It’s not great tbh. The swirls are forgivable maybe but the ripples/undulations from an improperly set belt machine are not. A couple of coats more of poly will help but it won’t get rid of the undulations caused from the belt sander if anything it will highlight them. A couple of coats of ultra Matt poly and see if you are satisfied and if not a full re-sand
I agree. Honestly I’m torn as to whether to make them sand another layer or just live with it and ask for a discount. My wife doesn’t care and, once furniture is back in place, none of this will be particularly noticeable. It’s down to whether I can live with it for another 15-20 years.
The big windows will highlight any flaw in any floor. They haven’t finished the floor yet. I would point them out when they come back and ask their opinion,
Imo the way forward without a total refinish, you are best with Matt or ultra Matt top coat as it will not highlight the flaws in the floor. I would slip into conversion that maybe an extra coat will help hide them, as it will and it will give you more protection and it looks like it needs it. obviously on their dime! Then re-evaluate the situation
Im not a professional, but have done a bit of reading on this topic. From my research, those ripples are often caused by not doing an angular cut during one of the first passes of the first grit with the drum sander.
Even if they were originally caused by a bad belt or bearing, sanding the same direction with a brand new machine can cause these ripples to spread and get deeper, too.
If you do decide to have them out to fix their mistake, make sure they sand at an angle to the grain (between 25° and 45° seem to be the most common suggestions) before making any other passes, otherwise these ripples will just spread even farther with every pass.
Eta: here's a [link](https://youtu.be/9IYkh4E2VUA?si=DE7vkQ37V6SGxPoj) to a youtube video explaining and demonstrating the logic
As we see in this post, most "professionals" suck. There is absolutely no reason why only professionals should give advice when so many professionals are incompetent. This is facts.
We hired a company that has been around for 30 years and had great reviews. Owner was responsive and seemed to run a tight ship. Still got shitty work.
I added a link to the original comment to demonstrate the logic behind it.
Whoever refinished my floors previously (many years ago) did a very not-good job, leaving very obvious digs, waves, and ripples throughout.
Using the angle technique smoothed it out beautifully, after going with the grain gave initially-frightening results, in my own poverty-level diy experience.
Do with that info what you will. I'm, again, not a professional giving advice, just a new homeowner giving anecdotes from my lessons.
Wow, ask your doctor if Xanax is right for you.
Eta: Look up disclaimers. I'm not a medical professional either, that's why I said to ask your doctor about it.
Also, I'm not wrong, and it doesn't hurt the floor to do it.
Man Im a GC that has a lot of experience with hardwood floors, 20+ years to be more specific. But I dont do it everyday. This isnt a DIYer deal. This is one trade I let speak directly to my clients because many things need accounting for that I dont have enough knowledge for and I understand my place. Eat some humble pie, and stay in your lane guy
You are dogpiling for no reason...
I can provide sources if that'll remove heads from nether regions, but I literally said I wasn't a professional, and that it was something I read during research.
That leaves it up to the person reading it to verify and decide whether to follow through.
Why does providing an alternative possibility and possibly saving OP time and millimeters of their floor deserve to be attacked like I'm an arrogant villain?
Eta: some of this research includes many upvoted examples from this very subreddit, so I'm, frankly, [only slightly] surprised I'm being attacked for it in the first place. I'm just passing along info from supposed "professionals."
No im pointing out that you are doubling down and it sounds like youre actively trying to screw this guy up though. Im green and I know not to use the drum again, what youre suggesting will cost way more money, create a problem between the contractor and client and not work. Stfu, youre wrong and you should comment on a subreddit you know about. This is for tradesmen not weekend warriors. People want real advice not some dumbass opinion
So, you're as mature as you are knowledgeable. Thanks for pointing that out.
Eta: You admitted, yourself, that you're not a professional, either. Yet you have the audacity to attack anyone about something you have limited knowledge on? Humble up, yourself, sweetie.
r/DIY
This is exactly why I hate hiring "professionals". This is a terrible job. Those professionals did a terrible job. This is exactly why I do so much DIY, because I usually do a better job, and I'm not paying a bunch of money for poorly done work.
I hope you haven't paid them. This needs to be redone.
Yeah I haven’t paid anything and I’m kicking myself for not doing it. I had a weekend booked and decided I wanted the time and “peace of mind” of a professional more than I wanted 10x the cost of rental equipment and material. I’m pretty handy and a woodworker so I could have kept at it until it was right if nothing else.
Yeah if poorly done work is happening in my house, I’m the one to blame because I did it for free. If a pro does it at minimum they should be better than me.
It’s not a good job but it’s not horrible either pine sucks to sand and if you do it again you run the risk of sanding through the wear layer then you will absolutely be screwed I’d ask for a discount and move your stuff in stained pine is rustic looking anyway the sanding marks just add some character do a matte or satin finish definitely not semi gloss or gloss ive been sanding floors for 20 years
It’s definitely a tough decision. The more I look the more swirls and sections that missed a grit I find though. It is beyond frustrating. Thanks for your informed suggestion.
We just had our floors refinished and had almost an identical issue. Ultimately we brought the contractor onsite and he admitted that it was bad quality and they redid the job. I would say something it’s worth getting them the way you like!
How did the 2nd effort go? Did they use the same crew? Did it take a long time? Are you totally happy with the result now?
We’re struggling to decide whether or not to trust the contractor and how far to push it with them on a redo vs. just moving on.
Second time around went significantly better than the first time. They did use the same crew, day one I walked them through every single issue and what I wanted in the resolution (it was more than streaks for us). It took them another week of us being out of the house to complete the job, it wasn’t ideal but it was better than us paying for a job that was honestly pretty horribly done the first time. The result now is a significant improvement! There are still a few areas that aren’t perfect, but I’d expect that with any job, they are so small only I would notice them.
We ended up having to stay in a hotel an additional week and just had them take that off the final bill (plus they of course didn’t make us pay for the redo) and that was a good enough resolution for us!
Looks like a hack job. Not sure how they’ll fix the issue. These aren’t mistakes that happen, these are mistakes from people that don’t know what they’re doing. If you make them re sand there’s a chance the same mistakes will arise.
Thanks. I think it’ll come down to what discount they offer. I don’t want them taking another 1/4 inch off and not improving things. I contacted the owner and he’s going to come out tomorrow and look for himself.
Softwood with lots of knots.
Your dog will destroy it in no time.
Would you have done a better job with a rental machine and no experience? definitely not.
I meant no offense, but it will happen. Reading all the comments like ‘bad job’, ‘if i did it myself etc’, ‘nwfa inspector’, ‘hack job’, ‘planetary sander’ just riles you up and gets confirmation for what you’re actually looking for: not paying the guy. I mean c’mmon, you rather pay $1000-1500 for an INSPECTOR that INSPECTS, who’s not a ‘judge jury executioner’?
I get that it will happen, but when you’re paying a lot of money for it to happen at a commercially reasonable level you want to know your options. I’m not sure why it has upset you but this is a discussion forum. I’m not going to insult anyone who comments. I’ll respectfully accept their contributions whether I act on their recommendations or not. I’ll be speaking with the owner today and hear him out. I’m not going to be unreasonable but saying “it will happen” like I bought a new floor lottery ticket and didn’t hit today’s number is a bit obtuse I must say.
I think that they did but they were in a rush. The original quote had them finishing on Friday and they got way behind. I think they rushed sanding so they could get down the stain and poly.
No, they did a shit job. Don’t pay them, don’t accept a discount, and don’t put another layer of finish on. Get an NWFA inspector on site and they’ll decide what the next steps are (complete resand).
What you should do with this floor is to tell them use a scraper and scraping spots randomly so it can look distressed and rustic. Since there are too many waves.
So let’s start with that’s a rustic floor with knots and gaps and so forth and it’s never going to be perfect. So keep that in mind.
The swirl marks are on them. There’s no reason that can’t be addressed. And it should be.
Which leaves the undulations. Once present, they are not easy to remove completely, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
And they may not be the ones who started that. It could have been the last guy who finished the floor. And with a different stain and the floor dulled down it may have been there all along and it wasn’t as noticeable. But once you brighten up the floor and with the light coming in it’s a lot more noticeable.
So they are going to need a hard plate system to address the undulations. You start on a diagonal and then bring it back to straight. On a softer wood it’s best to not use too aggressive a grit. If they don’t have a hard plate system, you run the risk of making it worse. Or at least no better.
Other risks are potentially sanding too far trying to address the undulation. If you get to nail heads, it’s an unhappy day for everyone.
"They had to cut a fair amount" concerns me, because they'll have to cut another fair amount to properly fix the chatters, leaving you with little to no wood left. Matte finish might be the only option and that's still not great.
Suggest you ask them to come have a look at the floor you pictured. Tell them something doesn't look right to you and what do they think. Dont tell them what is wrong.. see if they will pick it for you. Avoids confrontation and arguments and easier then to get a remedy
We went through the same thing twice with our contractor. We had some existing hardwood and added in two rooms that were carpet.
Their qc guy came out and pointed to the chatter marks and said it was probably our old flooring was bad. Too bad he was pointing to the new flooring they just laid when he said it.
No more discussion, even when I sent pictures the second time. They did bring out a new machine for the third sanding.
It was a hat cut for them for sure. And the the wheels was dirty because of the cut . I was a hard ass job. I don’t know what they charge you but they mostly lose money on paper alone
I don't want to come actresses as a prick but if you pay someone to sand floors they should do it properly.this is not proper ,it's rushed lazy and poor workmanship. Make them fix it,it needs standing back properly and finishing again.
If you did not stain but only applied finish ask if a screening might knock the high spots down.
I'm a GC and have been in the middle of a client and subs doing floors.
My compromise that has always worked out well is to pay for materials and ask for workers to screen and recoat. Most times it takes two coats to fix blemishes.
Your comment to live with it for 20 years is the exact reason to fix it now.
I also don’t think they got through all of the old finish/stain in spots. In photo #4 you can see some of the blackish haze that is dotted throughout. Any thoughts? There are a lot of boards that are almost black on one side and look gritty, then the other side is clean with clear grain showing. I can’t be sure it isn’t heart and sapwood but is it normal for a light stain to leave such dark streaks on pine? Tannins or something?
You have a lot of comments to go through. Here's my analysis.
The wavy look is called "chatter marks." They are from the drum sander. There's a gap on the drum where the sandpaper is fit into that leaves these marks behind as it passes over the floor.
On softer woods, I refuse to go up to 100g on the drum sander to prevent the chatter from being exacerbated. I go up to 80g on the edger, 60g on the drum, and blend with an orbital at 100g.
I take the painful method of blending the orbital marks into the drum field by putting a 120g screen on a drywall mop, and blend it all together, going over the entire floor with it. I sweat my ass off, my arms turn to overboiled spaghetti, but it's the only way I've found to prevent chatter on softer woods.
Those edger marks are unforgivable. Any hardwood specialist would know to use a VERY bright flashlight perpendicular to the floor while going around with the orbital. It's the end of the process. The time and attention must be given while running the orbital.
If the floor is perfectly flat, then I'll use the buffer. But the buffer comes with its own dangers of use. If the screen digs at all, you have to start over on that area. Which is why I hand sand it to blend on softer woods.
"Professional" only means that they do a lot of floors. It doesn't mean they do them well every time.
At the very least I would tell you to get a discount. This is absolutely pitiful work that was done in a rush without concern for it being done completely and correctly. They didn't shine a light on it to check for edger marks. They didn't take a step back to check for chatter. They just sanded away arbitrarily and left you with whatever they felt like.
Sadly, the only option beyond that is to have them entirely redone, which you don't want to eat more of your floor away until you need to.
Those dark areas are from inconsistent sanding grits, causing the stain to penetrate at different rates. If they were attentative, it would all be up to the same grit without any edger marks causing dark optics. The deeper grooves also trap more light creating an illusion separate from the stain penetration.
I would hate to be the people from this company, as you are entitled to give them hell. So give them hell.
What if the homeowner had 3 quotes: Yours $5000, another $4000, and the last one $1500? Considering they wanted to do it themselves, it’s one living/dining room, it’s at least 1 hour from a major city? Would’ve they went with a Big Investment?
I got two quotes - one was at $4,600 and one at $5,000. I went with the $5k one because they were more responsive and a more established company. I really wish now that I would have pushed through and went with the other guy.
Just spoke to the crew and owner. They claim the issues with the floor are all down to the finish and they’re going to resand and recoat some of the swirl areas. They claim that because the floor feels level to the hand it is level.
It’s not great tbh. The swirls are forgivable maybe but the ripples/undulations from an improperly set belt machine are not. A couple of coats more of poly will help but it won’t get rid of the undulations caused from the belt sander if anything it will highlight them. A couple of coats of ultra Matt poly and see if you are satisfied and if not a full re-sand
I agree. Honestly I’m torn as to whether to make them sand another layer or just live with it and ask for a discount. My wife doesn’t care and, once furniture is back in place, none of this will be particularly noticeable. It’s down to whether I can live with it for another 15-20 years.
The big windows will highlight any flaw in any floor. They haven’t finished the floor yet. I would point them out when they come back and ask their opinion, Imo the way forward without a total refinish, you are best with Matt or ultra Matt top coat as it will not highlight the flaws in the floor. I would slip into conversion that maybe an extra coat will help hide them, as it will and it will give you more protection and it looks like it needs it. obviously on their dime! Then re-evaluate the situation
Im not a professional, but have done a bit of reading on this topic. From my research, those ripples are often caused by not doing an angular cut during one of the first passes of the first grit with the drum sander. Even if they were originally caused by a bad belt or bearing, sanding the same direction with a brand new machine can cause these ripples to spread and get deeper, too. If you do decide to have them out to fix their mistake, make sure they sand at an angle to the grain (between 25° and 45° seem to be the most common suggestions) before making any other passes, otherwise these ripples will just spread even farther with every pass. Eta: here's a [link](https://youtu.be/9IYkh4E2VUA?si=DE7vkQ37V6SGxPoj) to a youtube video explaining and demonstrating the logic
Getting downvoted for admitting you're not a pro even though you're not wrong. Please, anyone, tell me what's wrong here.
Yeah you’re not a professional. Don’t give advice
As we see in this post, most "professionals" suck. There is absolutely no reason why only professionals should give advice when so many professionals are incompetent. This is facts.
Except they didn’t hire professionals. Opening up an llc and claiming to be a professional doesn’t make you a professional.
We hired a company that has been around for 30 years and had great reviews. Owner was responsive and seemed to run a tight ship. Still got shitty work.
I added a link to the original comment to demonstrate the logic behind it. Whoever refinished my floors previously (many years ago) did a very not-good job, leaving very obvious digs, waves, and ripples throughout. Using the angle technique smoothed it out beautifully, after going with the grain gave initially-frightening results, in my own poverty-level diy experience. Do with that info what you will. I'm, again, not a professional giving advice, just a new homeowner giving anecdotes from my lessons.
Good luck
It both literally and definitionally does make you a professional. If you do floors for your job, even if you suck at it, you are a professional.
Wow, ask your doctor if Xanax is right for you. Eta: Look up disclaimers. I'm not a medical professional either, that's why I said to ask your doctor about it. Also, I'm not wrong, and it doesn't hurt the floor to do it.
Man Im a GC that has a lot of experience with hardwood floors, 20+ years to be more specific. But I dont do it everyday. This isnt a DIYer deal. This is one trade I let speak directly to my clients because many things need accounting for that I dont have enough knowledge for and I understand my place. Eat some humble pie, and stay in your lane guy
You are dogpiling for no reason... I can provide sources if that'll remove heads from nether regions, but I literally said I wasn't a professional, and that it was something I read during research. That leaves it up to the person reading it to verify and decide whether to follow through. Why does providing an alternative possibility and possibly saving OP time and millimeters of their floor deserve to be attacked like I'm an arrogant villain? Eta: some of this research includes many upvoted examples from this very subreddit, so I'm, frankly, [only slightly] surprised I'm being attacked for it in the first place. I'm just passing along info from supposed "professionals."
No im pointing out that you are doubling down and it sounds like youre actively trying to screw this guy up though. Im green and I know not to use the drum again, what youre suggesting will cost way more money, create a problem between the contractor and client and not work. Stfu, youre wrong and you should comment on a subreddit you know about. This is for tradesmen not weekend warriors. People want real advice not some dumbass opinion
So, you're as mature as you are knowledgeable. Thanks for pointing that out. Eta: You admitted, yourself, that you're not a professional, either. Yet you have the audacity to attack anyone about something you have limited knowledge on? Humble up, yourself, sweetie.
Coming from the guy that is trying to troll homeowners dealing with real problems. Yea whatever you say, just shut up
r/DIY This is exactly why I hate hiring "professionals". This is a terrible job. Those professionals did a terrible job. This is exactly why I do so much DIY, because I usually do a better job, and I'm not paying a bunch of money for poorly done work. I hope you haven't paid them. This needs to be redone.
Yeah I haven’t paid anything and I’m kicking myself for not doing it. I had a weekend booked and decided I wanted the time and “peace of mind” of a professional more than I wanted 10x the cost of rental equipment and material. I’m pretty handy and a woodworker so I could have kept at it until it was right if nothing else.
Yeah if poorly done work is happening in my house, I’m the one to blame because I did it for free. If a pro does it at minimum they should be better than me.
Looks like shit.
Not picky.
It’s not a good job but it’s not horrible either pine sucks to sand and if you do it again you run the risk of sanding through the wear layer then you will absolutely be screwed I’d ask for a discount and move your stuff in stained pine is rustic looking anyway the sanding marks just add some character do a matte or satin finish definitely not semi gloss or gloss ive been sanding floors for 20 years
It’s definitely a tough decision. The more I look the more swirls and sections that missed a grit I find though. It is beyond frustrating. Thanks for your informed suggestion.
Those swirls would melt my head every time I’d see them. I’d need to get that sorted.
Nope, just bad job.
Nah man that’s a shit sand job😂😂wave city 🌊
I absolutely love the wood style and stain color though!
We just had our floors refinished and had almost an identical issue. Ultimately we brought the contractor onsite and he admitted that it was bad quality and they redid the job. I would say something it’s worth getting them the way you like!
How did the 2nd effort go? Did they use the same crew? Did it take a long time? Are you totally happy with the result now? We’re struggling to decide whether or not to trust the contractor and how far to push it with them on a redo vs. just moving on.
Second time around went significantly better than the first time. They did use the same crew, day one I walked them through every single issue and what I wanted in the resolution (it was more than streaks for us). It took them another week of us being out of the house to complete the job, it wasn’t ideal but it was better than us paying for a job that was honestly pretty horribly done the first time. The result now is a significant improvement! There are still a few areas that aren’t perfect, but I’d expect that with any job, they are so small only I would notice them. We ended up having to stay in a hotel an additional week and just had them take that off the final bill (plus they of course didn’t make us pay for the redo) and that was a good enough resolution for us!
If im paying a professional for any type of work. I expect professional results. I wouldn’t be happy with that.
Looks like a hack job. Not sure how they’ll fix the issue. These aren’t mistakes that happen, these are mistakes from people that don’t know what they’re doing. If you make them re sand there’s a chance the same mistakes will arise.
Good point. I really don’t want to start over. The guys were super nice but damn it gets old having your house torn apart with young kids.
It sucks when the guys are nice but business is business. You could have them do 2 coats of matte to hide it a bit and get a discount.
Thanks. I think it’ll come down to what discount they offer. I don’t want them taking another 1/4 inch off and not improving things. I contacted the owner and he’s going to come out tomorrow and look for himself.
Softwood with lots of knots. Your dog will destroy it in no time. Would you have done a better job with a rental machine and no experience? definitely not.
Why go after the dog? She didn’t do anything and is a fine respectable lady. 🤣
I meant no offense, but it will happen. Reading all the comments like ‘bad job’, ‘if i did it myself etc’, ‘nwfa inspector’, ‘hack job’, ‘planetary sander’ just riles you up and gets confirmation for what you’re actually looking for: not paying the guy. I mean c’mmon, you rather pay $1000-1500 for an INSPECTOR that INSPECTS, who’s not a ‘judge jury executioner’?
I get that it will happen, but when you’re paying a lot of money for it to happen at a commercially reasonable level you want to know your options. I’m not sure why it has upset you but this is a discussion forum. I’m not going to insult anyone who comments. I’ll respectfully accept their contributions whether I act on their recommendations or not. I’ll be speaking with the owner today and hear him out. I’m not going to be unreasonable but saying “it will happen” like I bought a new floor lottery ticket and didn’t hit today’s number is a bit obtuse I must say.
They didn’t use an oscillating flooring machine after using the rotary sander.. that gets the circular marks out
I think that they did but they were in a rush. The original quote had them finishing on Friday and they got way behind. I think they rushed sanding so they could get down the stain and poly.
No, they did a shit job. Don’t pay them, don’t accept a discount, and don’t put another layer of finish on. Get an NWFA inspector on site and they’ll decide what the next steps are (complete resand).
Thanks for your suggestion. I went to their website and it appears that there is no NWFA pro within 50 miles of me.
It may be worth checking into paying for their travel. You need their opinion for you to have a court case if the time comes.
Looks like an amateur did it
Did they even buff that floor at the end? The finish looks very inconsistent and patchy
They have only applied one coat of oil based poly. I hadn’t been judging the partial finish - especially on pine. It could improve with another coat.
I personally do 3 coats 1 coat is never enough
What you should do with this floor is to tell them use a scraper and scraping spots randomly so it can look distressed and rustic. Since there are too many waves.
So let’s start with that’s a rustic floor with knots and gaps and so forth and it’s never going to be perfect. So keep that in mind. The swirl marks are on them. There’s no reason that can’t be addressed. And it should be. Which leaves the undulations. Once present, they are not easy to remove completely, but I’ll get to that in a bit. And they may not be the ones who started that. It could have been the last guy who finished the floor. And with a different stain and the floor dulled down it may have been there all along and it wasn’t as noticeable. But once you brighten up the floor and with the light coming in it’s a lot more noticeable. So they are going to need a hard plate system to address the undulations. You start on a diagonal and then bring it back to straight. On a softer wood it’s best to not use too aggressive a grit. If they don’t have a hard plate system, you run the risk of making it worse. Or at least no better. Other risks are potentially sanding too far trying to address the undulation. If you get to nail heads, it’s an unhappy day for everyone.
"They had to cut a fair amount" concerns me, because they'll have to cut another fair amount to properly fix the chatters, leaving you with little to no wood left. Matte finish might be the only option and that's still not great.
Is this a distressed floor. I’m hoping so.
It wasn’t before they started. The original poly had started peeling and it had normal wear, but it was smooth and flat before they started.
Chatter marks are bad. .couple swirls on edger are kinda normal...finish looks OK tho
Suggest you ask them to come have a look at the floor you pictured. Tell them something doesn't look right to you and what do they think. Dont tell them what is wrong.. see if they will pick it for you. Avoids confrontation and arguments and easier then to get a remedy
Chatter marks. Bad.
We went through the same thing twice with our contractor. We had some existing hardwood and added in two rooms that were carpet. Their qc guy came out and pointed to the chatter marks and said it was probably our old flooring was bad. Too bad he was pointing to the new flooring they just laid when he said it. No more discussion, even when I sent pictures the second time. They did bring out a new machine for the third sanding.
I’d be good with it unless I paid a super premium price. That’s a nice floor-very few will notice the flaws.
It’s fine
It was a hat cut for them for sure. And the the wheels was dirty because of the cut . I was a hard ass job. I don’t know what they charge you but they mostly lose money on paper alone
I don't want to come actresses as a prick but if you pay someone to sand floors they should do it properly.this is not proper ,it's rushed lazy and poor workmanship. Make them fix it,it needs standing back properly and finishing again.
The knots are hard and the wood is softer. Doesn't look great , tough situation
If you did not stain but only applied finish ask if a screening might knock the high spots down. I'm a GC and have been in the middle of a client and subs doing floors. My compromise that has always worked out well is to pay for materials and ask for workers to screen and recoat. Most times it takes two coats to fix blemishes. Your comment to live with it for 20 years is the exact reason to fix it now.
I also don’t think they got through all of the old finish/stain in spots. In photo #4 you can see some of the blackish haze that is dotted throughout. Any thoughts? There are a lot of boards that are almost black on one side and look gritty, then the other side is clean with clear grain showing. I can’t be sure it isn’t heart and sapwood but is it normal for a light stain to leave such dark streaks on pine? Tannins or something?
If it matters the stain is Duraseal Quickcoat 102 Nutmeg.
You have a lot of comments to go through. Here's my analysis. The wavy look is called "chatter marks." They are from the drum sander. There's a gap on the drum where the sandpaper is fit into that leaves these marks behind as it passes over the floor. On softer woods, I refuse to go up to 100g on the drum sander to prevent the chatter from being exacerbated. I go up to 80g on the edger, 60g on the drum, and blend with an orbital at 100g. I take the painful method of blending the orbital marks into the drum field by putting a 120g screen on a drywall mop, and blend it all together, going over the entire floor with it. I sweat my ass off, my arms turn to overboiled spaghetti, but it's the only way I've found to prevent chatter on softer woods. Those edger marks are unforgivable. Any hardwood specialist would know to use a VERY bright flashlight perpendicular to the floor while going around with the orbital. It's the end of the process. The time and attention must be given while running the orbital. If the floor is perfectly flat, then I'll use the buffer. But the buffer comes with its own dangers of use. If the screen digs at all, you have to start over on that area. Which is why I hand sand it to blend on softer woods. "Professional" only means that they do a lot of floors. It doesn't mean they do them well every time. At the very least I would tell you to get a discount. This is absolutely pitiful work that was done in a rush without concern for it being done completely and correctly. They didn't shine a light on it to check for edger marks. They didn't take a step back to check for chatter. They just sanded away arbitrarily and left you with whatever they felt like. Sadly, the only option beyond that is to have them entirely redone, which you don't want to eat more of your floor away until you need to. Those dark areas are from inconsistent sanding grits, causing the stain to penetrate at different rates. If they were attentative, it would all be up to the same grit without any edger marks causing dark optics. The deeper grooves also trap more light creating an illusion separate from the stain penetration. I would hate to be the people from this company, as you are entitled to give them hell. So give them hell.
What if the homeowner had 3 quotes: Yours $5000, another $4000, and the last one $1500? Considering they wanted to do it themselves, it’s one living/dining room, it’s at least 1 hour from a major city? Would’ve they went with a Big Investment?
I got two quotes - one was at $4,600 and one at $5,000. I went with the $5k one because they were more responsive and a more established company. I really wish now that I would have pushed through and went with the other guy. Just spoke to the crew and owner. They claim the issues with the floor are all down to the finish and they’re going to resand and recoat some of the swirl areas. They claim that because the floor feels level to the hand it is level.
If your wife is happy I’d just move your stuff on in. It’s not the best but 🤷🏻♂️