A job in Phoenix this spring showed me why you never skip the moisture check

We were laying down a beautiful engineered wood floor in a big living room, and the homeowner was pushing us to finish fast. I pulled out my meter and got a reading of 18% in the slab, way over the 12% limit. We had to stop everything, set up fans, and wait two full days before we could even think about installing. That delay saved us from a massive callback and a floor that would have buckled in a month. Has anyone else had a client get really upset when you insisted on waiting for the numbers to drop?

4 comments

4 Comments

david_jones383mo ago

Man, that's a nightmare scenario averted. Did the homeowner ever come around and thank you for holding firm, or were they just mad about the delay the whole time? I've seen guys cave to pressure and it always ends in a disaster, like a floor that swells up at the seams a few weeks later.

phoenixw113mo ago

Yeah, that's the real test... @david_jones38, did they ever call back to apologize after the floor would've failed?

karenh561mo agoMost Upvoted

Did that homeowner ever actually call you back to say thanks? I had a buddy who did flooring in Mesa and the same thing happened - slab was at 17%, client was screaming about losing a day of work. He held firm, dried it out, laid the floor. Three months later the client's neighbor had the same type of wood installed by some other crew that skipped the check and the whole thing was buckling at the seams by summer. Client called my buddy up and admitted he was wrong and even referred him to two other jobs. People get hot in the moment but they remember who saved them from a mess. Still, it's a pain dealing with that kind of pressure on site.

the_linda3mo ago

Honestly, I get why they'd be frustrated with the wait (time is money, right?). But holding the line on the moisture check is just basic job security, it's not even about being the good guy.