ARGH! - H

We're nearly done with our remodel, but we ran into a pretty major complication with our floor people. There's no resolution yet, but the process just started. We needed to add a section of wood to match the existing wood floor since we tore down a wall. It seems to us that they installed the wrong kind of wood since we are able to pick out every single new plank of wood in the floor. The guy said that new and old planks will take the stain differently, but frankly I believe he's lying to me. I did some research on my own and called other flooring companies to ask whether I'd be able to notice a difference if new planks were installed along side the old ones and then stained and refinished together. I also read posts on forums on the web from people who had similar work done, and every single one said that it should NOT be unnoticeable. EVERY SINGLE ONE! Literally. One person said they had 50 year old planks, refinished with 10 year old planks and new planks, and the entire floor looks new. No one could pick out the old and new planks in the floor. Consequently, this is almost exactly our situation. The existing wood is about 60 years old. A added section of the house is 10-20 years old, and some new planks had to be installed as well. The wood in the added section isn't the same though as the rest of the house, but it's a separate room, so it's not as noticeable.

Anyway, the good news is that the floor guy's boss is very reasonable and is very interested in making sure we are satisfied customers. He came and saw the floor and acknowledges that it looks bad. When I asked for some concrete evidence that the guy installed the right kind of wood, he thought that was very reasonable and is going to do that for us. There's actually a chemical test you can do to identify red and white oak which is the dispute, but I also asked for sample planks to be refinished (old with new and one of what I think is the correct type of wood) so that he can prove to me his statement that old and new planks of the same species will take stain differently.

Maybe there's something going on with the wood that makes it act differently, but I feel pretty confident that it should look seamless considering that everyone else says it should. ARGH!