This issue’s Tale comes from Jeff Doyle of Cohasset, Mass.-based Doyle Wood Flooring. As he tells it: “Last August we landed a job to provide and install a 6-inch engineered French oak. On the first floor it was a floating application with glue on all four sides over a slab on grade; on the second floor a small portion was to be nailed with glue-assist over plywood. The construction dragged on, and we finally shipped the product in early November. The job dragged on some more until, of course, the Friday before Turkey Day. The client called to say she was ready and ‘I need it done next week.’ Unfortunately I could not meet that demand, and without any real problem or fuss the client stated the builder could do it—did I mind? If I had any chance of getting that floor installed then, I would have done it, but she was confident in her builder and ‘his floor guy.’ We offered our straps, which were already on site, to the builder to use, along with telling them to call if they needed help. A week after the job was done the client came to our showroom to pay her bill, and she mentioned the floor was separating—on the butt ends, and it was extreme. ‘I can see the tongue,’ she told me. I asked if the floor was glued. ‘Are you supposed to glue that?’ she asked. She wasn’t sure. As it turns out, the builder’s ‘floor guy’ didn’t use any glue. He just dry-fit the floor, thinking it was going to magically hold without glue or any locking mechanism.”
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