Some of those are drastically excessive in my opinion and would warrant something other than filler. That base moulding should have been pulled the flooring installed and then the base moulding replaced. Who did the install on this? My opinion is most of this is poor install.

A general contractor. what can be done to fix these issues?

The fix is a flooring PROFESSIONAL. Sigh. GC's like to cut corners to keep money in their pockets. Flooring is a specialty - like tile setting. Almost anyone can throw up some drywall patch sand and paint it, but not everyone can install a hardwood floor. Sadly your GC is about to learn an expensive lesson.

What you can do is go around with blue painter's tape and 'tag' every single issue/gap you can find. Try your best to keep track of how many you put down. By the looks of things, you will be on hands and knees for an hour or so but it will be worth it. You will then take a picture (while standing up) of as much of the floor space you can get into the shot.

You will then send the pics to your GC with an email detailing your discomfort at leaving him to fix the gaps with caulking. By sending the pics AND a written letter you have just started a paper trail. It is the beginning of the 'case' you will make against the GC. It's not to go to court. It is to force him/her to accept the error of his/her ways and fix this properly - by using a flooring professional.

Can you send room photos? Do you have photos of the boxes? I think those planks are square edge but I can't be sure. A photo or a name/manufacturer of your product would REALLY help.

And are the planks finished in polyurethane or are they a hardwax oil finish?

grs / vidar

this is the box

and they also put this ugly trim between the kitchen tile and hardwood. they claimed that this is the only way to do it since we didnt change the tiles and the tiles are higher than the hardwood

Well the transition piece is needed. There is no doubt about that. It is a decent colour match to the wood floor. That's about as good as you will get in the flooring industry. So long as it covers the gap between one floor and the other (and yes there must be a gap) there is no complaint here. It is called a 'reducer' and it reduces the floor height difference between the higher tile and the lower wood.

How did they install the floor? Floating, nail or glue? I'm looking at the Vidar Flooring website right now (http://vidarflooring.com/en/) and the Snow Valley product is no longer listed as an active product. I always wonder how a Chinese production line gets access to American Oak (which is what they call this type of wood).

The Vidar Website has MANY spelling and grammar issues which is common when a company uses mostly Chinese products. They have their headquarters a few km from my house (and only a few blocks from where I used to work in cork flooring). The FIRST language in this area is Mandarin. The Second language is Cantonese and then somewhere in the third row language of choice is English (followed closely by Tagalog (the Philippines) and Hindi. Here's the contact information if you wish to contact them.

Call: 604-285-5862

info@vidarflooring.com

Monday-Friday: 9:00AM - 5:00PM

160-6391 Westminster Hwy, Richmond, BC V7C 4V4

Did you purchase the floor AND the install from the same company? Or did you purchase the wood yourself and then find an installer on your own?

Are you in Canada or the USA? Whereabouts (roughly)?

They nailed it and we purchased our own wood and had our GC install it. Located in Canada.

before the renos they didn't use a reducer but just the hardwood and it was sloped. I was expecting something similar to this

and at my old place and other property the reducer is not raised but same level as the hardwood and tile.

Different manufacturers/installers have different ways of going about this. You hired the GC so you have only the GC to speak with. Did you show the GC your expectations of flush transitions? Did the flooring company MAKE reducers that would sit relatively flush?

And the second photo the gray-gray transition is flush. There is no height variation there. It is called an even T-molding. The other's you are showing are either reducers OR they are UNEVEN t-moldings (which are super easy to create and are the most common and the cheapest option).

A WELL TRAINED flooring professional (I think we've established your GC did NOT hire one of those...sigh) can and will make their own. But you have to specify it AND you have to pay for it. And to be clear the flooring installer HAS TO HAVE the SKILL to do it. It cannot be some Joe swinging a hammer.

Where are you in Canada? I'm in BC...(just minutes from Vidar's address in Richmond BC). I might have some contacts you can hire to get you what you need....but at a professional's price.

I did have the conversation with him after I saw the reducers installed and told him I wanted the same as before the hardwood installation - a sloped border..but he said it's impossible because the floor tiles were done first and this is the only solution. All he knows how to say is its suppose to be like this... you don't know what you're talking about. Unfortunately I'm located in Toronto but I told them to stop all the fillers as we are extremely unhappy with what we are seeing.... right at the front door, by the steps there are huge gaps T_T

How are these installed? What I'm not see are expansion gaps at the wall. You showed a box that has 3/4" written as the thickness. That means the expansion gap at ALL vertical obstacles (walls, door jams, stair risers, etc) should be 3/4".

I'm sorry but you have more issues than the transition strips. Your transition strips are the least of your worries. How long were the floors allowed to acclimate in the house BEFORE they were installed? PLEASE tell me these floors were allowed a week at least? May be 2 wks. If you think they were NOT in the home for that length of time, ask the GC where the document for the MOISTURE READINGS is. It should make him look like a doofus when he asks YOU what that is.

If you want the GC (who is YOUR employee) to stop saying, "It's supposed to be like this" then you better get your floor inspected.

www.nwfa.org

They have inspectors listed in both the USA and Canada. I did a quick search for a small area in T.O. and it showed 8 inspectors. If I give it a wider radius I'll get as many as 15 inspectors inside of 50 miles (80 km). While you are there, go ahead and see who is a certified INSTALLER.

Your GC has 1 attempt to correct all of these issues. Once he gives it the good ol' college try, you get to find your OWN professional and have the GC pay for it....see where I'm going with this?

Confront the GC and find out WHO installed the floor (the name of the person on the crew). If it was himself, then he is going to find out how costly it is to have a bad install with a wood floor.

Again, if you are not happy with the work, you are welcome to get the flooring inspected. Most GC's understand how BAD it looks when a homeowner pays for an inspection. Because most GC's are smart enough to realize a bad report means MONEY of of their pocket AND they have to spend more TIME fixing the issues.

Hi - I’m looking to install the same colour hardwood floor as you. Would you be willing to send a picture of your space so I can get a better idea of the colour?

HI Where did you purchase your floors from

Natasha not sure if you have already purchased the flooring. I chose this brand and re did my whole place I would not recommend it. The brand is Vidar also labeled as american oak and formally GRS. The quality is terrible. I regret it completely and if I could go back I would have spent more money and gotten something that was a higher quality.

I had Pergo Laminate flooring installed in my kitchen about 10 years ago. They no longer fabricate this color/style Pergo and It buts up to my hallway. I had my hallway redone in porcelain wood tile and had my carpenter fabricate a transition piece. I attached 3 photos of the piece.
Your wood floor installation was poorly done. The gaps are awful. Moldings should always be removed prior to any floor tile installation. Best of luck in getting that fixed. Show your GC all our comments, and see what he has to say after reading them.

Thats one terrible job, they can not be real floor guys. Just fly by night guys. Its not normal to have ANY gaps like that and their cuts are terrible…rushing…doesnt even go under your baseboard! My dad is a home builder and weve built 3 custom homes ourselves