Am I wrong in this handyman situation?
Asked by
longgone (
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May 27th, 2021
We hired someone to sand the very old wooden floor in our new apartment. It is very hard work (old paint and glue had to be scraped off with heavy machines) but he said he would be done within the week and he gave us what we felt was a good deal.
Two days in, he suddenly said he’d passed the job on to his sons (16 and 20) because the fine dust was messing up his already weak lungs. He didn’t mention this before – if I’d known about the lung issues, I would have found somebody else to do it. Two more days in, we realized that the sons never start work until the afternoon. Then we discovered that the finest grain they were using was 100, which means that the floor didn’t feel or look actually finished – even though they declared it so.
It is now eight days after work started, and nobody showed up today. I asked why, and was told I needed to understand they are “humans, not machines”. The floor is finished to 100 grain in two of the three rooms, but there are visible scratches from the sanding machine all over. As the machine is round, the corners are still covered in glue and paint in all rooms. Room number three has been sanded only in the middle. Every day, I’m told that they’ll be finished “tomorrow”.
I’m pretty annoyed, but at the same time I feel really bad for those people. The sons are basically doing ten-hour workdays – they have school and work in the mornings. The dad suffers from COPD. They don’t have a lot of money. Obviously, they didn’t realize how much work this project would be, and I feel like we’re taking advantage of them. We paid a fair price for five or six days of work, but for one person. We certainly didn’t pay enough for three people.
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21 Answers
If he has problems with dust, he should wear a respirator.
It is one thing to extend the time table to accomodate him taking days off to recuperate, but a whole other thing to hand off the job to someone obvioulsly less competent, meaning that you do not even get the quality you paid for.
He should at least be there to supervise their work.
You are right, and I feel for you, but unless you had a signed contract stipulating the details I don’t think there is much you can do.
Are you wrong to be upset? No, not at all. The question now is what do you want to do about it? I would consider asking the father to come back in and inspect the work that is being done that is not up to snuff. Ask him what he suggests doing about it. In terms of the payment, that is the price he accepted and it was his choice to send his sons who are taking longer (and not doing a good job) so I wouldn’t feel sorry or guilty about that.
He knew he had COPD when he accepted the job.
I understand feeling bad for them, but turn it into a learning moment for them. I like this advice:
@janbb I would consider asking the father to come back in and inspect the work that is being done that is not up to snuff. Ask him what he suggests doing about it. In terms of the payment
Off topic: Are they Romanian? Around Chicago, floor sanding is a Romanian immigrant thing.
When we had the mower shop we had old old oak flooring. We rented a commercial sander and did the floors ourselves. They were beautiful.
You never use a round sander on wood that you plan to have seen.
Using proper safety equipment (yes, this is a time I would wear a mask) would keep him from dust worries.
Three rooms is quite a bit of work, but the whole story stinks anyway. This guy wants his sons busy, they want money, and a more special job came up that dad wants to do.
Did you check whether he is a licensed contractor?
I don’t believe the guy one bit. The job is being done shabby, I know wood stripping, sanding, etc. The round sanders are called grinders, for a reason. They have the power to gring through a lot of crap. They are perfect for getting the forty layers of old paint off a barn, or smoothing bondo on a car body. With paint and/or varnish on the floors, remover and scrapers should have been used, which actually fit corners. A hand sander, or vibrating sander can then be used to smooth it out nice. I can’t even think of an ecuse to start in the middle. That one is straight lazy stupid cocktail there.
Do point out the problems, then make pop understand he needs to make this right. It is not professional grade work. He does not have any pity coming. If they have no skills, lots of jobs are open right now. He is probably just trying how to collect unemployment, but still work. I hope you have receipts. You can get lots more out of a guy, if you have receipts, and state you are going to make some calls.
Lastly, I’m sorry someone put you through this.
It sounds like you probably should change contractors. I would do some research on how the floors should be stripped, and then with that information make some decisions regarding whether to pay anything to the current contractor. If they have not ruined the floors then maybe pay them something. You could wait until after the floors are finished and you know they are ok.
I feel badly for these young men also on the face of it, but it sounds like they don’t know what they are doing. I would be suspicious that they do this father son switch to other customers too. Maybe the boys always work along with the father on jobs, then it’s not so much a switch, but the father should still supervise the work by checking in at times.
Was the contractor recommended to you? Maybe they have very little experience with refinishing floors.
The sanding should be done in the direction of the grain I think. I found this video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6sdx0qmkXjM Unless, maybe since there is so much to sand down possibly the round sander makes sense initially? I really don’t know. I think with even the right sander, no matter what you would need an edge sander to get the edges fully done.
By round sander you mean a sander with a flat circular head? So the crew is learning their craft at your expense and probably that of your floors. If the sander is not equipped with a vacuum attachment, advise the boys to rent the proper sander. Personally, I would halt the job, pay them what I felt they probably earned and send them packing. Then, if possible, do the job yourself. It isn’t rocket science, and you clearly have the knowledge to appreciate what is required. The sander itself is relatively heavy. So you might require muscle negotiating it from a vehicle and up the stairs. You will need to rent a small belt sander for the corners as well as a hand sanding block for the really tight places. Remember to wear a proper mask. Otherwise, seek a person in the building trades whose work and integrity you respect and ask for a recommendation on a person of merit.
ARE they using a circular
sander??
Rereading you details…I’d take him to court and demand my money back.
From the sound of things, they probably won’t have the money long enough for it to be recovered. Besides I had no idea they’d already been paid. By the way, why wasn’t the old paint and glue merely sanded away instead of scraped?
Wait, you paid in full already?
Yep, we paid. Unfortunately, the scratches weren’t clearly visible until the wood had been treated. Now that we know they’re there, we see them everywhere. But on the face of it, things looked good (except for the corners, which we figured we’d just do ourselves because we didn’t want to wait for the boys to be available).
The scratches are pretty deep. So, we’re now faced with redoing all of it with a coarser grain, and then the finer steps again…or we can live with a scratched floor. It’ll probably be the latter. We just don’t have the time to start again. We’re moving in two days.
Yes, they used a round sander. They also had a big belt sander, which they used diagonally across the slats. Which you are supposed to do, but for the very first layer only. I’ve learned a lot about wooden floors now, but I was just too trusting at the start.
We have a small belt sander and a knowledgable friend coming to help tomorrow. Maybe he can salvage some areas.
Thanks for all the support. The floors are still scratched, but I feel a little better!
I just spent $200 to have my irrigation fixed and he did not do a good job. I should have checked every zone before he left, I should know better. I had my husband out there getting wet with reclaimed water trying to adjust the heads. I paid so he wouldn’t have to do that and he wound up out there anyway.
I’m sure you didn’t a lot more than $200 US, but my only point is it happens to most of us at some time or another.
I paid for furniture to be fixed that really didn’t get fixed.
We paid $5,000 for a coating on our car, and I’m pretty sure they pulled on the door handle badly (it’s fabric) and it’s not perfect anymore. We still paid them the whole amount.
I could list a bunch of situations, including throwing money away on medical care, but luckily I have a much longer list of getting great service or even going way beyond my expectations. I guess it evens out.
You are not alone.
Ugh…that really sucks.
Sorry you had to deal with that. :/
Update: Knowledgable friend was able to fix one room. The others, we will just live with. While the scratches are unfortunate, the floors look (and smell!) lovely anyway. And I certainly learned a lot about sanding.
Again, thanks for the support and wisdom!
Why give up on the others? If the rooms are empty, DO THEM NOW.
They aren’t empty, they are full of our stuff. The dust from further sanding would mean at least four or five days of what is basically a sandstorm in our house, and then dealing with dust that will have settled on everything we own. Including a piano and freshly painted walls. And our lungs, unless we stay elsewhere. Which would be difficult, not being fully vaccinated and with lots of travel restrictions in place.
For only an 18-months lease, it doesn’t seem worth it.
18 months!!?? Understood.
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