PLEASE HELP ME!

We're having a new home built, and this floor was just installed, 2.25" pre-cut tongue&groove oak hardwood - not sanded, or finished in anyway yet. I went to look at it yesterday and felt it looked awful. See the link with pictures. So so many gaps many 1/8" wide.

I've seen 4 other floors this builder has done with the same style rustic looking oak, they were all tight and beautiful. So when I opted for a $5000 upgrade to include the great room, my expectations were to be as the other floors were.

I even went to the neighbor's yesterday and they let me look at their finished floor. Same wood exactly, and it was so beautiful and tight. Barely a single gap to be found. No signs of putty use that I could detect. If it was used, it filled a 1/64" gap at most.

I called the builder and he told me that it was fine and will look great when they are done, it will all be filled with putty.

Will this putty last a long long time? Or will it crack and chip out over time?

Honestly, I'm disgusted with what I'm seeing. Tell me your thoughts please! Thank you in advance.

CLICK FOR PICTURES - DROP BOX
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qk20fal8btjtksm/AACo0nqmNS381AYquZHKd1Eqa?dl=0

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Agreed, poor looking job. I would have at least tried to make it look better, particularly the out of square end joints and the header board/reducer not to mention the splits. What was the grade of the material? Oh. Rustic. That can explain part of the problem.

You'll get quite a bit of the filler getting squeezed out during the summer months when the floor starts expanding with more moisture in the environment. I'm assuming you're in a colder winter heating region.

what a mess, lol. Thats the crappiest install and wood floor I have seen in a while. Looks like its a #3 common/ utility grade. Ive seen people make turn it into a decent floor but you have to fix and cull through the worst of it to make it usable. How big is the living room? You can buy that kind of floor for .99 a foot and most others are in the 3-4 dollar range unfinished.

Thank you Ken and Kevin.

It's a great room kitchen combo probably 600 to 700 square foot total.

Again - most of my angst comes from the idea that my expectations were based on no less than 4 other floors this builder did in spec homes. You mention Rustic, but remember I saw the other floors in various stages, pre-finished, and post finished. NO GAPS LIKE THESE!!! Rustic or not!

Not sure what to do. Builder is headed to look at it more closely today. I hope I get a satisfying response. But wouldn't it be incredibly difficult to pull all that up and redo?

Ken and Kevin - can you briefly tell me your experience level with hardwood flooring? Thanks guys! Nick.

Yeah, I'd like to see ya'lls resume too. LOL

I didn't mean it like that. I'm just hoping to arm myself with as much credible data as possible to help me negotiate an equitable outcome for both myself and the builder. Knowing the information they gave me comes from flooring pros or at least guys with experience really helps me. I assume they are but just wanted to confirm.

cheap materials and cheap installers..en d product..your photo is your photo album..

reality he doesn't have to rip that floor due the quality level..anything goes in that floor by guideline.

realistically the finishers don't have to fill nothing short of nail holes of install errors..such as crushed edge..

$5000 is a major upcharge for that floor..he probably paid half that

Me? I've been in the business since the early 90's. Installed up until 2004. Handled all types of installations. I also created and maintain hardwoodinstaller.com.

Kevin? He is hardwood flooring.

I'm thinking maybe all this character or rustic type flooring being sold these days may have mislead you. But character grade has changed a lot the last ten years, or the way it's being sold; mostly prefinished in one name or another. It's milled well, face filled(knots etc) That's one reason why these types are priced high; more effort/labor into producing the end product.



No, not at all. Unless it's a stapled floor.

Thanks Ken, but you said it best here : "the out of square end joints and the header board/reducer not to mention the splits."

No sir, with respect, I've not been mislead by anything. I simply have seen the other floors done in many of their spec homes - they only offer one style and grade of wood floor. I've seen them in unfinished, and finished stages, which mine was suppose to be identical to, and there were no 3/16" gaps to be found, let alone 1/8 or even 1/16. These other floors were TIGHT. It was the same wood I was supposed to get, which I did get.

It appears to me I just got all the poorly milled pieces, or someone who didn't want to be careful in selecting how they put it together. All the nail splits and out of square ends etc just prove they didn't care about doing the job right.

Again, went to the neighbors house, down on hands and knees. We found two 1/64" gaps in the whole floor. The only place we could detect filler was in some of the knots.

Ive been in the business personally for almost 25 years of my 42, my dad started managing one of the Bruce Mills in 1972. in the early 90s we opened our own mill producing unfinished strip floors. We sold it to Mullican flooring in 96 or 97. After that I worked for a large distributor/ manufacturer untill 2006 when the owner decided to sell, I opened my own distribution of unfinished flooring and supplies and still currently own and operate that.
Rustic/tavern/#3 common is not even a recognized grade by the NWFA, it was a good way to get rid of some waste made from the manufacturing process thats wasnt suitable for most dealers and is mostly sold to salvage type places.
Nowadays people get all giggly over reclaimed and rustic looking floors. there is a huge difference between rustic looking and a crappy install of crappy material. I bet the other houses have #2 common floors and yours is a #3. two common has all that character but the grading rules wont accept the really rough pieces that you are seeing in that #3.

Thanks Kevin. My builder just told me this morning it is #2. (or was supposed to be I'm thinking.) But like you say maybe they pulled a fast one on me.

Was yours the last house of the development? I'm betting those are all the pieces pulled from the other houses and now they needed them to do your house. And the builder wasn't going to buy any more.

This grade of material takes a lot of extra time to sort through, correcting or discarding any strips unsuitable for installation. It also takes longer to install it. Many strips will be bowed, needing additional persuasive techniques to move them properly into place and avoiding wide gaps.

Question for you Pros: Isn't there a sq ft premium typically charged to properly install material like that?

How does the builder live with himself charging the owner a $5,000 upcharge for that quality of work?

Thank you! This has been so frustrating. I was at the sight with the builder for 1 hour arguing with him. We even went to an identical finished home and the floor was obviously exceedingly better. He jus kept insisting My floor would be the same when finished, but you could see there was very rarely even a small gap with putty in it on the finished floor.

Sure it will, but what will it look like when the floor goes through a few seasons of expanding and contracting? Have the other floors been done for say six months at least? Something will happen unless the home has a good climate control system that keeps the relative humidity in check or consistent to when it was installed and what the moisture content of the material was.