Aesthetics are probably the hardest thing to inspect. Swirl mark and gloss levels and other workmanship issues often don't have a standard, so it's not a black-and-white call. The old "prominent feature" helps, but even then a prominent feature to the homeowner may not be all that prominent to me. Or vice versa.
I looked at a wide-plank pine floor this week that was ugly. I said it was ugly, the installer said it was ugly, and the owner said it was ugly. Kramer from Seinfeld would have done one of his famous body-shuddering "whoa"s. But how do I write it up? I am not one to fault wood for being wood. But this batch of flooring was out there on the fringes. It was all shades of colors, from yellows to reds to oranges to blues. I suspect some was blue stain and similar issues. But it was still wood being wood.
The bigger problem was how this floor came about. The owner wanted pine flooring. The builder showed them a pine floor in a recent house he had done. Yes, that is what they wanted. But the builder's price was too high, so the owner bought some from another source. The installer installed it, and when the owner saw the finished product, she freaked.
My inspection revealed that there were no problems with the installation. I wrote that up. But it didn't solve the problem. How do you economically and justly solve this problem? Who bites the bullet?
On another note, I've had enough requests for training that I've put together an Advance Wood Floor Inspector training program for Jan. 13-15 in Asheville, N.C. More information is available at my website at www.rlcengineering.com/training. Maybe we can talk about this kind of situation then.
