Bad Floor Job by Seller?

Question

Hi All,

As stated above, I am buying a 2 unit house from a seller who is a contractor. He renovated the 1st floor beautifully. I will be living in the second, and he agreed to sand and stain the 2nd floor hardwood in the same fashion as the first floor. Our close date is 1-week away. I don't want to hold up the deal for petty items, but the seller's agent disagrees that there is anything wrong with the staining job upstairs. To me, it looks filled with streaks and patches and discoloration - brush streaks maybe? I'd like the BP community's opinion on the job - am I nitpicking? See photos.

Russell Brazil · Answer

This actually is the exact reason buyers should not request repairs, nor should sellers do repairs as part of a home purchase. The quality of any repair is always going to be something of a subjective nature.  Only concrete things like dollar amount credits should ever be used to avoid disputes like this.

Jim S. · Answer

I agree. Bad stain job. Either they redo it which may end up another poor job. (contractors are the worst sellers) my opinion. Or have them lower the price and you hire it done. Then you will get a quality job.

Daniel Hennek · Answer

Pretty much what Tim said but I'll take it a step further.

The light spots could be areas that were sanded more than the darker areas. More sanding means you get closer to the original wood color because stains only penetrate so far.  Then when you put down new stain it makes the spots where you did more sanding lighter in color.  Sanding is by far the most important job when refinishing a wood floor and if it was done correctly there would be no lighter areas.  You just keep working that sander until it's even.  I agree with Tim that they did a bad job sanding.

It could have been a previous surfacing job and the new contractor just didn't sand it enough, and didn't see it.  Either way this is absolutely a poor refinishing job because they COULD have made it look like downstairs with more work.  Maybe the downstairs was in better shape and didn't need as much attention to detail.

In any case this would be unacceptable for me.  Almost any wood floor can be refinished properly if it's done correctly; that is part of the beauty of wood.  My guess is that the contractor doing it just didn't see what was going to happen when stain was applied, but that's the most important thing you pay any woodworker for, knowing how it's going to turn out and making sure it does.

The seller stating that the wood "appears to be white oak" is just a line to try and smooth over the situation and I find it funny.  There are very few people that can actually tell the difference between white oak and red oak before its stained, and after they are stained it's even harder.  The grain lines are pretty bold all over the place so it all looks like red oak to me.  I am a hobby woodworker with quite a large wood shop and have done lots of fine wood work projects that require excellent finishes.  I can tell you that people who aren't wood workers (even contractors) very rarely know the difference between red oak and white oak so for them to respond like that is just grasping for straws because they likely have no real experience with red oak vs white oak.

They didn't sand enough, that's really all that happened.  Well, that and the person in charge doesn't have a good enough eye to be refinishing wood at a high level.  If they sanded more they'd get it even.  Again, that's part of the beauty of wood, just keep sanding.  It's hard work so its often an area where people give up and or take short cuts and that seems like exactly what happened here.

The fact that the floor has been "refinished, stained, sealed" numerous times is not an issue because guess what....you can just sand through it all! That's why there are lighter areas, because all of the stain/sealer was sanded through.  So their reasons are all a bunch of crap because yes you absolutely can make that floor appear brand new.  They are just making stuff up to support their case.

Tim Johnson · Answer

That's sanding marks.  They skipped a step in the process.  They probably didn't do the final finish sand.  Is the floor rough at all?   They also could of sanded in the opposite direction of the planks and the wood grain opened up more in spots letting more stain in spots vs others.

Bjorn Ahlblad · Answer

@Alexander Nason looks like a higher end place.........from the pics I would want the floor redone the stain has been very unevenly applied.

Nathan Gesner · Answer

It's decent flooring but it is not to the same standard as the main floor. I suspect a different person worked on the second floor or they were just took shortcuts. If the agreement was that they refinish the floors like they did the downstairs, I would require them to do it again.

Jim S. · Answer

It's all BS double talk. If you can see sanding marks, it was a POOR sanding job. Either inexperience or cutting to big of corners to same money. Very common when contractors and paying the bill. I just refinished a hardwood floor. I did it as suggested. Didn't cut any corners. VERY time consuming. 7 hours of sanding a 12 x 15 room. And the floor wasn't that bad as compared to some.

Mine turned out AWESOME.

Daniel Hennek · Answer

Wisely stated.

Tim Johnson · Answer

i think you made the right call, its a bedroom and most of the floors get covered by the bed and dresser so overall your not really even going to see it.

Bad Floor Job by Seller?

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