Hi,

I live in a Boston 100 year old triple decker, and just had 2 bedroom floors refinished. The contractor was 'A' rated on Angies list and gave me a good quote $560 for 2 beds (each 11x11 square rooms with 1 tiny closet each). Quote included stripping floors, 1 coat oil primer, 2 coats oil satin finish. (no furniture moving, no stains, no fixing/patching of floor).

At the end of the job, I noticed that in both rooms, there are a number (6+ in each room) of circular sanding/buffing scratches (approx 6 inch arcs) visible to the ***** eye. And, in 1 bedroom, there were significant scratches in the finish (see link below).

I didn't want them to come back (for fear of even more problems), so I negotiated payment of $400. The proprietor wasn't happy, saying that this wouldn't cover their costs, but I felt that an 'A' rated Angies list contractor should provide quality results, regardless of cost.

So, 3 questions:

1-Was I completely unrealistic about the quality and cost?
2-How do I remove the finish scratches?
3-Can I remove the sanding scratches without redoing the entire floor?

Thanks in advance...

Jen

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Just because they were rated A on a list, does not mean that they are good at what they do.

It will cost more to fix these scratches then it did to sand the floor for the origional amount. Reason being the new finish is soft and will be for a fairly long time. This makes re-sanding very difficult as it will plug the paper very quick.

It appears that you have pine floors not oak or some other hardwood. The sanding contractor should have used a fine finish sandpaper on the last pass to remove the scratches caused by the sander. A disk sanding unit would have been the better choice to remove the scratches. While its difficult to remove all scratches they may have be able to do a better job. This comes from experiance and using better tools.
When you have a large surface such as a floor and put a glossy finish on it. It will show up every dent, ding and detail such as scratches.

So to answer your questions.
1. The cost was fine, It was the lack of experiance that caused the lower quality in your case.
2. You need to strip that area and re-sand out the scratches. There is no way of hiding them unless you put down a rug.
3. You may be able to re-sand just the areas that are bad, but with soft floor you may end up doing the entire floor. Which is what you should plan for.