Brickman Consulting

Wood Flooring Solutions.

Do You Need An Alibi?

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Cross posted from Howard Brickman's column in Hardwood Floors Magazine: Inspector Blog.

Only a guilty man needs to have an alibi prepared. Well, you are all guilty of being wood floor guys, so let’s get those alibis ready for prime time. And maybe the process of getting those alibis prepped will also provide a framework for preventing the need for an alibi.

Tool/Equipment List:

  • smartphone with camera
  • pin-type moisture meter
  • black Sharpie Marker
  • hammer
  • 6d and 8d finish nails
  • thermohygrometer
  • flashlight
  • spiral notebook
  • pencils and pens
  • string (fluorescent red, blue, green, or yellow)

Stuff To Do (or Not Do):

BEFORE WOOD FLOORING DELIVERY:

  • Do not sign a confession, err, I mean contract provided by the general contractor without carefully reviewing the provisions regarding warranties and terms of payment.
  • Check moisture content (MC) of the subfloor and inspect the crawl space. Use the Sharpie to write the MC readings directly on the subfloor with the date and your initials. Check MC near windows, plumbing, and doors, and by obvious signs of water staining or moisture intrusions. More readings are better. Record the readings in your notebook.
  • Make a label that lists the date, job address, and your name in large block letters for identifying pictures.
  • Take pictures of the high-MC readings with your smartphone. It will automatically time, date, and location-stamp the individual photos.
  • Take pictures of other non-compliant issues (e.g., missing windows or doors, tile saws on subfloor, unvented torpedo gas/kerosene heaters, etc.)
  • Check MC of joists and subfloor in basement and crawl space. Look for water, mold, and mildew, and take pictures.
  • Politely request that the GC or building owner correct any problems noted in a brief and concise e-mail (or using another method that documents the content and delivery of the request).

AFTER WOOD FLOORING DELIVERY:

  • Check subfloor MC again and verify the any problems observed during previous visits were corrected. If not, document them again.
  • Check wood flooring MC on at least 40 boards. Use the Sharpie to write MC and date on the back of boards. Record the readings in your notebook. Reject the flooring if it is outside the range from 6% to 9% MC.

BEFORE INSTALLING THE FLOORING:

  • Verify that you document everything that could negatively impact the wood floor. Use the list from the NWFA Installation Guidelines (the PDF is available free online for all NWFA members).
  • Communicate one last time to the GC if there are any issues. This is the point at which you need to present your disclaimer or waiver document for the GC to sign or at least acknowledge. This can be a delicate time in the job. You may want to tread lightly, because there is a fine line between being a concerned wood floor professional and being a pain in the neck who aggravates everyone else on the job, especially the GC. You know the deal. There are 10 flooring guys waiting on the sidewalk to come in and do the work without even “noticing” the all of the potential problems.
  • If you are called to help out a GC at the “last minute,” take a deep breath and try to figure out why the other floor guy that has been doing his work for the past three years is not available. Is there a money issue? Or what?
  • If you are installing a nail-down solid floor, there are some critical steps that help to inoculate you from problems during an inspection: 1) fasteners every 6”; 2) #15 asphalt-saturated felt; 3) Expansion space around the perimeter of the floor.

The typical inspector will check MC, expansion space, nailing, and will want to see your documentation. If you have done due diligence with your prep work, the chances of a job going South are greatly reduced. If it goes South, you should be certain that a really qualified person performs the inspection. The same qualities that make you a competent craftsman apply to the inspection craft: experience in the wood floor craft, experience in performing inspections, referrals from really knowledgeable people in the industry, and the proper temperament to stand up to the pressure from all of the associated parties. In addition to doing everything right, you have to be able to prove that you did everything right. Here’s to hoping that you never need that alibi. Good fortune favors the well prepared.

The Peril of Using Averages

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Cross posted from Howard Brickman's article on Hardwood Floors Magazine: Inspector Blog.
 
I’m going to start by answering the question Wayne Lee asked in his latest blog post: Wayne, the short answer on this job is NO. The 18% moisture content of the subfloor is the deal breaker. This is a complicated scenario when you toss the crawl space into the mix. You mentioned that the average MC is 18%, and I would like to take this opportunity to share some thoughts about using averages with moisture content. Averaging is a statistical method for making erratic data more uniform in appearance. But averaging also takes accurate data with a great deal variation and mathematically makes it a single number. With variable accurate data this is often quite misleading in that it can hide some very important information. It is much more informative to use the following format to describe accurate data. The minimum is ___. Maximum is ____. The majority of the measurements are in the range from MIN to MAX (which are adjusted to remove the outliers-extremely low or high data).  Let’s look at an example from our friends on Wall Street.

The advertising literature from Amalgamated Super Rich Guy Growth, Income, and Value Fund trumpets an “average” annual rate return of 9% for the past four years 2007-10. But as usual the devil is in the details. In 2007, the ASRGGIV Fund lost 90% of it value, but had returns of 42% in 2008, 2009, and 2010. (-90% + 42% + 42% + 42% = +36% / 4 years = 9%/year). Let’s look at $1,000 invested in January 1, 2007.

$1000 + (-90%) or -$900) = $100 balance on Dec. 31, 2007
$100 + (42%) or $42 = $142 balance on Dec. 31, 2008
$142 + (42%) or $59.64 = $201.64 balance on Dec. 31, 2009
$201.64 + (42%) or $84.69 = $286.33 balance on Dec. 31, 2010

The normal assumption with a 9% average would be that at the end of the four-year term $1,000 would be worth at least $1,360. That “average” IS hiding some very important information. Our original $1,000 is now worth $286.33, for a net loss of $713.67. So you call the fund manager, Kineon Goodhue Beelzebub and demand an explanation to which he replies, “But dude, the average annual return is 9%”. NOTE: Please don’t post any comments that I didn’t compute the annual return in accordance with SEC regulations. Dude, this is wood floor blog, and I am trying to make a point about how averaging may not always be a useful data analysis tool.

Now back to Oak Street from Wall Street. Flooring contractor Harry Picoides takes 30 moisture content readings of the plywood subfloor at a 1,500-foot job. If Harry is using a meter that gives accurate readings, he should evaluate each individual MC reading. For instance, the reading by the slider in the family room is 19% and all of the other readings are between 11% and 12%. This tells Harry that there is a water intrusion by the slider but the remainder of the job is good to go. So he asks the GC to fix the leak and dry out the subfloor. If Harry had averaged the 29 readings of 11% to 12% with one reading of 19% there would be no alert about the high MC location and Harry would be back at the job within the first year doing an uncompensated major repair and refinish.

But we didn’t discuss the issue of the crawlspace and the temperature and RH readings… yet. Wayne, thanks for presenting this scenario which will keep me thinking and writing for the remainder of the summer. Some quick thoughts about temperature, relative humidity and crawlspaces: While we should know and understand how these things work, HVAC contractors and general contractors are responsible for this piece of the puzzle. That being said, we own that subfloor once we install a wood floor over it and ignore high subfloor MC at our own peril and bank account.