finished quality I recieved from my solid hardwood, and I got those engineered hardwoods from LL. Not sure what to do at this point.

its poor quality and it may be considered "normal" for mills that produce poor quality.

there is a saying..you get what you pay for.

you bought this product based on price...admit it..it is just a natural oak which could have bought any number of quality products. Bruce would have give a superior product.

here is a saying plastered at the bottom of my email signature..it is abridged but says it all.

*“It is unwise to pay too much, but it is worse to pay too little.*

*The common law of business balance prohibits paying a little and getting a
lot. It cannot be done. If you deal with the lowest bidder it is well to
add something for the risk you run.*

*And if you do that, you will have enough to pay for something better.

I didn't think it looked bad. What you should be asking is what does it look like when I'm standing on it? If you can't find the flaws, it's good to go. Hurst is big on cabin grade products. Is that the case?

Ken has a good point about judging it based on what it looks like when you are standing on it .That being said , to me , the finish looks unprofessional and the imperfections aren't found on the pre finished woods that I install. My best guess is that this material is a "b" grade or "seconds" from a run of product the manufacturer is getting rid of .

I agree the products I use have a nice smooth finish. If I refinished a floor with that result I would never get paid. Could be seconds as mentioned product that couldn't be sold in a retail store.

If I would have paid for cabinet grade or B grade I would have no problem with the finish, however the floor I paid for was the select or better grade. Its not only the finish that concerns me. One of the boxes has about 50% of boards that are not finishes on the beveled edge and the edge was cut at a different angle than the other side.

Stop payment, or install it them hire a pro to buff an coat it. This should take care of the bumps and seal the ends but of course will cost more money.

Yeah at this point those are my only options. What does a refinish typically run a SF?

I would probably charge about 70 cents per square foot to re coat a pre finished floor. However, I generally don't take those jobs because aluminum oxide is a real pain to re coat. It's quite difficult to get new finish to stick down inside the bevels .For that reason , there are floor scrubbers made for the abrading of pre finished floors for the purpose of re coating .