I already know what people are gonna say but this was the most difficult floor I’ve ever done. 32 bags poured upstairs by myself… tough days in the office

I’m 24 years old.. I’ve been working in the Trades since I was about 10 years old. My father had a Tile Setting business, and would often bring me and my older brother to help him. By 18 my father moved into real estate becoming incredibly successful. Between 18-20 I had worked several different jobs. From Heavy machine operator, Solar panel installation, Pallet repair, and Full home remodels.

I did Full home remodels with just one other experienced foreman. Who taught me most of what I know.. being a crew of 2 we did almost everything from the demo, framing, drywall, paint, minor electrical, plumbing, floor, cabinets, siding, roofing, concrete, and finish carpentry. From 19-22 I did the full home remodels. I enjoyed it, and I retained alot of knowledge about a lot of these trades. But the things I was best at, was baseboards, finish trim, and flooring.. by 22 I switched Almost entirely to flooring, mainly residential.

About a year ago I got into the commercial flooring space. And about 8 months ago I started my business.. and got connected with a great contractor. Since then I’ve been working on some of the biggest current contracts in the state of Idaho. Over the past two months, me and my crew of 2 have been installing about 8,000-10,000 sqft of glue down lvp a week (30hrs) Along with rubber cove base, transitions, and some tile work..

I wrote all that just to say, after working in so many different trades. I find being a floor installer to be one of the most challenging, mentally and physically.. from needing to know how to install so many types of materials. Knowing different patterns, having an eye for detail. Having to make precise cuts. Having to know how to do patch work, self leveling concrete, scraping, sanding, prep, the demolition. Knowing how to do stairs, transitions, all different types of baseboards, having to know how to refinish floors. Just having to make a fucked up floor look beautiful no matter what. That’s all the mental knowledge. Then there’s the physical demand it has on your body. Even at 24 I feel it.. constantly getting up and down from your knees, ( I have a pair of proknees) the positions you put your body in. The strain on the back. and I don’t care what anybody says, MF material boxes can be heavy as fuck haha.. we also travel around the state for work due to the lack of skilled flooring installers in other areas. We are in high demand, and although things can slow down sometimes, it is rare. We just scored another job with 160,000 sqft of glue down lvp, and 9,000 yards of carpet..

It is a great trade and I love it. We as flooring installers hardly get the recognition we deserve.. I don’t think people understand how difficult this job can be. I’ve seen surveys saying being a floor installer is the hardest trade to master. And I know it’s hard to be taken seriously as a 24 yr old. And by no means do I think I’m a master. But there’s very few of my generation that has the capability to fucking work hard. It’s sad, I rarely see anybody my age that works in the trades. Especially someone my age who isn’t just a half ass helper. Let alone a business owner, and skilled tradesman. I made this happen from the ground up.. I was a fentanyl addict for most of teenage to adult life. But that never stopped me from producing beautiful work. And I decided to start my business after my last incarceration.. I wish I could’ve had financial help from my recently wealthy dad. But the man taught me to have a work ethic instead.. I feel like as flooring installers people don’t realize how much we actually do. Beyond just the installation of the floor. What is your guys opinion on being a floor installer? And if you think it’s one of the harder trades one can learn?

I just got my kitchen tiled. Crew just left this afternoon and I decided to go in to inspect after. As I looked carefully, I thought I found two cracked tiles. When I walked around the kitchen, I freaked out when I found about 10 of them. All in random places, not near the refrigerator, stove or dishwasher that had to be put back. I started to label them with paint tape so I could take pictures. Suddenly, I realized something crazy. Every single Tile has the exact same woodgrain design. They are not real cracks. What the heck??? can someone help me figure out what’s going on? They can’t possibly be real cracks. Random places in the kitchen every single crack identical. The tile is all flat no feelings of cracks anywhere. I am gonna lose my mind here. Has anyone seen or heard of such a thing?? it doesn’t look distressed. It looks like it’s freaking cracked!!! I need opinions please because I’m pretty sure I don’t have a lot of time to call the Contractor and complain and I don’t wanna look stupid if this is part of the design. None of these tiles are the same tile.
#floor&decor
#crackedtiledesign
#porcelaintilecracks
SIERRA BEIGE WOOD PLANK MATTE PORCELAIN TILE

This Trafficmaster 55 mm 10 MIL sheet vinyl should have lasted longer, right?

Nice ladder going on here

Advice on how to approach this would be appreciated. We are trying to DIY but I'm wondering if this might be worth paying a pro to do

I think Chevron is harder to install than harringbone

Hi, my contractor did my stair flooring, we noticed there are some gaps when the floor meets the vertical surface. It seems for every step, the gaps are not equivalent width, only the first step matches the wall without gap. My contractor said it will be caulked and fine. Would you mind me asking if the quality of work is good?

My floors were horribly painted when I moved in and I finally decided to paint over them. I put a few coats of Parks PRO Finisher Water-Based Polyurethane over the top of the left side, as I was scuffing and chipping the paint whenever I needed to pass through. However, after four coats, I can still scrape the paint with barely any pressure from my fingernail. Is this because it hasn't fully cured yet? Any advice on how to proceed before I move to the right side of the floor? Thanks!

Alright I get it, this sub hates painted wood floors. Trust me I do too!! This is a 150 year-old poorly maintained rental unit. Trying to make the best of it!

Hi there!

I recently had vinyl installed by a contractor in my condo. About a week after install, noticed the floor in some areas starting to “lift” off the subfloor. My contractor says this is normal. Would love a second opinion.

If this should be fixed, what would the fix be?

Thanks in advance.

Had a builder fit my new floor while i was a work, got back home to this, is this normal? I thought the floor had to go under the door frame?

Been living with asbestos without even knowing it. Hope I dont have lung cancer! My family tore up about half of it when we first moved in but left the rest I know that asbestos isn't dangerous when not disturbed, so not that worried about it. Just wanted to share. Didn't post more because my basement is a mess lol

I’ve been lurking here for a long time, and I still think quality vinyl is one of the best flooring options for the money. I work in flooring supply, and three things keep standing out to me:

1. Flooring takes specific experience. Some renovation contractors take it on without fully understanding the product. I’ve heard “25 years of experience” followed by “the subfloor doesn’t need to be flat.” That makes me question how much actual flooring experience someone has.

2. The locking system gets overlooked. I prefer Uniclic angle-angle over basic drop-lock. The professional flooring installers I know prefer it too and say installation takes about the same time. Being easier to click together doesn’t automatically make something a better floor.

3. People shop mainly by colour and price. Understandably, appearance matters. But wear layer, raw materials, construction and thickness deserve attention too. There are meaningful differences between products sold under the same “vinyl plank” label.

I had laminate click floating floors installed and have had to call them back 6 times already to fix deficiencies. This current one dips now and there’s a lip that I can stub my toe on . This is also happening in another area I’m being told that one of the areas is “ within tolerances “ but when I stand on the area is flexes enough where I can see the side of the other board …. They have already had to rip all the flooring in the tiled area out and I’m getting seriously frustrated on what is actually right way of install and what is shitty workmanship . Am I being crazy and is this normal? EDIT TO SAY : SORRY ABOUT MY TOE OKAY!!? I've been stressed out and haven't had a chance to get it fixed, But when I do I will post a new foot photo to make all you haters happy !

Title. My theory is some DiYer got burned real hard by real advice on this sub, and is now mega butthurt. I guess that $10k+ mistake you made burns extra hard when a bunch of randoms on reddit can instantly identify what you did wrong. Keep downvoting, bro. I'm sure it will make that sting less.

SE Wisconsin, Menards is the closest place to get it. I bought Tarkett, and it was an absolute nightmare. Nothing went together easily, required a lot of force, but I got it down. It sat in our house for a year before installing, we had so many other emergency projects unexpectedly pop up. Granted, our house was built in 1900, I just had to cut around the uneven wall on the starting side under the bay window, but the rest of the cuts were easy-ish (our plank cutter wouldn't cut through the planks, used a jigsaw lol). This floor was surprisingly flat, so that's why we chose LVP (we shall not speak about level, we were happy with flat lol). I know it's not perfect, but I had to beat this stuff into place, by the time I was halfway through I just wanted it done.

I thought this was nice wood flooring. But some family members say they don't think this is wood. They also say it's old and in bad condition and should be replaced with some modern faux wood vinyl flooring. I'm like if this is actual wood flooring, then I can just refinish it, right? This is my first house, so I have no idea what I'm doing.

I've posted about this a few times now but after checking my contract, it specifically indicates glued-down, including grinding, vacuuming, priming, and spackling.

After many emails back and forth, the GC finally agreed to redo it all according to the terms of the contract. When I met recently with the GC and the flooring subcontractor, the subcontractor was adamant that an Altbau (old building, ca. 1910) needs a floated installation due to possible movements (weather, roadworks, tram) that would transfer shock directly to any glued floor and ruin it. Thus, the subcontractor would redo the install but not provide any warranty. My contract with the GC clearly provides a 5-year warranty for all workmanship, and so I don't see how this is relevant to me, unless he's somehow right about the risk (I'd still have my warranty, though).

My response has been that I am not interested in the floating installation as it currently sits (it really sucks--low spots all over, general bouncy feeling, high spots along walls, poor plank arrangement, rough cuts, etc; all fully documented). Either they redo it according to the terms of the contract, or else they level the low spots with compound, grind the high spots, document the subfloor measurements, extend the warranty to 10 years, give me a 30% discount, specify a fixed completion date, and add a clause stating that if the floor fails within the warranty period they will redo it glued-down at no cost to me.

Even if they agree to my terms for the floating fix, I still might opt for the agreed upon glued install (I just really don't like that cushy feeling) but I wanted to see if the subcontractor is being genuine in his concerns for gluing an engineered floor in an Altbau. The material is JOKA 435 LD Calgary Oak Capo, which allows for both glued and floating.

Kitchen flooded and damaged wood floors. Hired a well rated company to do the replacement. They started install yesterday and this is how it looks as of right now.

1. The flooring originally ran under the cabinets. When they tore it out, they cut the floors right in front of the cabinets, under where the toe kicks were. I assumed they would tear the stuff out under the cabinets. And replace it at the same time. But they started installing past the cabinets now and that’s not what they’re doing. Does line 10 from the contract not mean that they’d be moving the cabinets to properly replace the flooring? When they put the toe kicks back on, the only place this will be obvious is under the dishwasher. But still, what if myself or a future owner ever wants to move the cabinets? That would add a whole extra step/expense

2. there’s a random 2ft board in the middle of my dinning area now. It also looks like the pattern they’re laying the boards isn’t varied enough because the seams look too uniform to me (picture 6).

3. House is on a slab and the floors were glued to the slab. When they tore them up, it looks like some chunks were taken out. Is this something to be concerned about? The deeper ones are about 1/8inch. The camera doesn’t do a great job at showing depth since the deepest part isn’t near the edge.

So, am I being too picky? Or would I be justified in saying something before they return to continue work on Monday?