My folks (who are totally ignorant about this sort of stuff) had to totally rebuild their 80 some odd year old cottage up on the atlantic coast in maine after a bad n'oreaster damaged it beyond repair. For the most part the workmanship on the new place was superb when it was finally finished recently, but i noticed that the new oak floor that had been installed looked odd (this is an actual oak floor - not some sort of laminate or whatever). The oak strips (not sure if that's what you call them) in the floor are higher on either side of their width and lower in the center. This warping is very modest, but it's definitely noticeable and does NOT look normal. This creates a sort of subtle rippling effect in the floor, which you can even see in the right light and you can definitely feel if you run your hand over the floor. we asked the contractor - who is a very honest guy generally - about it and he said something to the effect of "well, that's something that happens sometimes out here and can't be avoided when you're so close to the water" (the place sits about 25 yards from the ocean). I was very skeptcal of his remark, but my folks basically bought it mostly because they were happy with the majority of the work and glad to be finally done with the project and able regain use of their beloved cottage. My suspicion is the contractor knows it's not right, that it didn't become apparent to him until the floor had already been installed and he realizes fixing it now would require him to rip out the entire floor and install a new one - something he obviously wants to avoid. I am pretty much a neophyte with all this too, but i do recognize something when it's wrong, and this just doesn't seem right. Any advice you can offer would be greatly appreciated - including whether this can be fixed by sanding or something short of totally ripping out and replacing..THANKS!
- posted
16 years ago