Solid Hardwood, Engineered and Laminate Flooring - newly installed hardwood

I recently purchased a new home and had the builder install 3/4" hardwood in the living and dining rooms and foyer. From a distance, the floor looks great, but while closely examining the floor, I noticed there were two places where the floor bulged/buckled and numerous cracks in the end pieces of the hardwood ( I assume they cut them with a dull blade). The floor squeaked at almost every doorway, and putty was placed in many of the grooves (I realize you can use putty, but it doesn't match and there is a lot of it and it would come out if you scratched it with your nail). What concerned me the most about the floor is the fact the some of the pieces are not flush, i.e., the end of one board isn't quite level with where the other board ends. My husband actually tripped on one piece that has since been replaced. The builder does not feel the floor needs to be replaced. They sent someone who replaced a few of the boards and screwed in the squeaky boards, but there was too much work and they have to return to finish the job. The floor was stapled in (you can see the end pieces in the basement).

I am unfamiliar with hardwood installation techniques. Are these problems something I should be worried about, and although they are being fixed by the builder, can the problems resurface 5-10 years down the road?
Any suggestions or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Genevieve

Genevieve, I'm assuming that this is a prefinished floor. Generally industry standard for overwood (height differences between boards) is the thickness of a credit card. If the overwood is outside of this tollerance there is either a manufacturers defect (bad milling) or the wood was not acclimated properly.

BTW- slight overwood on end joints is pretty common with some prefinished hardwood.

Scott Stephens
http://www.stephensfloor.com

Thanks for the reply Scott, especially the "credit card" reference. The floor is prefinished Bruce oak hardwood but I am not sure of the grade. The hardwood installer called last night and said he will be coming in to replace more of the boards. In the living room, a 6' portion needs to be ripped out because the boards were bowed/bulged (apparently the original installer never secured/leveled the subflooring in that spot).

What's funny is that while talking to the installer last night, he also mentioned something about the numerous problems resulting from the boards not being acclimated to the inside temperatures.

BTW -In the future, we plan on installing hardwood in other portions of the house and will probably install unfinished wood because someone suggested that you can lightly sand overwood areas.

Thanks again : )
Genevieve

I was surprised by this "credit card" standard.

I installed 600 square feet of Robbins prefinished oak last year. It was my first and only such experience (i.e., I'm an amateur). Robbins isn't a particularly highly rated flooring, and I didn't even buy their best stuff.

But the amount of overwood in my floor is just about zero. Most boards have no height difference to the adjacent board (i.e., you can't even find it with your fingertips). Even the worst differences, and there are very few, are less than the thickness of a sheet of cheap paper.

And the ends of the pieces were T&G too. So those joints are no worse than anywhere else. I don't see how a dull blade could cause problems, since none of the boards I put down were cut except at the end against the wall.

Maybe the "credit card" test is the accepted limit before replacement is warranted, but I don't think people would be installing much prefinished flooring if this limit was typical.

Comments, Scott?

John, yep, that's exactly right.

Scott Stephens
http://www.stephensfloor.com

Accroding to the retailers and installers around here...Bruce sucks!

Everyone is dropping Bruce or already has. Robbins is the installers choice around here.

Well...I have yet another question. The replies I have gotten so far have been helpful, so I thought I would post another question relating to my original post.

A person came today to repair the prefinished hardwood floors, replacing a fair number of boards. This is the second time someone has come out. The first gentleman who came nailed the replacement boards, but my husband told me that the person who came today glued the replacement boards in to the subflooring.

I have done a little research at the Bruce floors website, and I was under the impression that 3/4" finished floors were supposed to be nailed in, not glued in. Is my assumption correct??

Thanks in advance,

Genevieve