Talk Back: What's the Worst Thing Another Trade or Homeowner Has Done To Your Floors?

Photo courtesy of Gaetano Hardwood Floors Inc.
Photo courtesy of Gaetano Hardwood Floors Inc.

Photo courtesy of Gaetano Hardwood Floors Inc.Photo courtesy of Gaetano Hardwood Floors Inc.

Casey Wasden The tile guy helper walked right into my glue I had just spread, then panicked because I yelled at him. He stepped onto the installed flooring and spilled his buckets of water all over not only the floor, but the electrical box that fed everyone's power.


Randy Golaszewski Sr. I was just finishing up coating a 3,000-square-foot cafeteria. I look across the way and there's an old nun walking across the floor. I said, "Hey, you can't do that." She replied, "Don't worry, they're old shoes."


Eugene Stone My dad had to go to court because he broke a 11/2-inch broom handle over the head of a plumber for walking on his floor finish. He lost, and it cost him $1,000 in 1970 (that's more than $10,000 now). He said it was worth every penny.


Timothy Winzell As one of my guys was working in another room, some masons took down the tape at the living room doorway, rolled a wheelbarrow full of mortar across the sanded floor and started setting stone on a raised hearth.


Mark Villafuerte I did a white floor and just got done coating it. The customer asked me to set the alarm in their house before we left. It took a little longer to coat my way out the front door from the alarm pad and it went off, then the police showed up and walked all over my freshly coated floor to make sure nobody was in the house instead of taking my word for it and the evidence of the obviously wet floor and smell of fresh finish ... SMH.


Gil Daym I had an attorney ignore the company memo to not come in on a weekend while floors were being refinished, and he walked out of the elevator into the lobby into flashing acid-based Glitsa as I was coating my way into another elevator. I'd have been a lot madder if he hadn't slipped, fallen and landed on his back to do "Glitsa angels" in an expensive suit and cowboy boots. Since I got to see it happen ... totally worth it.


Bryan Kelly The painter used my floor as a drop cloth: "Gonna get sanded anyway."


Vince Fleming The customer walked on the floor to pick up the sign that said "DO NOT WALK ON FLOOR!"


Dean LaPointe We had a contractor take down our tape barrier and "wet finish" sign only to slip and fall in the wet finish about 5 feet in. After we fixed and recoated, we went to do the final, only to have him do the exact same thing again. We charged him to redo the final, and although he paid us, he never called again. LOL!


Jim Hyde I came into a job to see that the painter had sprayed the baseboard, along with 16 inches of the unfinished floor, including the flush floor vents—I'm talking solid paint! I always take out vents until we come back to sand now. I also finish them in my shop and don't install them until I've been paid.


Matthew Elsasser I had a mason drag stone across the great room because it was too much for him to lift by himself. The floor was stained and finished; I saw it when we came back to put thresholds in. We were out and paid, and the homeowner never called back for a fix!

 


RELATED: Talk Back: What's the Craziest Thing a Customer Has Said to You?


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