Today's Soapbox: Fixing Other Contractors' Crappy Work!

You know, my friends, I really wanted to send Kim a blog about how to sand jatoba floors (Brazilian cherry). Unfortunately, I found the following issue needed my immediate attention. I promise it will be somehow connected to the jatoba floor sanding.

How many times have you heard this?

• I’ve been doing this for 30 years with no complaints.
• I’ve been sanding floors this way for 20 years and I know what I’m doing.  
• There is no such thing as dustless.
• I always start with 36.
• I don’t need a Trio/multi-disc sander.

And when there is a problem:

• It’s the finish.
• It’s the machine.
• It’s the wood.
• It’s the moisture.
• It’s the light.
• The customer is crazy.

You know what I hear? Excuses!

You know what else I hear? “It’s not me.” Those guys (and it is mostly guys) have no sense of accountability.

I don’t mind the guys and girls out there who are not skilled floor mechanics.

I don’t mind the guys and girls out there who are not skilled floor mechanics. There’s a lot of them who are not good enough and they know it. They go to classes and try to be better. Most of all, they are quiet, modest and humble. I mind the ones who are not skilled enough, take pride in their crappy work (again, like the last blog, I’m in a good mood) and try to force their horrible incorrect knowledge on others, specifically through the forums online. Those are the ones who are loud and obnoxious.

Every now and then, my crew and I get a job to fix, but this past year seems to have been the worst, at least for the homeowners who called me to fix floors. I’ve seen everything from dusty jobs to horrible sanding jobs to new installs with built-in gaps. You name it, we got it. Look at the photo below, this is the jatoba floor we were called to fix. Can you see the stop marks?

jatoba floor with sanding marks

The home owner hired what she thought was a qualified contractor. In fact, are you sitting down? The contractor insisted on moving the furniture in himself because he “didn’t trust anybody else to do the moving on his finished floor.” The floor I was handed to fix had sander marks all over, dish out (if you don’t know what dish out is, get some training, okay? And a Trio), scratches, finish streak marks, blotchiness and more. Yes, more. I’m not talking about a homeowner who looked for a bargain, no, no. I’m talking about a nice home with homeowners who expected decent quality. They told me it didn’t have to be perfect and they would be okay with the floor. They just wanted the guy to do a decent job. Sounds like easy money, right? Unfortunately, the floor was far from being decent.
Then we got the call and the contract and this is how it looked BEFORE the final coat.

 This is a jatoba floor, and I will discuss how to sand it and other exotics on the next one. Until then, if your sanding sequence is 36-80 and you don’t even know what a Festool is, do us all a favor and stay quiet.

Really quiet.