Protect your investment

Many flooring contractors just don’t know or don’t like to give bad news to the potential customer just for the fact that don’t want to loose their business. That is a very serious situation, especially when the customer wants to shop around for a best price. BE CAREFUL when you are looking for a cheap price, you may end up with your investment on the drain.

Last week, just a typical estimate visiting, customer wants a Floating Bamboo Click Together installation, great floors! But, when I stepped inside his kitchen, I’ve noticed that the tile was loose, all the grout was cracked, my first question to him was – “do you have basement or crawl space?” he said a crawl space. I asked to a look, when I was there I’ve noticed that his crawl space didn’t have any kind of insulation, the dirt was exposed and very high RH (Relative Humidity) was extremely high, over 50%. I told him that before we move forward, he needed to hire a contractor to have his crawl space properly insulated. He didn’t like the bad news…
Make sure seal the crawl space properly before the installation; the crawl space should also be checked for a minimum 6 mil black poly covered in stone overlapped and run up the walls. The minimum height for a crawl space is 18″ high and should have vents or a dehumidification system. If the space is not vented, the excess moisture is trapped and the dry subfloor will pick up this moisture and cause flooring issues. If the moisture is not controlled in the crawl space, this will cause the subfloor to go through a lot of up and down changes leading to a flooring failure.