Flooring fiasco from failure to communicate
Originally appeared in Hills Publications, June 10, 2005 and ANG Newspapers, June 4, 2005
Imagine seeing 1000 square feet of newly installed hardwood flooring in the house you love. Now picture your disappointment when the reality is far from what you expected. Recently, this unappealing scenario almost happened to my wife, Sonia, and me. In this case, it was our vacation home.
Fortunately, before the floor was laid, we discovered a major gap in our knowledge about the process. As the title of my column says, it is what we didn’t know that could have hurt us.
Hardness gauged
In doing our initial research, we had ruled out laminates and engineered floors, deciding on hardwoods. Being first-time wood flooring purchasers, we scoured various Web sites (woodfloors.org; spmesquite.com; eastflooring.com; tigerfloors.com).
Two criteria topped our list: the floor needed to be light in color and hard. Hardness is calibrated using the “Janka” rating system. By this method, wood for flooring is compared by its “side hardness,” the resistance to wear, denting and marring.
From hardest to softest, spotted gum is rated 2473 and Douglas fir is 660. Amongst hardwoods commonly used in our area, maple is 1450, white oak is 1360 and red oak 1290. In general, the harder the wood, the higher the cost. Interestingly, white oak is not only harder, but darker than red oak.
Grades and cuts
Grades rank the wood based on appearance, not strength or quality. The top grade is “clear,” which may have minor imperfections, but is mainly free of defects. Next is “select,” which will show natural characteristics such as knots and color variations. In descending order, these are followed by “common,” “first,” “second” and “third.”
Cuts refer to how the wood is sawn, which determines its look. These are described as “plainsawn,” “quartersawn” or “riftsawn.”
Unfinished or pre-finished
To minimize dust and installation hassles, we decided to buy pre-finished flooring. The selling point for us was that the company we chose was reputed to have the finest finish in the industry.
We decide and order
After much investigation, reading and questioning of our floor salesman and others, we confidently ordered the top grade maple available. During the process, I asked our flooring man one final question: “What else should I have asked that I did not know to ask?” When he said we had reviewed all the basics, we felt satisfied with our decision.
Delivery and a surprise
We are lucky that, Francois, one of our good friends, is a master carpenter and agreed to install the flooring. It was he who helped us avoid disaster.
After delivery, Francois opened several boxes and then called us with concern in his voice. “Did you realize that more than half the boards would be 18 inches or less?” This question caught us totally off guard. “No,” we replied, “that was never discussed.”
How could we have neglected something so important? Board lengths were not mentioned anywhere in our reading, nor was it brought up by the sales rep, even after I asked if we had omitted anything important in our considerations.
Our Oakland home’s oak flooring has an average length of ten feet. It never occurred to us to ask what the average length would be for our new flooring. “We will never be happy with all those short pieces,” we told Francois in frustration.
Send it back
We had purchased from a reputable flooring store and, after the manager apologized, he agreed to pick up the wood at no cost to us. At our request, he called the floor manufacturer and asked if they could do a custom order with longer pieces. The response was negative because their automated operation is not set up for it.
Two options remain, both with their pros and cons. One possibility is to choose another company that will provide us with pre-finished maple with an average length of three feet, not as long as we would like, but with fewer of the shorter pieces and more of the longer ones than the original company.
Alternatively, we can order custom milled, unfinished maple, with eight to ten foot lengths, costing at least twice as much, and increasing the time and mess of the installation. We have yet to decide.
Final Thoughts
Although we avoided a new floor we would have abhorred, it came at a cost. We spent more than $500 in unrecoverable expenses; we will end up paying a higher price for the final product than originally planned; the project was delayed many months; and there was the emotional toll of going through this aggravation, especially from 900 miles away.
We thought we had done our homework and either possessed the necessary knowledge or could rely on someone to fill in the gaps. It makes me think of how some real estate buyers go through their own nightmares. Whether you are buying a home or hardwood, I hope you find someone to work with who is experienced, competent, and cares enough to answer the questions you just didn’t know you didn’t know.