Floor job - new wood planks don't match old, looks bad - what do I do now

My contractor used new pine to complete the kitchen floor when we opened up an air shaft for a bigger kitchen space, and the new pine doesn’t match the old pine in a 125 year old brownstone. his flooring guy has come and gone and the result looks ridiculous, he didn’t try to use reclaimed pine of a similar era or stain the new pine before or after the floors were done. Hopefully I’ve included a link to photos/a photo. The old floors look great, but under and in front of the fridge is a pastiche of new/old interlocking and other than a conversation piece, I see no reason not to fix this. My contractor has said “there’s no way around this” since they wanted to be sure to use new pine since the old planks are pine. The first thing a neighbor and a friend asked was, why didn’t they stain the new planks? And I had no answer. I didn’t think to make sure the contract (which is for a kitchen/HVAC/exterior job) specified that the wood floor wouldn’t look silly when done. Can I ask my contractor to fix this or do I have to find someone to fix it? I’ve steadily reduced this GC’s scope of work as things like this come up and I don’t want to use him ever again, I’m not impressed, we have too many misunderstandings that I’ve had to pay to fix, and I’d rather use someone who is more receptive and responsive. So I’m just trying to get through this job and move on, but don’t want to burn bridges with him as he’s the recommended GC of our architect who is a friend of a friend. This is not going to be my “team” again. In other words, I am not confident his “fix” would look good and don’t want to pay him more. I have a floor guy I could ask, figured I’d ask on this forum too.

jeanmarine2

in Renovation 12 years ago

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cate | 12 years ago

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If it’s true all you need to do is stain the new to match the old, then apply poly, this is a very simple and small job any experienced floor guy can handle. Even if the GC should have done this himself, it will be a relatively easy fix.

jacksonnel1 | 12 years ago

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even if he were receptive to it, the fact that he sees no way around it makes me question his abilities in this particular area of work

brucef | 12 years ago

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I didn’t see any pic’s, so I have to guess what it looks like. Any chance you can go with something completely different and make it look like it was “supposed”to be that way? I’m thinking ceramic tile with a border?

Goatcrapp | 12 years ago

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Well, as you mentioned – even if he were receptive to it, the fact that he sees no way around it makes me question his abilities in this particular area of work, so i’m not sure i’d let him touch it anyways. If you have a competent flooring guy, this is one of those “i do this all the time” jobs for them. You will be, at least temporarily, out of pocket for the services, and adjusting your final payment to this GC accordingly. Keep in mind that if he’s not receptive to *that* idea either, you could wind up in a legal battle with him. Frankly, if it were me, i wouldn’t be too concerned about burning bridges or the shared friend of a friendship, because he (the gc) obviously isn’t concerned about it. I’d be kicking him off the project entirely – but then again, i’m a hothead when it comes to disrespectful or shoddy work. either way – I’m not sure i’d let him touch the flooring anymore – he’s already demonstrated the best of his ability, and it’s lacking, at least for flooring.

jeanmarine2 | 12 years ago

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what if I’ve already paid for sanding and 2-3 coats of urethane as part of the contractor’s bigger job and he’s washing his hands of it beyond this strange job? I have my own flooring guy coming to take a look tomorrow and to let me know what it would cost to fix it, so do I just hire my guy to fix it and offset against monies due on completion? I am really not interested in spending all this time and money finding matching stain, renting a sander, when we already had it done, just badly – I’m not a DIY person on that level, and that’s why I hired a GC to handle this job professionally, and paid him over a thousand to refinish the floors (more than I’d have paid my own floor guy directly). What’s my recourse?

Goatcrapp | 12 years ago

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I’ve mixed new with old wood. Going by the pics – it’s a relatively simle fix – not sure why your contractor is indicating there’s no way around it, unless he’s misunderstanding what you want. The fix for that is a simple sand and stain. The expertise comes in in choosing the right stains to blend to match. You want to sand the old wood as well (not all of it, just feather it out a foot+ in each direction, so that when it’s all stained together the inevitable variation in color won’t be so crisp or obvious. Also – when i’ve mixed old and new before, i always taken up older slats and alternated them when i layed it back down, so that a new piece was abutted by older pieces. More work, but after a sand and stain, i’d challenge any pro to tell me which is the new wood vs the old without digging out fiber samples. If you’re handy, this is very doable yourself – a floor sander rental runs about 25-35 per day + sanding discs. Stain is cheap, but you shouldl get several variations on color and be prepared to experiment a little to get it as close as possible. (I buy extra wood to color match before putting it on the floor)