Question: Hello..I bought a new construction home and payed for grade one hard wood floors.my floors look terrible (IN MY OPINION)there are holes in the wood and there are dark strips that look almost rotten.the builder swares there grade one..however when i called the installer down his man told me they were grade 2.after i confronted the builder with this information the installers man came back and said i misunderstood him…my question is.Is there an organization or a private company i can call in N.Y. that i can have come in and grade my floors?also is there a way to tell what grade floors i have by looking at them.if not how can i tell…. thank you ….very frustrated…. Answer: Dear Chris I’m going to summarize the NOFMA grading guidelines for UNFINISHED oak flooring. Here are the four different grades of oak floor so there is no confusion. The top grade is called clear quatersawn and select quatersawn . It is very expensive, and is only justified when you want the effect of ribbon grained wood, with some of the medullary rays visible on many of the boards, especially in white oak. This is the grade you want if you want the least movement in the boards, but choose the narrow 2 1/4″ size. The average length will be about almost 4 feet. If milled correctly and stored well, this grade will have the least tendency to warp and shrink. Next is select (and select and better). I know this sounds confusing but try to get the select and better grade. It should be free of all defects but some pin knots. Some dark boards but not many. It is wood cut on the bole of the tree so this oak will have that pleasant grainy effect you see in most oak floors. The average length should be about 3 feet, with some long boards. All the boards will be sound solid lumber in this grade. It’s what I almost always use. So that makes the third grade now what we call Common # 1. It sounds a lot like what you have as the boards will be varied in color, and have many knots and worms holes. It should still be sound wood though, with bundles 1 1/2 foot and more. And average length will be about 2 1/2′. When some contractors see the #1 with the word Common in front, they will just omit the word Common, and call this grade #1. I saw the loosing side of a small claims court case try this and fail to convince the judge. And lastly there is the Common #2, and this stuff is just about suitable for the garbage pile. It will be very rustic in appearance, with many, many dark defects. Much of the wood will not be sound, and there will be a lot of cutting waste with this wood, to get rid of unusable wood. A lot of 1 foots bundles, bringing the average length down to about 2′. These last two grades ( Common #1 and #2 ) should only be used in the most rustic of rooms. These grades will tend to self destruct in about 10 years or so when the many internal checks and voids start appearing at the surface. Now if you have a PREFINISHED floor and it has a dark stain on it, it will be hard to tell just what grade it is. But there should be a grade label on the box they came in. Generally speaking the select grade unfinished hardwood is made into Prime grade prefinished flooring. And it will be rare to get this material, unless the prefinished wood has a clear finish on it. With a clear blonde finished wood they just cannot hide the defects. This is the only grade of prefinished floor I can recommend. And then the Common #1 unfinished material goes into the Standard grade prefinished hardwood floor. And lastly and sadly the poor Common #2 unfinished material is the rotten stuff that makes the prefinished Tavern grade flooring. You can go to the NOFMA web site at www.nofma.org to get a more official description of these grades. They are never referred to by number like your contractor tried to say, but by the word description. NOFMA has been in charge of the standard grading of wood flooring materials for about 90 years now. Don’t confuse them with the NWFA which is just a trade association, controlled by and for the benefit of the big flooring manufacturers. Any more questions you may have on this subject or clarifications of your original question feel free to write again at no cost. I hope you have enjoyed this personal service, real human responses are the best. If you found this information helpful, please explore the Wood Floor Doctor.com by visiting the rest of our website. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.-

Question: What is the industry standard for joint spacing across rows of floor planks? Answer: Dear Diane I’m not sure if there is an industry standard. It is really an aesthetic issue. But in general it is best not to have 2 joints closer than about twice the width of the boards themselves. So if you have a 2 1/4″ wide strip try to have the joints of two boards no closer than say 4-5″. And I mean two boards, because the next ones should be farther and farther apart, so that you don’t set up a stair-step effect. It takes some years to master this technique by racking up 8 rows of strips across the room. Then take the time to add and subtract pieces until the joints are pleasingly spaced. And you should avoid H joints where the joint is lined up with another joint, with just one row between it. All this said, everyone, (including me) will make minor mistakes in this pattern. In most cases it will be hardly noticed once your furniture and rugs are in. But if the floor is full of these busy, unsightly joints, it may be the installer who has let you down. In many cases he is paid very little on piecework basis, and will rush through your job, just to make a living. This has become the industry labor standard, sadly enough.

Question: Air, I have a Bruce hardwood floor, engineered board, EB 920, Somerset strip. I installed it this summer, and need assistance. I rolled a floor dolly on the floor with a piece of furniture aboard. The dolly left a mark that looks as if it were crushing the floor (ie, it is not a mark that can be cleaned). The mark runs the entire length of the floor from where the dolly started, and when the sun is shining right, you can easily see the mark. I need a solution to repair this long scar in my floor- is there a polyurethane patch kit or liquid I can use to remove this mark or am I screwed. Next question. In the gluing process, I have a few boards that did not set and now are no longer attached to the floor. That said, you cannot tell unless you step on them and they creak (or pop) a little. I have tried using a chair glue (for loose joints) that gets between cracks and have had some success. Am looking for another option for this glued down floor. Thanks in advance! Paul Answer: Dear Paul Unfortunately prefinished floor, with their factory conversion finishes are just about impossible to imitate when doing touch ups. And your case is very difficult, as it runs across many boards. If it only involved a few boards, I would suggest you simply replace that part of the floor, with new wood. Before the color is discontinued. First, contact Bruce or the supplier, and see it they have a finish touch up kit. They would have made this kit with hopefully a finish that comes close to the original. You should have this kit for future touch ups in any case. If the finish, applied with an artists brush, succeeds in filling the mark, you have done well. It may take several coats to accomplish this. But if the dent is deep (and you need to confirm it’s a dent, no missing wood) you may be able to steam puff the wood back to shape. You didn’t say how thick the top veneer was, but if it’s at least 1/8″ this method will work. First remove the finish from the dent area only, by either sanding or chemical stripping. Wet a corner of a clean white rag with distilled water, and apply it to the dent with a hot iron right behind. You will hear a hiss of steam and after a few tries the wood should start to level out. You can also use rubbing alcohol and a clean new soldering iron, this gives you a bit more control, but is a slower method. You can then touch up the spot, as best you can or sand the whole floor again. Try any or all of these methods in just a small practice spot first, and see if you can live with the results. It may be better to live with the original dent, and when the floor finish is really worn out, sand the floor and refinish it, but this will be 20 years from now. But this applies only if you have at least an 1/8″ thick top veneer layer. Again, you didn’t describe the wood, and I couldn’t find a description in the Bruce site. It may have been discontinued already. The best solution for the loose boards is the Dri-Tac Professional Wood Floor Repair System, at www.dritac.com. It comes with a diluted version of their famous glue, drill bits, syringe and dowels. In short everything you need for the injection repair, this kit actually works. Next time you install a floor use Dri-Tac glue instead and avoid these troubles.

Question: Joseph, Wood Floors Plus told me that Eterna is trying to contact me (my e-mail bounced, which is possible, given that my ISP is having problems). They want to fly someone down (I believe from Canada) to meet me. Is this standard behavior? Doug Answer: Dear Doug No this is not standard behavior, you may have them by their short and curlies. Go for the whole shebang. They must have shipped out some defective material, and now they are learning where it all went. They are certainly threatened by your web abilities. But just be polite and say things like, “I sure you didn’t mean to ship out this material under the Eterna name”. Or “even though only ten percent of the boards are defective, it makes the overall floor look shoddy” Even though we install a floor a piece at a time, it’s the entire surface we walk on, and either enjoy or detest. Oh and I do appreciate the offer to use the pictures. I saved them in a web archive, but will NOT mention your name NOR Eterna when using these in a free information article. Only if you have to go to court and win a public case against them would their be any possible publication of the guilty parties (eterna) name. And I hope that this stays out of court, for both your sakes. It’s very stressful. Good luck from Joseph Well, some things have happened, none of which are good………….. Dear Doug I’ve been thinking about this all weekend, and have come up with a new twist based on the evidence gathered by the Eterna folks. They may have found a piece of metal 1″ to the left of each crack, but there are a lot more staples in that floor than there are cracks. So really most (almost all) of the staples have done their job as well as they are designed to do. And quite possibly only when the staples were encountering a weak part of the board did the split come to the surface. But let me back up here a minute. Staples have a really checked history in the wood floor business. Read my free article about these terrible fasteners (in the Product Review section-the Primatech article). The study that the article quotes states that the staples will take up to two years to show defects in the wood. With most well selected and well milled wood, the staples would only crack the toungues leaving the floor with a crunchy or squeaky effect. I haven’t installed a grade of oak or maple less than select or better in these last 15 years of my career. One of my early jobs (we were trying to save the customer a few hundred dollars) in which we used a Common #1 grade oak strip began to slowly self destruct over about 10 years. By the time I came back for that 10 year recoat the floor has splits in some boards right down the middle. As these folks sold the house soon after, they were not concerned, and I at least was able to fully restore the finish. But since then, I have never been suckered into bargain priced hardwood flooring. Especially prefinished floor, where I cannot really see what grade of wood they used, due to the dark stain and disguised filling. Void and defects can be well inside the floor boards, and just about invisible to the installer. He makes the least amount of money in this cut throat business, yet has to shoulder all the blame from poorly milled wood. If he’s going to be the final grader, why isn’t he paid by the manufacturer. This argument from Eterna may not stand up. You might mention to Eterna that installers have a wide circle of installer friends. If Eterna wants to squash this installer, they might consider the consequences. I wrote a bad review on Melrose prefinished hardwood (prod. review section), and 3 years later he’s (the owner) is begging me to give him another chance. Bad news in this industry can be a real sales killer, for small brands. What I’m getting at is that the store should have warned you about the potential defects that happen in these low grade floors. I’ll bet they either don’t know or didn’t want to loose a sale. The staples aggravated this situation, and the installer should have stopped dead in his tracks as this pattern of floor failure repeated itself with no end. But also Eterna should have big RED warning signs on these low grade materials, stating the Disadvantages, and the fact that there is no warranty. As consumers we are advised by the “experts” in the stores and by tradesmen. We cannot investigate everything we buy, as you are now forced to do. When we are not warned of the realistic shortcoming of products, we have to assume they will perform to realistic expectations. They had a warranty on the premier material, so even this lower grade material was at least expected to survive the installation. And to be fair to the installer, the biggest trade association (NWFA), advocated using Staples OR Nails on any solid wood nail down installation. I think that NWFA is just ignoring strong evidence to the contrary, but your installer could prove that he was installing the floor by well known and accepted industry standards. I’m betting that a judge would find all four of you somewhat culpable in the end, and you may only have to take up as little as 25% of the costs. Or if you have a really sharp lawyer, you may get all of your costs covered. This I do believe is a win-able case. Don’t be discouraged by the “digging in” attitude of all the parties, this always happens early in the game. Expect an out of court settlement to take as much as 6 months. You are in early days. But a full blow court case (small claims, where lawyers fees are not recovered) may take as much as a year. In the mean time, remove the floor with a high quality video camera running, and record just where the staples are and the cracks are. Keep a running written tally of this with a neighbor looking on as you do this. You need the video and a witness. So rip up the floor, install a new one (with a new subfloor-even though OSB is industry standard) and have it sanded at least by a pro. Do the finishing yourself, that’s the fun part. Keeping busy while you are waiting for the court case to come up, will keep you from obsessing too much. Don’t let this floor take over your family life. The best revenge (even if you loose the case) is to LIVE A GOOD LIFE.

Question: I have wood floors in my apartment. Parts of the floor have water damage and are stained very dark. Can they be refinished? Answer: Dear Ellen Please read my article about hiring floor contractors available in the search box at the top of this web page. Find a good honest floor mechanic that will take a look at your job. I really cannot really tell from here. But here are a few clues. Water stains are gray or black in color, and will generally sand out on the first pass of sandpaper. You can test for this initially with a long handled floor scraper (about 5 bucks) at http://www.richardtools.com, choose the W series. Sharpen this type of scraper with a 10″ mill bastard file and scrape down to the bare wood. If the stains come out right away, it will certainly sand out also. But if it merely fades a bit, keep scrapping. If it proves too deep you may have to replace this board. Smell the wood at this point, and if you smell urine or feces, as this maybe was the cause. You can bleach out some of these organic stains, but you will need to see how extensive the really bad ones are. You can also darkly stain the whole floor. The stains will still be there, but a bit less noticeable. You will need to have the whole floor professionally sanded (don’t do this yourself), then bleach the stains, then consider dark staining the whole floor. Then you can finish the floor yourself, that’s the fun part anyway.

Question: I bought a one year old home with oak flooring. There is some cupping in a corner of one room, apparently from excess rain water from a dead valley migrating through the roof and exterior brick. The contractor has now installed new exterior step flashing which she said should eliminate penetration. One month later, we’re still getting moisture readings in the affected 2 ft sq. area in the 16-20% range. She thinks it will dry out, but I’m concerned that given the time it’s been there (up to a year) that rotting damage is inevitable down the road. Would you recommend repairs now (which the seller would be responsible for) or wait and see. David Answer: Dear David Well, if you are sure you have the roof problem licked and some else will pay for the repair of the floor, and you can find a responsible floor contractor, who will only accept payment when his job is done and invisible, by all mean go ahead and repair the floor now. But be warned sometimes the subfloor has to dry out also (6-9%). This can be achieved if the cupped board are removed and it is has several weeks to dry out. In the mean time keep the heat on a little higher, with no night time set backs, and heat the basement or crawl space under it well, also. If left on it’s own most floors will dry out and settle flat somewhat in a few months. You should be looking for a EMC of about 6-9% in the hardwood and the subfloor, before completing the repair or just sanding. Find out the EMC in your area for indoor wood, from a wood floor mechanic or cabinet maker. Wood generally will not rot as long as it is in the process of drying, not getting continually wet. But as long as someone else is paying for it, I would choose the first option if I were you. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.

Question: My new wood floor has a problem. It is crowning too much. The problem seems to be worse in the 4 to 6 winter months, and is actually the worst on the coldest days. I have 4-in. wide planks. There is a crawl space under the floor. I have gas heat. I have learned that the floor was sanded after it had cupped during the installation. My builder and I are trying to determine what would be considered too much crowning, or if any crowning is acceptable. Do have an answer? Is there some industry standard? What would it take to correct the problem? Answer: Dear John While in ideal conditions a 4″ board should not have any crowning, when the moisture content on one side of the board is different that the other this will happen. And cupping or barreling is certainly a indication of this. The side of the board that has the concave shape is most likely the side that has the excess moisture in the air, and wood being hygroscopic, will absorb this excess. The crawl space is the most probable culprit. As far as I know there is no industry standard, and it’s not talked about in the industry in any case. That said, you must ventilate the crawl space in the summer and possibly heat it in the winter to equalize the moisture content of both sides of the wood. The space should be at least 2 foot high under the floor, and the soil should be covered with sand, then a heavy poly and then more Dry sand. And a hardwood floor over a crawl space needs a very heavy exterior plywood, so that the 2″ floor nails ( never use flooring staples ) don’t penetrate the plywood and allow moisture to get in to the hardwood. So because the hardwood floor nails in a 3/4″ floor penetrate the subfloor 7/8″ you will have needed at least a 1″ CDX plywood subfloor on the joists to provide any kind of moisture barrier. Adding simply a flooring paper to the subfloor, will not help anything, as it’s punched full of holes during the installation. Or of course you can add a layer of thinner plywood to the existing subfloor to accomplish this. And I hate to say this but a 4″ board almost qualifies it for the plank floor nailing and pegging schedule, as outlined in the Hardwood Authority section. A narrower 2 or 3″ wide strip floor is a better choice. And in some damp climates or very dry climates they apply a finish to the underside of the hardwood before it’s installed. So you may have to do some or all of these things if you are going to have a stable flat hardwood floor. A wet winter provides the excess moisture under the floor from the exposed soil, and you crank up the heat and make the living side of the wood dry as a bone. Try to keep the air humidity at about 40-60% all year round on both sides of the floors. Oh, and don’t just sand this floor flat, you will be removing 1/4 of the floor’s life, and it’s better to sort out the moisture difference, and the problem may diminish on it’s own in 6 months. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.-

Question: Your site is not very helpful, infact, several articles are very negative towards anyone who isn’t a professional rather than helping the do-it-youselfer. Jessie Answer: Dear Jessie Thanks a lot for your response. Any criticism of the site is always helpful. I do believe I take a balanced approach to the DIY and so called pros. I have articles telling about the debacles of professional floor companies and flooring manufactures. One thing I am, is honest, about what I see in this trade. I never talk in glowing platitudes, I just call it like I see it. Many DIY ers have bought and used my articles to learn the inside trade secrets, which I reveal in abundance. Have the courage to actually buy the floor sanding article, and you might find ways to improve even your good work. I strive to improve my floor work and my writing skills everyday. Reading about how others do it, and keeping an open mind is the key to success. And yes, many a so called pro has butchered their client’s fine wood floor. This web site will give you the knowledge to spot such errant work. Plus using the pro to “sand only” with his heavier machines, takes you a step ahead. I find that most amateurs can finish a floor BETTER than most pros, provided that they read my articles and understand how BEST to finish floors. If you don’t think you can learn something from this site, I would be surprised.

Question: ALL MY FURNITURE IS OUT OF THE ROOM AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO. Answer: Dear Jeff I know, the new Paypal policy is frustrating others as well. But to date this is the only way we can collect these small amounts of money needed to run this site, without us incurring large transaction fees. We are looking for another third party credit card receiver, but have not found one yet that doesn’t charge us big fees. But the good news is that I do believe you are trying to make a donation, and I am going to go out on a limb and answer your question right now. This floor fiasco is entirely the responsibility of the floor mechanic who buffed and re-coated your floor. I’m presuming that’s what he did, apply a coat of finish. If you just wax the floor let me know, because the directions will change just a little. He should have been acutely aware of the delicate nature of a white stained (or as you say pickled finish) floor finish. He should have first found out what the finish was on top of the stain. And if you didn’t know he should have asked you to find out from the floor company who did the job, before he began his task. You see rarely do we use an oil based poly over a white or pickled floor. There was nothing wrong with the way the original finish was done, or you would have experienced some peeling or severe wearing of the finish. And you were doing the correct thing to have the finish recoated in the 5 year range, good for you. But alas the floor guy screened the floor too hard and wiped out part of the stain right to the bare wood, where he should have screened the floor by hand, or with a very fine screen. Or he could have chemically etched the floor. A good floor mechanic has many tricks up his sleeve to save these finishes. I did a screen and recoat of a pickled finished floor about 5 years ago, with stunning results. So here is the solution. You will need to use a wood scraper. http://www.richardtools.com/paint/paint_the_w_series.html This is the type I am referring to. I use the large W-14 size, and you will need to sharpen it with a 10″ mill bastard file until razor sharp. Scrape down the area in question, until you have definitely removed all the finish you both have applied over this bare spot. You see a simple hand sanding of a poly finish will not remove all the finish, but the scraping will. Now take a vibrator sander with 80 grit FLOOR SANDING sandpaper on it, and remove any scraper marks and generally smooth the whole area out. Take some time with this step to level the floor well. Then hand sand the floor with the same 80 grit paper, and sand into the good finish only just a little. Through all the steps you will sand and scrape into the good finish just a little each time, do this successively so that the last hand sanding is pushing a little further into the good finish. Now vacuum up and now comes the hard part. The stain you have tried didn’t work for many reasons. Are you really sure this was the brand of stain the original floor guy used ? It would be best to find out and get the original stuff. I say this because we buy our white stains from a furniture finish supplier, and we custom mix our white stains with other pigments to achieve different, (what you call) pickling affects. I know of no stain made by the regular store brand finish makers that is any good at all. But you might try the Bona Kemi brand white pastel stain (and mix it with the correct darker pigments). I cannot tell you your formula, you will just have to experiment. Or try the Dura Seal white stains. Both should be found at a wood floor trade supplier. Not your paint store, or local floor boutique. Anyway once you have the correct stain, apply it heavily to the sanded area, an let it sit there for up to 5-10 minutes. When you wipe it this time you should see a fairly good match with the older finish. If not remove the stain with some mineral spirits and try again, by adjusting the pigments. When I get really desperate, I will let the can settle over night, and take more concentrated pigments from the bottom of the can and try again with this stuff. The stain may have created a bit of a halo around the repair area. When the stain is still wet try to wipe most of this halo off. Use mineral spirits or paint thinner to assist removing this halo, but be careful. Then let the stain dry for at least 24-48 hours. Apply two coats of whatever finish you have been using, on just that area, scuff sanding just GENTLY between coats of finish (don’t sand the stain). Then scuff sand and recoat the whole area again wall to wall to get a good blend. Or at least mask off the boards involved and recoat those boards. If you are really daring here is another method. Prepare like I said, but this time mix the floor finish with some concentrated stain, and apply this instead. It’s a little risky because you won’t know how well this concoction will work or will dry. But you can intensify the color by layering up two or three coats of this mix. This is what they call toning, and it’s usually done with lacquer on furniture, not poly on floors. One you have a few coats built up use a spray can of poly to blend in the finish. And be sure to be really careful scuffing between coats with this method, in fact use 150 grit or finer between coats. Oh. and choose a spray can of poly that is the same sheen as your present floor finish. This later method is not my favorite, but either will work, and both are used in the floor repair trade. You might be better off hiring a professional for this rather tricky job, and charging it back to the BAD BAD floor man. Some furniture restorers do this sort of work, so call around. We see this mistake made often in the wood floor trade, and in one case it resulted in a small claims court trial, in which the owner won all costs associated with restoring the floor. Of course I was the expert witness so the BAD floor guy didn’t have a chance. So Jeff if this has answered your question, please send the donation by mail, with the check made out to me Joseph Turney. The address is again listed below. Any more questions you may have on this subject or clarifications of your original question feel free to write again at no cost. I hope you have enjoyed this personal service, real human responses are the best. If you found this information helpful, please explore the Wood Floor Doctor.com by visiting the rest of our website. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.-  

Question: We live in the Caribbean and we are in the process of building our home – an average sized family house 2800 sq ft. concrete structure. However I have always wanted a wooden floor in the fanily room and rather than the usual concrete patio (covered with ceramic or clay tiles) I wanted a wooden deck. Somewhere along the lines, this evolved into a covered deck, then a wooden floor over a concrete patio. Now the builder is telling us that a wooden floor would be impossible at this stage (the concrete has not been poured for the floor as yet). I would have to use parquet tiles or planks in the family room. My question: Regarding my patio (once deck) is there any type of wooden floor that can be accomodated ove a concrete base outdoors? We will be importing greenhart for Guyana for use elsewhere in the house – is there a solution that would utilise this or similar hardwoods? Thanks Gail Answer: Dear Gail I’m not sure I understand your question about what floor is going to be inside or outside, maybe in such a climate as yours it may not matter as long as it is sheltered from the rain. But a wooden deck is different in structure than a wooden floor. The wood in the deck can stand to get wet and because the boards are spaced 1/4″ apart they can expand a bit individually and not buckle next to the other boards. Also there is some space under the deck to allow the boards to dry out so they don’t rot. A wooden floor by it’s nature is usually a fitted tongue and grove planks,and doen’t have room for much expansion. If a wooden floor gets wet it will buckle and raise off the subfloor to make a great hump. Also a wooden plank floor will not dry properly and will soon rot. The closest to an outdoor floor I could suggest is to go a head and pour the concrete and once it has cured for about 2 months lay a framework of sleepers or screeds on the concrete. These can be 2″ by 4″ boards laid on their side made out of pressure treated wood. Then on top of this lay a decay resistant wood like ipe’. You should leave 1/4″ gaps between the boards and a 1″ space around the edge to allow moisture to escape. It would be a good idea to have drain channels in the concrete in case some rain flooded in. Ipe’ is a good decking material and is very hard and good looking, just let it age naturaly, don’t try to finish it with a varnish. If you found this information helpful, please explore the Wood Floor Doctor.com by visiting the rest of our website. As always your Most humble servant, Joseph, the Wood Floor Doctor.-