Vancouver, Wash.-based wood floor pro Keith Christopherson once did a job in Portland, Ore., where he found a creative way to deal with an unreasonable contractor. As he tells it:
“I went to do a new construction install, and they had just delivered a giant built-in Sub-Zero refrigerator and left it sitting in the center of the room. I asked the contractor if he could get it moved for me. He said, ‘You’re going to have to figure out how to move it if you’re going to install the floor.’ I tried to explain that I didn’t have the resources to safely move that amount of weight. He said, ‘You look resourceful, you’ll figure it out,’ and left. I continued to prep, rack the floor and cut all the borders for the fireplaces. When he returned, I quickly grabbed a loose border I made for a fireplace and put it around the giant fridge in the middle of the room and hastily racked some flooring around it. He walked in, saw the frame and asked, ‘What’s this!?’ I replied, excitedly, ‘Oh, I figured it out! I made a frame for it so it’ll match the fireplaces. I think it’ll look really nice.’ He didn’t even respond. He snapped his phone from his pocket, stormed out of the room and had six people there in 20 minutes to move it.”
See a collection of wood flooring job-site stories on the WFB Pinterest Tales From the Front board. Do you have a funny or bizarre job-site story? Email it to WFB. If we use it, we'll send you a WFB T-shirt.
