Hi,

The ~1200 ft2 of floors in our new house were professionally refinished (sand, water pop, duraseal stain, and 3 coats oil-based urethane), but I'm wondering what the quality level is.

In looking into the sun's glare, I can see a 3-dimensional pattern of grain--on some boards the soft grain is definitely lower than the harder grain (dishout?). I can feel this running my fingertip over worst offending boards.

I can also see faint "ripples", about 3 inches apart, something like sand dunes. The finisher, who used a Hummel machine, blamed it on the resonances and mixed wood of the floor. (But the floor is "select" grade, mixed cut, red oak).

I'd like to know if my expectations are realistic; I was expecting a flat floor, and frankly my floors now look like they are much older than their 20 years. I am in CA and paid approx $4/ft. Should I be asking for a fix or discount?

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-UCKW9BU9VEw/TqsUJhker5I/AAAAAAAAEOY/_oivIk6GE84/s800/floors2%252520004.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-hFY9OS3A378/TqsUMRwNmzI/AAAAAAAAEOk/fpVLZm95dU8/s800/floors2%252520010.jpg
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-MIv81HVVxLo/TqsULfjJIEI/AAAAAAAAEOg/cYfGoIVvPlk/s800/floors2%252520009.jpg
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-fpae87jY_6U/TqsUImXBfAI/AAAAAAAAEOU/0FBmNJfqriQ/s800/floors2%252520003.jpg


thanks!

With Oak a certain amount of dishout is to be expected,typically Red Oak has softer grain than White Oak. Ripples, or chatters are usually left behind by drum sanders that aren't functioning optimally. It takes constant maintenance/upkeep to keep a sander working perfectly, as they are actually relatively delicate machines. What little ripples I could see were very faint, and the dishout was a bit on the heavy side, but I've seen much worse. I'd say you have a nice looking floor, and with furniture in place you'll likely lose alot of the reflection of sunlight, which makes imperfections look more drastic.

IMO, the best way to achieve a perfectly flat Oak floor with no dishout is to buff with a hard block before the final screening, but it's a little late for that. I don't think your floor is bad enough to go to the extent of refinishing.

From what I know which isn't alto about finishing, I have to agree with floorpro. Hoping you picked out the worst and it isn't like that throughout the entire floor.

The industry rule of thumb about flooring defects and finish anomaly's is, from a standing position 3-4 ft out with no reflectivity in the background.

the floors look fine..no machine sands perfectly smooth..all the characterstics you are normal.

however, the waves you see, which are not really apparent n your fotos..at least without looking very close,
can be caused from sub floor resonance, but more likely may need a rear wheel.
but again. no machine will cut perfectly flat..

guys, i appreciate the feedback.

the dishout and waves are pretty much evenly distributed across all the flooring. the waves are not visible in these photos, but they don't bug me as much as the dishout.

overall i am a bit bummed out, as the refinisher was well recommended and set my expectations very high. he was quick to point out chatter marks and other imperfections in the previous finish; but now with these issues in his own work he is quick to make excuses.

i wish he would have told me beforehand that dishout was likely; i would have had him hard block or hard plate like floorpro recommended.

The dish out , as mentioned appears to be normal. Oak does this even with the best belt sander. The open grain is soft and the pulp is harder. The only thing i saw that bugged me was a drum mark in your first picture.

To hard plate a oak floor and remove all the dish out and chatter is a fairly big task.It takes time . On a 500 foot job , I would estimate that a full day of hard plating would be needed to make a floor dead flat. And if I was asked to go that far on a job, I would certianly have to charge accordingly. But it certainly is possible to do.

and it would require a more technique aprroached sanidng.

would need 2 opposite 20-30 degree cuts, followed by 1 10 degree, then 2strait.
belt sand, screen and finish...this with a perfectly new machine....then you got you DR table.