Taking a Bite of this Huge NYC Project is Risky Business

Bob Goldstein Headshot
Hf 1209 337

Hf 1209 337

You know the old saying, "Sometimes the job you turn down turns out to be the best job you never did?" Well, it's still true, but in lean times we must put aside some of our trepidations, lower the red flags, take a deep breath and proceed with the job (within reason). This is a true story that happened this year in New York City, The City That Never Sleeps. It's about a job that, ironically, made me lose plenty of sleep. All of the names have been changed to protect the innocent (and to keep me from being sued).

Down in the Village

The setting was a new high-rise condominium building on the fringe of the Village, apartments selling from a paltry $3.7 million to over $25 million. Each apartment was to receive the same wood floor, which is the norm in New York City. The specification was written by an architect who had either been sniffing too many Magic Markers or had a strange sense of humor. After winning the bid to supply the flooring and work as a consultant on the job, I was given this information at a pre-trial, er …, I mean, pre-construction meeting, verbatim: "Clear, first grade, American white oak, rift and quartered, ¾-by-3 1/4 -inch, all 4-, 5- and 6-foot lengths, no bright sap, no color variation, no knots"—no kidding. The subfloor specification was " 3/8 -inch BC plywood laid over ½-inch OSB, both laid over 1/8 –inch, closed-cell foam, free floating."

Guys, that's not what the spec was when I bid this … But, again, business hasn't been booming lately, and a 50,000-square-foot order is hard to turn down. I had a lot of questions and concerns, as you may imagine, and figured I would be able to clear things up. As it turns out, the specifications were written by both the architect and a curmudgeonly old gentlemen who, in his words, has been "in the business" in New York City forever. Now, I could go on about the meetings, arguments, cajoling, and attempts to compromise for days, but let's cut to the chase: We finally agreed on the wood specification being NOFMA select-and-better rift and quartered white oak, long lengths with no bright sap in the main living areas. Cool, I could live with that.

As for the subfloor, I had a clause put in our contract that we would not be responsible for any squeaking, tenting of the subfloor or loss of integrity over time due to seasonal movement of the flooring. The building contractor and owner signed on the dotted line after much wringing of hands and mock protest, and their "expert," while patting me on the shoulder, assured me that the OSB wouldn't be a problem.

Somehow that didn't make me feel better, so I built a mock-up of their system and one of a floating system I had suggested. We had a meeting where I demonstrated how the OSB system didn't do a very good job of holding the cleats; in fact, you could pull up a board with your hands, while the plywood-on-plywood system held the cleats very well. No dice. "Bob, this guy has been in the business forever. No disrespect, but we are going with the OSB," they told me.

Summer Setbacks

Now it gets bad. I returned to New York in early summer of this year to make sure that the flooring was delivered on schedule and to specification. During the subway ride to the building I was told that the installation crews had completed the subfloor up to the fifth floor of the building. This is the condition in which I found the job site: no HVAC, no windows on the east side of the building (there was some plastic sheeting), tile setters setting, drywall men drywalling, plumbers plumbing, and everyone blaming the lack of progress on everyone else. In other words, a typical high-rise job site in The City That Never Sleeps … unless you're on break. Did I mention no elevators?

The wood was delivered to the job site the same day the temporary air conditioners (basically large package units with flex duct) were set up—a great idea if there would have been somewhere to vent the air the machines were supposed to "condition," some windows or doors, or something. And then there was the condensation the machines were spilling onto the slab.

So here we go. The floors had to be installed before the kitchens were put in place, period. The building contractor told us they would put more plastic over the window openings and the job site "is what it is." As in, "If you don't want the job, someone else will." Okay, I get it.

Even though I was only involved as the wood supplier and a consultant, I kept daily records of the relative humidity (RH), temperature, and moisture content (MC) of the wood, subfloor and slab (where it was still exposed).

The installation company nailed up the floor tight using slip tongue to change directions in all of the large rooms to ensure bidirectional movement. I took pictures of the work in progress, from concrete prep to the sand-and-finish stages. During the progress of installation, windows were installed and doors were put in place. The building began to transform from a chaotic job site into a glass-and-steel mirror that reflected the time-worn surrounding park and buildings.

Fall Freakout

By late fall, the job was nearing completion and the general contractor was freaking out because gaps were appearing in some of the floors; meanwhile, plumbing leaks in two of the units caused the floors to lift, pulling the cleats out of the subfloor. We met and walked through several apartments with issues. I took RH readings (50 percent) and checked the MC of both the flooring (8 to 9 percent) and subfloor using insulated pins driven through the flooring. Everything was within "normal." I checked our job log to see what the moisture levels of each apartment had been during the installation phase. The flooring was delivered at 8 percent MC, the plywood was at 10 percent and the OSB was in the green range of a simple pin meter. Over the months, the flooring MC rose to between 11 and 12 percent; the RH was a roller coaster from 80 percent to 55 percent.

The wood in the apartments with the leaks was discolored and had various amounts of grain raise, and the living room areas were tenting. We cut open the worst of the areas and found that the flooring cleats were only holding in the 3 / 8 -inch plywood layer—the OSB wasn't holding or was barely holding the cleats. The entire floor was removed, and we saved sections of it for testing. Pulling the pieces apart showed that the cleats basically blew the OSB apart during the installation; the movement of the floor since the job's commencement had loosened the rest.

Floors in units without plumbing issues have some small gaps, but thanks to the mostly vertical movement of quartersawn material, the gaps are minimal and can be filled. My fear is that over time the unusual subfloor will cause the systems to fail simply through normal seasonal changes.

Cover Your Assets, With Caution

The contractor and owners now realize why I was adamant about releasing my company from any liability for problems that "may" have arisen due to the subfloor, improper job-site conditions, etc. Therefore, CYA: Cover Your Assets. This job was a huge project with lots of money at stake and lawyers to match. Our company and the installation company, a huge union outfit, felt comfortable that the documents our attorneys had created, along with our extensive paper trail, protected us from liability on this job. However, don't assume you are safe just because your client signs a simple waiver. Many contractors have lost in small claims court even though they have written proof that they warned the client about potential problems. When in doubt, consult with your lawyer. If you can't afford the lawyer, you probably can't afford to lose a court case, so it may be better to turn down the job.

Happily, on this job, not only did we get paid for supplying the flooring, but now they are ordering replacement material from us and using the floating subfloor system we originally suggested. Maybe next time they will follow NWFA guidelines as we had suggested, not those from the the local "expert."

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