Hi! I recently bought an old 4-square house with beautiful heart pine floors.
I paid for the floors to be refinished and then on the walk through had some concerns. I don't know if i'm being overly nit-picky or not and curious for some opinions. The most important thing is that the floors are beautiful - however, I wonder how much the wood gets to take credit and how much the finishers get to claim....

1. at first I saw lots of tiny raised dots -- and was concerned, but have since read about these as an inevitable part of the process and that they will mostly go away over time. so thats that.

2. at various areas of the house, you can see lap marks from the poly application (oil based) and a few places where there are pools/drips of poly - dried pools at this point, but clearly visible when the light hits it right.

3. also throughout the house there are sort of 'tread' marks against the grain of the wood -- they are relatively faint -- the wood still feels smooth, but when the light catches them they are quite noticeable. the finisher said they were because he had to 'really get into the wood' where there had been a linoleum floor over it -- however these marks also exist in other parts of the house where there had never been linoleum. It seems pretty clear that they are from his belt sander - at least thats my sense.

4. There are a few spots where you can see some sort of circular sanding marks - again relatively faint but noticeable when the light catches them

5. and there are a few spots where small pebbles were lodged into the finish -- maybe 2-3mm in diameter - they are easy to dislodge but then leave a small divot in their wake.

6. when prepping for the job, I asked if I needed to move the fridge out, and was told, don't worry about it - we'll just move the fridge to sand under it, and then put it back. I (stupidly) listened - and now the floor has been finished around the fridge - which is an old appliance that came with the house and that I was planning to replace with a counterdepth model - meaning there will likely be a few inches of unfinished area revealed when I switch fridges.

So anyway, thats what I'm working with -- and while I want to make sure i stand up for myself, I also don't want to be an unrealistic customer - hence I welcome opinions.
thanks!

You are not being picky. Refinishing your floors is an investment that should last for years without needing touch-ups when you find a new refrigerator.
Moving the fridge out for another coat of finish under it now would be the minimum, but fixing drips and areas that have blemishes should be done.
A coat of finish over the whole floor will be the only thing that will make you happy. Talk to the contractor to insist on your satisfaction.

When refinishing in a home where alliances need to be moved ( we do not move gas stoves ) we will pull them out and start sanding under them immediately , seal w/ wax free shellac and start applying quality water base. That way those area are done relatively fast and the fridge or stove can be put back and the rest of the floor can be refinished around them. Easy peasy

We have learned the hard way when stain is needed , but that’s a different post.