How I Avoid Getting Rolled Up Like Sushi in Court

So I was on this install nailing down a ½ x 7” engineered plank, and as I was documenting the moisture values for the flooring before installing, the numbers weren’t coming out right. I was getting high readings with my fancy new pinless meter with data-logging, and this just wasn’t making sense. I left for the day with no planks down, with a tiny feeling of dread starting to well up inside me because I realized I had questions to answer. One: Should I let the flooring sit in the client’s house until the moisture equalized? Two: Do I really have that much time to wait for the flooring to acclimate?

I decided against both of those. Instead, the next day I brought two more meters I had: another pinless meter that was rudimentary by comparison and a pin-type meter. As it turns out, the fancy pinless meter with data-logging was the odd meter because the other two gave the same “ready to install” readings. In summary, the fancy meter has an adjustable specific gravity feature so you can tell it to measure the species, and the gravity value for engineered flooring needed some attention. I started and completed the installation in time to make my other scheduled jobs happy.

But before this happy ending, as I was working this out, I reached out to some pros everyone would know if I mentioned their name, and I called the manufacturer, and I called the NWFA to look for advice. My concern was that if anything were ever to happen and there was an inspection, the first thing an inspector would ask for would be the moisture documentation data for the flooring and subfloor. (For the record, per NWFA guidelines, the requirements are a minimum of 40 readings per 1,000 square feet). They would also ask for my air temp and relative humidity readings for every day of the installation … plus proof of what kind of fasteners I used … plus a bunch more stuff—all just to establish if the floor was installed to minimum standards.

If it isn’t obvious by now, I live in California, which is a nirvana for ambulance-chasing attorneys. My best defense in this case is over-documenting everything and staying true to the NWFA guidelines and the manufacturers’ guidelines. When you leave no stone unturned, every “i” dotted and every “t” crossed, you are as fully protected as can be and can walk through an adverse situation as if you were wearing armor—kind of like “God-mode” in the video game “Doom.”

Those of you who know me or have read any of my articles may recall that I plan on getting sued from the very first ring of the phone for an estimate. It is at this first ring of the phone that I start plugging holes and am very careful not to overstate anything, with a clear visual of how I aim to give them what they want.

In the far-fetched case a client is unhappy with me or tries to take me to court, I would hope and pray I don’t get matched against an attorney who is half of what my Uncle John was. You see, Uncle John’s superpower was charisma, and Uncle John rarely lost arguments. This Super Charisma Power is relative to this story because Uncle John’s charisma enabled him to make leaps and bounds no mere mortal could make in the business world.

The point is that if I didn’t stay on my toes and complete a contract with every single detail handled, I’d leave myself open, and if an attorney half as powerful as Uncle John squares off with me in court, they would craftily immobilize me like I was rolled into a piece of sushi. I wouldn’t stand a chance if that attorney slept through all his college classes but had charisma like Uncle John. My best defense is to strictly adhere, with crazy precision, to the established NWFA guidelines and manufacturers guidelines. In that case, I would survive to live another day.

Regarding the differences of the three top-rated moisture meters I used: The moral of the story, after talking to other pros, the manufacturer and to the NWFA, was to use all three meters. If you have two, then use both. If you only have one, then take phone pics of every reading (geo tags set to “on”) and make sure the meter is exactly calibrated and working flawlessly. In case of a lawsuit, prosecuting attorneys will look for anything—the smallest thing, the tiniest thing—and if one thing is out of line, they will drive a fully loaded cement truck right through your contract.

I didn’t get challenged in any way with this job, but if I had, I would have given nothing to the opposing counsel to hone in on. I’d be slippery like Teflon, as impregnable as Smaug in the Lord of the Rings trilogy, and that’s the way it ought to be, because … documentation.

How do you protect yourself? Do you document your work? Archive your data? To what lengths do you go to fortify your armor?