The Loooong Floor Install, Part 3
- nvilu7
- Jul 16
- 10 min read
Updated: 12 hours ago
When My Hardwood Flooring Installation Failed
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About the RTTPYO Series
RTTPYO stands for Removing Things That Piss You Off — the small home problems we tolerate for years before finally fixing them.
In this series, I tackle one everyday annoyance and show how a simple design change can make a space work better.
What You’ll Learn in This Post
Hardwood flooring installation process
How hardwood flooring is laid out for visual impact
What happens when a flooring order arrives defective
How flooring crews handle installation failures
Why temporary storage can save your sanity
What I’d do differently next time
What I’d do exactly the same next time
Replacing my old hardwood floors was supposed to take four days (The Looong Floor Install, Part 1 and Part 2). Instead, I ended up living on exposed subfloor for months while the flooring manufacturer argued that defective flooring was due to "the beauty of natural wood."
Installation Day
As always, Monday mornings arrive way too soon. I woke early and quickly got ready to depart when the flooring crew arrived at 10 am.
Unfortunately, it took ten minutes to corner Zoey the cat and stuff her, screeching like a banshee, into her carrier.
After that trauma, Zoey and I only had to wait a few minutes for the crew, me apologizing profusely and her pointedly refusing to look at me through the cat carrier’s mesh-covered window.
The crew arrived promptly with the new baseboard that they collected on the way. While crew members brought the baseboard into the condo, the crew lead took me through what would happen this week.
Today the crew would remove the baseboard and old wood flooring throughout the condo and lay the underlayment fabric if they had time. Days Two and Three the team would be heads down laying down hardwood and installing the baseboards. Day Four, if needed, would be spent finishing up and putting furniture back to approximately where it started.
We also discussed the direction the boards would be laid. In most rooms, hardwood looks best when the boards run parallel to the longest wall. In hallways, they usually run the length of the hall.
In my condo, that meant that the boards would be laid in parallel with the front and back walls, so there would be an unbroken line of boards from the great room, down the hallway, ending at the back bedroom wall.
Perfect! That will make the great room/dining room appear larger and more expansive—the first item on my wish list for this RTTPYO.
The crew chief took my mobile phone number and asked me if I could check back in with him in person late morning tomorrow, just in case the team wanted me to get a visual on some issue.
That detail taken care of, the crew lead proceeded to gently but firmly hurry me out the door so he and his team could get started.
Zoey and I headed to the hotel. My two primary emotions were excitement and anticipation. Zoey’s primary emotions were terror and misery.
Everything Looked Wrong
Tuesday started cold but clear. I continued to work in my Work Away From Home office. Later that morning I drove to the condo for my check-in with the installation team.
At the condo, I heard the banging of mallets and men’s voices before I even opened the front door. The circular saw was set up on my porch and sawdust was everywhere, which made me happy. Sawdust meant that the baseboard, carpet, and old hardwood was gone, and my beautiful new hardwood floors were going down.
Little did I know that when I opened my condo’s front door my dream was going to turn into a nightmare.
I opened the front door, stepped in, and looked down to see the new flooring.
It didn’t look right.
I squatted down to get a closer look. The crew lead came over to stand next to me.
“The ends of the boards are not cut straight,” he said. “so we can’t fit the planks together properly.”
As soon as he pointed out the problem, it was easy to see.
“What does that mean?” I said.
“Well, we can install it. But because this hardwood flooring uses tongue-and-groove connections, even slightly miscut board ends like these can create alignment problems and visible gaps. And the floors may eventually buckle.”
“Are all the boards like this?” I asked.
“Yes. Well, we’ve opened half the boxes and all those are like this. Even if half of the boards are OK, we won’t have enough to finish the job.”
“Then stop.” I said.
The crew lead yelled for the team to stop. The banging of mallets ended. Three pairs of puzzled eyes looked up.
The crew lead said, “I knew you would say that. I’ve already called the store.”
“What happens next?” I asked.
“Yesterday we pulled out the old baseboard, carpet, and hardwood and disposed of everything. Today we’ll uninstall the new flooring and take it back to the warehouse. We’ll move your furniture back into place and wait for whatever happens next. We will be out of here by the end of the day.”
“What happens after that?’” I asked.
“You’ll have to call Debi about that.” The crew head said.
Stunned, I went back to my car and sat for a few minutes. Then I drove back to the hotel.
The Flooring Manufacturer’s Process for Flawed Boards
Back at the hotel, I sat down and called Debi.
She was professionally sympathetic. She explained that while a flawed run of boards doesn’t happen often, it does happen, and there is a process to take care of it.
Debi submits a complaint to the manufacturer for me and ships an unopened box of the flawed boards for inspection.
The manufacturer sales representative acknowledges that the boards were flawed and agrees to provide a customer refund.
The store discards the entire original order (good riddance).
After I receive the refund, I can either replace my order or place an order with another company.
Debi couldn’t give me an estimate on how long the process would take, but I knew that I would celebrate the Christmas holidays on cold subflooring covered by a vapor barrier, not beautiful warm hardwood.
My conversation with Debi settled me down. An established process existed to make this right. It would take a while, but I was willing to wait to get what I wanted if that’s what it was going to take.
Home improvement failures really suck, but they can happen to anyone. I could expend valuable time and energy on being disappointed and pissed off—or I could transfer that energy and time to the fun process of picking out new hardwood from another manufacturer.
I’m resilient, not stupid.
The only cloud hanging over the situation was the possibility that the manufacturer who shipped a defective flooring order would refuse to refund my deposit.
I’d jump off that bridge when I got to it.
I decided to stay at the hotel for another night to give the installation team plenty of time to get the condo back into whatever semblance of order I was going to live with for an unspecified while.
I finished working at 5-ish, and it suddenly hit me. What the hell should I do with my breakable stuff that was packed into the U-Haul truck sitting in my condo parking space?
I had until the weekend to return the truck, so I deferred that decision until tomorrow and asked my subconscious to consider alternatives overnight while I slept.
Instead, I poured myself a glass of wine and settled down to watch some mindless TV with Zoey snuggled on my lap.
Yes, I did have a second glass of wine that night. And strongly considered a third.
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Living on Subfloors
Early the next morning, the installation crew lead called to let me know that they had finished in the condo and locked up. I pounced on Zoey, stuffed her into her carrier, packed up, checked out, and was on my way home an hour later.
The condo looked very strange without baseboards, flooring, and décor. Almost raw. I found out quickly that the floors were much more raw than I expected. Lots of carpet staples and nails were still partially embedded in or just lying on the subfloor underneath the vapor barrier paper.
After one painful incident I wore shoes at all times except while in bed or in the shower. I checked Zoey’s cute little feet constantly but by some miracle she remained unscathed.
After work, I set out to decide what to do with the U-Haul truck. After mulling overnight, my subconscious had established that I didn’t want to carry everything back in to my condo, unpack it, replace it, then repack it, only to repeat the process for Install Round Two.
What were my alternatives? Debi told me that the minimum wait time for Install Round Two was eight weeks. I had to return the truck by the end of the week before late fees kicked in.
Damn. I needed to find a storage unit, and fast. But at least my stuff was packed and already in a truck, right?
Finding Storage
I started making calls to the local storage places. It took a few tries to find a place with a manager onsite who could talk to me. I explained my situation. The only space she had available was a 10 x 15 space, way too big for my needs, but given my circumstances, she offered the space to me for three months at the monthly cost of a 5 x 7 space.
Whew. I told her I would be there Saturday morning and she got the paperwork started.
Ordinarily I would have made the arrangements online, but I have found that, in unusual circumstances, it’s best to actually talk to someone if you can. I would never have gotten such generous terms by booking online.
Most people are big-hearted when given the chance.
“The Beauty of the Natural Wood”
The end of the week brought a response from the flooring manufacturer, which Debi forwarded to me. Specifically, from the manufacturer’s regional sales rep. It was clearly the manufacturer’s Stock Answer Number One for rejected orders.
The miscut board ends were (somehow) due to “the beauty of the natural wood.”
I emailed Debi, “So, the guy who miscut the board ends did so because he was distracted by the beauty of the natural wood?”
On Saturday I drove the U-Haul truck to the storage place and unloaded my stuff into the Taj Mahal of storage spaces. My items took up a small space in one corner, but they were unbroken and safe.
After 3 weeks of wrangling, the manufacturer agreed to refund my deposit. Debi asked me if I wanted to reorder from the same manufacturer. Which I did not.
So, back to the showroom. I finally decided on a higher-end floor of solid hardwood from a manufacturer located a few hours North of Portland and placed the order.
If this hardwood had a problem, I could be at the manufacturer’s place of business the same day with receipts, board samples, a T-square, and a very bad attitude.
The showroom manager very generously gave me a discount on the new order without me asking, I think because I did not have a meltdown or hissy fit directed at them due to my order debacle.
Once again, most people are big-hearted when given the chance.
Round 2
My initial order was delayed once for six weeks, but after the initial debacle I was resigned to waiting.
While I waited for the flooring order to arrive I decided to paint my kitchen cabinets because I didn’t have enough aggravation in my life.
If you’ve read The Gloomiest Kitchen on Earth posts (Part 1 and Part 2), you know that the painting project was interrupted by the Great Ice Storm of February 2021. What I didn’t mention in those posts is that the ice storm also delayed my flooring order AGAIN.
On March 15th, I finally finished the kitchen cabinet painting project.
On March 16th, my second set of flooring arrived to acclimate in the condo. I opened a few boxes of flooring when they were delivered to see if the ends were cut square this time.
OK, I opened half the boxes. Zoey helped me.
After what happened the first time, I was not going to let history repeat itself.
Thankfully, the second attempt at replacing my old flooring worked out great. Everything went the way it was supposed to.
The flooring crew returned and was astonished to see white kitchen cabinets in place of the dark cherry. Since the preliminary work was already done, they finished laying the floors and installing the baseboards in three days.
Zoey and I stayed at the same hotel and in the same room as the Round 1 install. This time Zoey did not hide under the bed for eight hours.
When Zoey and I returned to the condo, Zoey stayed under the bed for three days, emerging only at night. I went without shoes for the first time in three months.
I removed my breakables from the Taj Mahal storage space just before my short-term contract ended. It took a week to unpack.
Was It Worth It?
What would I do differently the next time? One thing. I would have inspected the boards when they were delivered to my condo to acclimate. That one change would have saved me (and Zoey) an enormous amount of angst and unnecessary shoe-wearing.
But, after all the delays and disappointment, the floors did exactly what I envisioned. My condo looked and felt bigger and fancier. Using the same flooring everywhere unified and warmed up the space. The baseboard had more heft and presence without being distracting.
Was it worth it? Yep.
Sometimes a renovation goes exactly according to plan. Sometimes it doesn't. This one definitely didn't. But I never regretted stopping the installation instead of accepting a floor I knew was wrong.
A few extra months of inconvenience was a small price to pay for something I'd walk across every day for years.
What I'd Do Differently Today
Open multiple flooring boxes immediately after delivery.
Check that the tongue-and-groove joints fit properly.
Inspect board ends for square cuts.
Don't let installers start if something looks wrong.
What I’d Do Exactly the Same
Work with the installer and retailer to solve the problem instead of assigning blame.
Talk to people when your situation is unusual—you'll often get better solutions than using an online form.
Give people a chance to help you—most of them will.
Be willing to wait for the right result instead of settling for one you'll regret.
Products I Used During My Floor Replacement Saga
Cat carrier (Zoey's least favorite purchase)
Coway Airmega Air Purifier — ran these continually post-installation to clear the air
Furniture sliders for moving furniture post-installation
Large Moving Boxes — accommodates even the biggest table lamp
Lawn and Leaf Bags — protected my clothing from floor-installation chaos
Moving Blankets — wrap around artwork
Packing Paper / Newsprint — wrapped lamps, lampshades, and every fragile thing I owned
Plastic Sheeting Rolls — turned my closets into temporary clean rooms
Next Up
I eliminate the dreaded Door Dance in my condo.
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