If you think they will respect the flooring ... you're wrong!
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If you think they will respect the flooring ... you're wrong!
Clifford and I worked our backsides off on this job just to have the other trades trash it during the punch list. When we got there it was so dirty you could barely see the floor. This was the thermo-treated maple job that was without any doubt the toughest floor we have sanded. Why, you may ask. Go ahead, ask. Well, the flooring showed every scratch from the big machine to the hand sanding; it was like sanding plastic.
Now I am not selling this, but if this finish were anything other than Monocoat it would have had to be resanded. It was 1,600 feet of beat-up nasty dirt and grit (with a twist of dumb as a box of rocks in the dark). When we got to the job we were thinking, no big deal-just a clean up and vac. Not even close!Look at the photo of before and after we got done with it. The homeowner was sick when he called us, but when we got done, he was just overjoyed. He said they can slide around in their sock feet again. I took the first photo after we cleaned it so you could see at least the wood, then we did the real cleaning. We use the auto scrubber on the floor twice after we vacuumed it a bunch. Then we buffed the Refresh into the flooring, and folks, it came back to life! We used a white pad to buff it in and a cloth towel to do the last buff. I took my wax floor attitude to it, making the floor get a nice shine.
I am glad it is done, and now the real battle: This is not a free job! Someone-I hope the builder-has to eat the bill. We were called by the homeowner to do this job. The builder's floor guy had no idea how to sand the floor, and they knew it. More than once I gave his crews the boot off the floor and at one point I told him to get off my floor. That went over like a frog in the punch bowl ... he said, "This is my job," and I said, "Not as long as I have the key to the house." So I think that is why he let the trades go hog wild, just to get even. The homeowner is holding funds back on the last payment to the builder-it is never good to upset the floor man! They are ready not to give him his last draw just to pay for our work. It is good to have the homeowner on your side; they hold the strings to the money.
On to the next job and boy, is it a task. The crawl space is in the mid 80s for RH and the homeowner will not believe me that the floor will cup. He said that the felt paper will stop it and to prove his point he took a roll, cut it and put water in it for three days. He said, "See, no water can pass." Well, it is not water, it is RH, and in time the water will soak through. It is 3" hickory flooring over 1/2-inch ply with #30 felt. We ripped out the pressboard, added 5/8-inch ply and Aquabar. It is a floor looking to blow up! We came to an agreement that "if" it goes bad Cardinal Hardwood has nothing to do with it-NOTHING!
Some folks just do not understand and won't understand. He is taking some things to heart, he closed the vents and is putting in a dehumidifier after the fact. I told them that we should wait, because now the flooring is going to shrink. Oh well, time will tell the story.
That is about it for now. We have got work for a few weeks and are thanking God for every one. Oh, and I almost forgot: We did hit a nice milestone-the 300th job done in our short time of doing this. I got to thinking about it, and it is cool.