Hello everybody,
I just installed 3/4" x 3" Brazilian Cherry flooring throughout the 1st level of my home minus the 1/2 bath & kitchen. I subbed out the sanding & finishing to a contractor that my neighbor has worked with multiple times in the past. My neighbor is a contractor (as am I) & I know how he works. He pays really close attention to detail like myself so when he reccomended this guy I didn't hesitate to use him.

My questions are as follows:
How smooth should the floor be? I was under the impression that you shouldn't feel any transitions between the boards as the floor is sanded as a whole. I can feel & see multiple places where boards are sitting proud of their neighbors. It's mostly noticible when the sun is glaring on it but you can see it from a standing position.

The finisher applied the poly to my flush mount registers & now the grills are stuck in place. I spoke with him & he said that he would stop by & pop them out so we'll see how that goes. Is this standard practice? They're in there pretty good & I'm not sure he can get them out without doing damage to the register or surrounding floor.

Where the floor transitions to my 1/2 bath, he didn't sand the floor down along the marble transition. This looks pretty bad in my opinion but I'm not sure he can fix it without re-sanding & re-finishing the entire floor.

Also, he didn't fill any of the gaps in the floor from bad milling. When I installed the floor, I tryed to keep them to a minimum. Can I fill these now after the fact?

There are also a lot of swirl marks that again can only be seen in a glare in the dining room but they're not there in other areas. This I can live with since I know I can't get a perfect finsih & wasn't expecting one but I know he could've done better since he did in other areas.

I just would like to know what is normal & what is not. Like I said, I know not to expect perfection I just don't have experience with site finished floors & don't really know what is acceptable & what is worth complaining about.

Thanks for any help,
Jimmy

You should not feel a difference in height on board edges, Cherry is much harder than oak, and you need to sand more aggressively to get it flat than you would if it were oak
an new oak floor we can sand 50-80-100
Cherry we would have to either 36-50-80-100 or 40-60-100 to get it truly flat with no boards being proud

The vents should be sanded in place, but stained and finished separately so you can remove them, hopefully he can dig them out without damaging them

The transition to the tile should be flat to the floor, if it is one board he may be able to scrape/sand just that board, and refinish it without it being noticiable

Thanks Exquisite
What you said is basically what I was thinking. He got the registers out without a problem but I'm not sure why he does it this way. I think he just made a mistake but all is good on that front. He also re-sanded the transition into the bath which isn't 100% but it's a lot better. I'll probably hire somebody else to finish the upstairs when the time comes & get their opinion on the other work
THanks again
Jimmy