laminate specialist
"offset" FAIL
It's hard to see without blowing this up 200% or so, but the red arrows point to the short edge joints between boards. The failure here, an unbelievably total disregard of two separate installation specifications, is that almost every row is offset, or staggered, almost exactly the same too-short amount from the one before it. (And whatever partial board the installer had at the end of a row, he used it -- even if it was one inch wide -- for the start of the next row. Flooring felony conviction strike three!) True story: I bid on this job and didn't get it (he "found somebody a little cheaper"). I saw El Cheapo's horizontal brick wall here when Mister Pennypincher called me back to bid on baseboards for the second floor a couple of months later. I guess when your home value has dropped a full $100K in exactly one month (May, 2008), you gotta go with the absolutely cheapest guy you can find in the Home Depot parking lot.
"offset" FAIL
It's hard to see without blowing this up 200% or so, but the red arrows point to the short edge joints between boards. The failure here, an unbelievably total disregard of two separate installation specifications, is that almost every row is offset, or staggered, almost exactly the same too-short amount from the one before it. (And whatever partial board the installer had at the end of a row, he used it -- even if it was one inch wide -- for the start of the next row. Flooring felony conviction strike three!) True story: I bid on this job and didn't get it (he "found somebody a little cheaper"). I saw El Cheapo's horizontal brick wall here when Mister Pennypincher called me back to bid on baseboards for the second floor a couple of months later. I guess when your home value has dropped a full $100K in exactly one month (May, 2008), you gotta go with the absolutely cheapest guy you can find in the Home Depot parking lot.