[mknmike]

I’m satisfied with the second and third floors. The first floor had urine stains, and I’m wishing we went with a stain on the whole first floor now that I see how the more expensive board replacement turned out. They’d originally had red oak to replace it with on site, and the carpenter said the old floors smelled like white oak and convinced the company owner to deliver white oak. Clearly it’s too light, even after “poly shading”. It was originally quoted under $15k for the whole house, but I was most recently given an estimate of $4200 of add-one mostly for the board replacement in these spots. So I’m assuming the final bill will be about $20k. This is a “once and done” type of thing in my opinion. It’s not like “we can fix it later”. I’m afraid that if we open this can of worms again it’s going to cost me another $5000 to make the first floor look right. Is it time to consult another flooring company? This is the guy that everyone knows around here and has done amazing work in so many places. Am I being too critical?

 

[a&b home]

They put the wrong wood in and want charge you to fix it with stain?

 

[mknmike]

Floor company owner says he chemically tested the old floor twice and both times came up white oak. He says that the new wood will have to yellow over time to catch up with the 100 year old wood, and that if I didn’t want the whole floor stained, there’s not much else we could do.

 

[bfrabel]

It's not their fault someone or some thing pissed all over your floor and wrecked it.

If they said they tested the wood and it came back as the same type of boards as they replaced them with, who are we to second guess them?

I guess you could find an independent place to test the wood, and then might have a leg to stand on if your tests come back differently.

Otherwise as I see it your choices might be to either ask for a slight discount and accept it for what it is, or ask for some type of solution and be prepared for whatever extra cost might be involved to make it satisfactory.

 

[Msradell]

Even if it's the same type of wood the contractor should have discussed options with you before finishing it. Now that it's got a clearcoat on it it would have to be sanded before applying a stain and a new clearcoat.

 

[Thom Paine]

Floor company owner says he chemically tested the old floor twice and both times came up white oak. He says that the new wood will have to yellow over time to catch up with the 100 year old wood, and that if I didn’t want the whole floor stained, there’s not much else we could do.

Natural finish?
On matching the finish? The flooring company is correct.
Ex: Entire new home build; Same species oak flooring and trim.... each individual stick may/will take the finish differently resulting in color variations.

Full strip and stain is where you go if you want a match...
From what I understand, above, They suggested that in the beginning.

They can't be responsible for your choice.

 

[Matt1963]

Definitely much lighter and stands out but here's the thing.....are you going to put throw rugs and furniture in there?

I see plenty of my hardwood floors, but more than 50% of it is hidden.

 

[mknmike]

Whole house was stripped bare and that’s when the stains became apparent. They stood out more when wet with water like they would be with poly. I went back and forth about possibly trying to bleach the original wood, and they said it never works. So dark stain (like the one room) or replace the wood were our options. We want the house to be light and bright if possible. So we got what we asked for. They did say it would look different, but all seemed to agree this is probably best if we want light floors.

We’ve decide to accept it and move on hoping the polyurethane will yellow over time.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mknmike]

Definitely much lighter and stands out but here's the thing.....are you going to put throw rugs and furniture in there?

I see plenty of my hardwood floors, but more than 50% of it is hidden.

Probably not the full width of the whole center hall. So, not really. We didn’t refinish the floors only to have to cover them up. It’s a million times better than before and the majority of the work is absolutely beautiful.

The company owner had the opportunity to offer to rip out the wood and replace it and charge me for additional work, but feels this truly is the best thing for the floor. This is the last time these floors can be refinished. The round head nails on the tongues are darn near half sanded off in several places on the first floor. So next time they all get ripped out and replaced together. That will be the ultimate solution if ever needed, just the largest room in the house and the center hall most likely.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mknmike]

Natural finish?
On matching the finish? The flooring company is correct.
Ex: Entire new home build; Same species oak flooring and trim.... each individual stick may/will take the finish differently resulting in color variations.

Full strip and stain is where you go if you want a match...
From what I understand, above, They suggested that in the beginning.

They can't be responsible for your choice.

They suggested that staining is the only way to be sure to hide Urine stains. So yes, that’s correct. I was wondering if they wanted to strip the areas and just stain the new boards, but yeah, they did offer that and say new boards would look different. I asked them to do what they think is best, no restrictions on funding really. This seems reasonable now that I understand the boards may darken over time.

 

[mknmike]

It's not their fault someone or some thing pissed all over your floor and wrecked it.

If they said they tested the wood and it came back as the same type of boards as they replaced them with, who are we to second guess them?

I guess you could find an independent place to test the wood, and then might have a leg to stand on if your tests come back differently.

Otherwise as I see it your choices might be to either ask for a slight discount and accept it for what it is, or ask for some type of solution and be prepared for whatever extra cost might be involved to make it satisfactory.

I’m not asking for any discounts. Solution is to let it wear over time and cover it with rugs which will supposedly help darken it.

 

[Nealtw]

Did they really do the test, they said it came back, why wouldn't they do it themselves
How To Know If You Have RED or WHITE Oak Hardwood Floors. - YouTube

 

[Thom Paine]

Did they really do the test, they said it came back, why wouldn't they do it themselves
How To Know If You Have RED or WHITE Oak Hardwood Floors. - YouTube

I can understand . A few times over the years, I've experienced unsure customers who benefited by an outside assessment and confirmation of a situation.

Actually, so did The Company by being open to outside professional consults.

 

[Marq1]

He says that the new wood will have to yellow over time to catch up with the 100 year old wood

You have a situation that will never come out perfect no mater what is done, tinting, staining, aging. Personally I don't think there is anything there I would attempt to spend more money on to fix. Once you put down your rugs and furniture and quit focusing on that one spot it will all sort of fade away!

This is the guy that everyone knows around here and has done amazing work in so many places. Am I being too critical?

And the second best guy is going to do better?

 

[mknmike]

Did they really do the test, they said it came back, why wouldn't they do it themselves
How To Know If You Have RED or WHITE Oak Hardwood Floors. - YouTube

“It came back” would be my words. I’ve never seen this kind of test kit before and had no idea if there really even is a test for such a thing. Thank you for educating me on it. I assume they did the test themselves, but with wood shavings or sawdust and not on-site, but back at their shop.

 

[Half-fast eddie]

I didn’t know you could do a chemical test for red vs white oak. All you have to do is look at the end grain. And even looking in your pictures,the old looks like red oak. I would say remove and replace.

 

[mknmike]

You have a situation that will never come out perfect no mater what is done, tinting, staining, aging. Personally I don't think there is anything there I would attempt to spend more money on to fix. Once you put down your rugs and furniture and quit focusing on that one spot it will all sort of fade away!



And the second best guy is going to do better?

You guys here provided me the opinion of the other pros without having to waste the time having someone else come out and look at the work

Right. I agree with the first paragraph. I understand that the new wood won’t really “catch up” in my lifetime, and there’s a greater chance of all the wood being ripped out and replaced than there is with the wood really “catching up.”

I’m just glad to get the opinions of others on the internet. I appreciate everyone’s input.

The areas in the large livingroom in front of the fireplace should be easy to cover with carpets.

The center hall might be trickier to cover with carpets since it is chopped up with an entranceway to the main living room and also the stairs.

I had researched the methods available to bleach urine-stained wood, and I think that there’s a chance I could have bleached the wood and had the urine stains fade a little. Had I known that the new wood would have been off-color so much, I probably would have requested that they give me more time to try and bleach the wood myself and then just have them leave it natural like we did with the dining room where there’s a single urine stain. That is in the video. The stains in the center hall really were not as bad as the ones in the living room. So I would have definitely requested they leave the original wood there. Now in some places, the old wood was damaged by things other than the dog urine, and I need to remember that. I understand that sometimes removing one board results in the need to replace one two or three next to it too. So I can’t fairly say “we shouldn’t have replaced any wood in the center hall”, but I would not have replaced any there due to dog urine.

Done all over again knowing what I know now…

1) I probably would have tried harder to bleach all the stains. It did appear that even just peroxide was making a difference.

2) I would have requested a very minimalist approach on replacing any wood at all in the house. They may have had this in mind initially as several areas upstairs where I might have expected them to replace boards, they used putty instead. They said it may crack and fall out, but it looks great in my opinion.

3) I would have considered a light stain to perhaps balance the desire for a light colored floor with the need to hide urine stains. I like the dark office floor, but my wife does not. So perhaps having the floor stained and just telling my wife that’s how it must be would have been the perfect solution.

4) knowing that we were going to be told “put a rug over it”, we would have cared less about the urine stains and probably gone for the most economical angle.

You can’t really make decisions as well without the experience. I wish I’d learned these lessons before, but it’s going to be ok.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[mknmike]

I didn’t know you could do a chemical test for red vs white oak. All you have to do is look at the end grain. And even looking in your pictures,the old looks like red oak. I would say remove and replace.

The company owner said that red oak would have looked pink in comparison. This is where I would say a professional opinion would be required. I’m no pro, just a homeowner, and I had a similar mindset. We were in a “hold off” mode with respect to moving anything into the house thinking that ripping out the new boards and replacing with red oak might be where we were headed.

The master carpenter said he could smell that the old wood was white oak (not red) while he was cutting it. I really think that he and the company owner argued/debated back and forth on which way to go.

Perhaps we got the academic solution where, white oak should be matched with white oak, when practically, perhaps old white oak should actually be matched with new red oak because old white oak, specifically the white oak I have looks like red oak. I don’t know, but I am settling in on the ideas that if I pick at the scab any more, it’s never going to really heal.

 

[MTN REMODEL LLC]

We all have different aesthetic tastes, and I don't have a full concept/picture of your layout or know exactly where in your project you are, but could you still interlace some of your new white throughout your flooring.

Make it appear as a designed consistent homogeneous job... rather than appearing as a contrasting repair job. ?????

(I've not worked with white oak, but I'm surprized they could not have gotten a closer stain match.... yes the patina will be different, but still a closer match.???)

 

[Marq1]

Another foresight would have been to pull wood up from a closet/less obvious location rather than install new wood in that high visabile location.