It has been a week-plus with no post—nothing from me. This job and the super-high moisture has been my only concern for the past week. I asked for advice and got more of what I now call "the three words I hate," (What are they? Well, keep reading...) and I want to share my frustration.
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It has been a week-plus with no post—nothing from me. This job and the super-high moisture has been my only concern for the past week. I asked for advice and got more of what I now call "the three words I hate," (What are they? Well, keep reading...) and I want to share my frustration.
If we read most of the information provided to us on the Internet by wood flooring manufacturers, there is no way wood flooring should ever be installed. I was reading a warranty on a wood floor (factory finish) and the 50-year warranty is void if the RH gets above 50% or below 30%. It also says the timeline for acclimation is 72 hours and you are good to go.
Looked at the directions from another flooring manufacturer, it only addresses "Normal Living Conditions." It says that wood may be ready to install at the point it is dropped off, but it does not provide any insight on how to test the subfloor. In bold print it says, "Once at the jobsite, the wood should be set indoors and spread over the subfloor. About four days should pass before an installation is started." Four days is just fine, right?
Again, nowhere does it say look in the crawl space, test the subfloor from the bottom, make sure the RH below is in line. Just go with living conditions.
Craig is right in his response to my question (in the comments on the last post), the numbers do not add up, and $2,500 is a bunch to ask the homeowner to add to the cost of the wood flooring. The downside, is I cannot ask them to wait till the end of the month to find out the alternative to the big money.
When I asked if I can install the flooring, in his blog Howard stated "No"—that the 18% is the deal breaker. For that I say thank you, but do we not teach to take readings in the subfloor so we can see what we are about to deal with? I understand that if I hit a spike in the subfloor it is a clue that we have trouble. So if we should not use the averages, what should we do?
I have been under a bunch of homes. In fact I was asked if I go in every crawl space during the estimate? Yes, I do, even if folks think it is a waste of time. I want to know up front what we may face. I have told folks in the past, we will not install the flooring until they address the crawl space... I have seen mold, wet pipes, termites and very high RH.
I look at three aspects of all jobs, from new to remodel: job-site conditions, install conditions and change conditions. All three can make or break the job. If one is out of line, the other two will not correct the one. As a flooring contractor, we have to think two steps ahead. If it is an install, what are the conditions? If it is a sand and finish job, what are we about to sand off? Lead laws are in full swing.
No job has the fine print that manufactures ask for in the warranty, so this brings me to the three words I hate:
Follow manufacturer's recommendations.
The only person in the job that takes the good and bad is the flooring contractor. If it fails, then the contractor eats the funds. If the floor fails, who looks like the bad guy? The floor man.
So back to my job... the flooring is in and the crawl space is down to 52% RH. Temp is 73 and the great news is the subfloor is down to 13%; the wood is looking good. My next few blogs will be about what we did to get it down and more on the junk all over the place about a word that is so misleading: ACCLIMATION.
I do want to thank all of you for your responses to my post, I will not let this just go away. To say this as nice as I can: It is time that the floor man stops the madness and becomes so involved in the NWFA that the escape of "FOLLOW MANUFACTURER'S RECOMMENDATIONS" goes away.
