Question about the worst week you ever had on a job, and what it taught you about prep

I've been thinking about that week last June in Austin where I was running glue-down vinyl plank in this old church, and the subfloor was way more unlevel than the patch job showed. First two days were a nightmare with lippage everywhere and I had to rip up 400 square feet after the third day. Anybody else have a week that was just a total disaster because of something you didn't catch upfront? Or do you think sometimes bad luck just happens no matter how much you check.

3 comments

3 Comments

grantc801d ago

Four hours into a bathroom remodel I found out the previous guy had glued linoleum directly to particle board, and I'd just laid out $600 of LVP over it without checking first. Had to pull it all up and eat the material cost while the homeowner watched from the kitchen like I was performing a magic trick gone wrong. Taught me to always poke around for surprises before I even unbox the first plank.

cora8131d ago

Oh, bless his heart. I had a buddy who did almost the exact same thing in a rental flip, found old carpet glue on the subfloor after he'd already laid down the click-lock stuff. He spent the whole weekend scraping up tacky glue chunks with a putty knife while the owner's kids watched cartoons two feet away. That's the kind of lesson you only learn once, I reckon.

johnson.eva1d ago

Oh man, that's rough! I swear every installer I know has that one job where they just keep digging a deeper hole. I saw a post the other day from someone who said the key is to budget 30 minutes just for poking and prodding the subfloor before you even start. @grantc80 your story hit close to home, I had a similar moment in a church basement where we found out the hard way the concrete had moisture wicking up through a bad vapor barrier. Nothing teaches you to be paranoid like eating the cost of picky homeowners watching you work.

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