Wood Floor Pro turns NASTY after client REFUSES TO PAY for shoddy work.
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- Опубликовано: 5 авг 2022
- The customer won't pay because he is not happy with the floor sanding and refinishing work that has been carried out on his herringbone parquet hardwood floor. The trouble is, the quality of the work is absolutely shocking as you can see in the video. The customer, Hilal, found me on RUclips and contacted me to share his concerns about the work and get a second opinion.
This was late 2019. In early 2020 Hilal commissioned me to put the work right. Unfortunately, all of that footage is saved for the next video, as I wanted to tell this story first!
If you'd like to know more about sanding and refinishing hardwood floors then check out my website at www.howtosandafloor.com
If you are having issues with flooring work that has been done in your house then I would advise you to contact the relevant industry standards agency in your country. In the US that's: nwfa.org/ and in the UK its: cfa.org.uk/ 
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Hilal has gotta be the nicest dude I've ever seen and he handled that much better than I would've 😂
Great content.
I'm an ocean away, but these issues sound very relatable.
Questions,and answers before, communication during process with final confirmation of satisfaction of finished service
is professionalism.
Podcast setup looks sick 🔥🔥
Haha, cheers, shame that’s not happening at the moment.
Make sure you change your locks, if he had the key he might have cloned it. You certainly don't want a 'break-in' after you move all your possessions in.
You can confirm that person is real pro if he has a long queue for jobs. All pro's who can come right away or next week doesn't have much job to do.
I have run my own construction business almost 20 year and usually i have 6 month to year that i can take more work.
The Joe Rogan of floor sanding
I feel for Hilal, that was a terrible job. As a general rule if someone can start your job tomorrow it's be cause they are not in demand, go with the guy who can come in for months.
Not always, but 10000% if they show up for like 1 hour here 3 hours there day in between BS fire them. Even better have contracts stating your expectations clearly and explicitly have a time table for completion.
I don't. He's a moron. He didn't get multiple bids and dismissed multiple red flags while vetting the contractor as he said himself.
Well done mate!
A great video showing what went wrong (also the rectification video fills in the full picture brilliantly). A word to the wise for any tradesman who thinks he can remove anything affixed to the property, even if you contractually agreed a retention of title to the goods, once affixed to the land, you cannot lawfully remove it as it forms part of the property. The tradesman in this case (and I use that term loosely) brought what could easily be considered to be a hopeless case. The customer in this video should have counterclaimed and not just refused pay the balance, but for the entirety of the correction fees. There was a contractual breach and the customer should have been placed in the postion had the contract been performed correctly. He should not have been down financially as a result. No tradesman should ever consider starting a doorstep confrontation with the customer, it may have little to do with the rights and wrongs of the dispute but it only serves to make them look totally unprofessional and would sway a judge against them even if the work is pretty good.
Very well said
I’m very surprised the contract to try to enter your home I’m a contractor myself here in the states and I don’t know if I would let anyone walk into my house if I had a dispute with them here in the states we deal with things a little differently but if somebody walked into my house and pushed past me I don’t think it would be resolved civilly that day here your property is considered a special place and you have the right to defend it with biased it is a beautiful floor and you were right about one thing that Floor does make a statement I’m really happy to see that you were able to identify that and I’m sure your house came out gorgeous best of luck
I use to work as a plumber and I remember how sad I got. When I visit client that got fucked over buy bad plumbers. But gladly good people like "How To Sand A Floor" that does a good job to help customers out.
My engineered oak flooring needs doing once I've finished up painting the last of the downstairs. It was laid in the house from new along with underfloor heating and wasn't put in right. For example, I have beading along every edge, despite the skirting being on top of it, so all that has to come out as it's been battered and is now a different colour and then because the previous owners had animals and seemingly never cleaned the wood the dirt is embedded in the grain and we have black urea stains in places and bleached patches from what I assume is either cat puke or overzealous spot cleaning. I got a quote for around £2.1k last year from a reputable guy do a top sanding and Bona coating after the previous owners tried to DIY a top up oiling that sealed in the damage, but while I had a decorator in doing my ceilings they casually mentioned that their other half could do this for £1800 but could only do it at weekends around his full time job. Why would you ever save £300 for someone who does it part time?! If flooring isn't someone's primary source of income, just walk away.
100% agree, it has to be something you do every day, not a side gig where you hire all the machines
Was an excellent video. More like a tutorial. 👍👍
In America the shotgun comes out after you're asked to leave and you don't leave.
The quote from the judge made me crack out in laugh 😅😂
I love herringbone pattern too. Seems to be making a comeback recently and im jazzed.
I’d hate to be in this position. You know the work is trash but you’ve gotta have the confrontation. Shows the workman wasn’t honest when the guy even offered to pay him the full amount, he said no!
Yeah, agreed, he handles it really well imo.
Quite often as a contractor I would have no business ripping up the floor because of non payment. This is because I have the client pay for the material beforehand. Just seems so brutal (and illegal) to go tear out your work on someone else’s property just for that.
I can see how a trade would want to remove their work for non payment, and I'm sure the customer would have been happy for them to do that in this instance.
Yes remove your poor finishing, and all the gouges and sanding marks from your work!!
He hadn't laid the floor, so there was no reason to rip it up, other than spite.
Maybe he should have let him do it, and then pressed criminal damage charges?
it is illegal
When emotions override sensibility. I felt like it on a patio I did but I wouldn’t stand a chance of recourse. It’s the stupidest thing u can do
@@kevinshort3943 Think he said they did some of the bordering work. Also I wouldn't have trusted that guy not to rip up more than his work because he started saying something about the lacquer as well. Some things money cant buy and that old floor is probably one of them.
1111
What a good dude this guy is. After all that he was still quite nice and understand of the tradesman's concerns.
I just want to say there are two sides of a story. It certainly would be nice to hear the original contractor's side.
Their biggest screw up was laying down a finish before they were done sanding. Now all the cracks and holes are filled with finish, which filler will not adhere to. Also, when they sand again, they have to sand through the finish they had just applied.
British high standard 🤣👌🏻 Well done for the judge. It's good to know that we still have good judges left and fair play for home owner that he offered to pay 50%. Jesus this contractors are total mess.
The home owner gets a gold star for the way he handled this very diffucult situation.
I can’t believe they did such a bad job, most DIY jobs look better than that!
I’ve got a guy who I’ve been helping with my video course, I would hire him after seeing what he’s done
@@HowToSandAFloorwhat video course? My whole 2800 square food house is wood floors, I know I’m going to have to do this eventually, honestly some spaces could use it now.
@@fert000 hi Bryce, there should be a link the description of most of my videos. For 2.8k ft I think it’s an absolute must!
Had a very similar experience with a painter a few months ago. Ended up having to fire him and pay him 50% to leave. Had an excellent painter finally come and fix the terrible job from the first guy. Although the good one took months to be available. At least I know for next time.
What was bad about the bad painter?
@@guerovillalbaso4076 I'm guessing he painted badly.
You didn’t fire him. He was never an employee of yours.
@PickleThePig he was 100% an " employee ". When someone hires me to do a job and I'm receiving payment from them, that makes me pretty much an employee and they have the right to fire me from that job.
Sounds familiar. We went to court (and won) for a bathroom renovation that took 2 months and still was not finished after they left the job. So difficult to know who is good and who cowboys. Took so much time.
its damn near impossible to know.
I'm a 30 year flooring installer and refinisher and yes from what I can see what a terrible job, and I mean TERRIBLE. I've come to really enjoy this channel
Cheers Brother 🍻
It is a shit job. But don’t pay and expect the materials to be taken back. You didn’t pay for it why should you keep it?
I have a flooring issue but nothing as bad as this. But stuck in the middle of the flooring people vs the cleaning people as well as the manufacturer of the cleaning agent the clean crew used: Murphy's soap oil
in the US, we leave whether we're in the right or not. Don't want to leave in a bag instead.
Wow u were right to stop the job when u did. I bet you wished you did it yourself🎉to bad you didn't get a good company, it's so luck of the draw sometimes. Good thing your a smart guy, he probly gets aggressive w people to shut the customer up. Good for you sticking up for yourself🎉
I didn't have a hammer.... 5 seconds later... He has a hammer.
Lemme know what you think sisssy
You ordered new tyres?
Better person than I am. He would have walked in my house and been warned once. The police could worry about cleaning the floor when they got there.
I feel like everyone has said everything so I'll just add that Hilal is an amazingly good looking man 😍🙃
I told him there would be comments like this 🤣 but this is the first one I’ve seen, I thought I’d get tons of them! He’s a handsome chap
@@HowToSandAFloor nice mwahaha I'm happy to stick out of the lot 😅
If there is any video of the judge ripping then a new one I wanna see it lol
Unfortunately this happens all the time everywhere in the world and its very creepy imho
I have the feeling that Hilal could have done himself a better job than the first company had done - only if he rented the sanders and bought the laquer then followed some instructions from google...
I know plenty of "qualified" people who can make as big a hash of it as any one. I've never been overly impressed with certifications and qualifications. It really all depends on who is providing the cert or qual. I think the lesson here is that you should have canceled the contract as soon as you saw that they could not do the work.
It's a shame but they are way to many bad contractors then they are good contractors - You really got to do your research get everything in writing with as much detail as possible. I have learned that when working with contractors I would rather buy the materials as I have caught them using sub standard materials ie. Old warped wood for framing, wrong nails, dented scratched doors. Also, do not be shy or call them out when you see them doing something wrong and tell them to fix it immediately and if they don't stop the work. Also, never pay them up front as that is a given and in the contract I always like to have a time clause as if you don't you might be waiting a month or two for them to finish a simple bathroom.
From my own experience, I don’t think I have ever had a contractor I’ve been happy with.
I have been a contractor 30 years. It works both ways. I don’t accept a contract without 50% down . Unless it’s financed . There’s a lot of people that screw us over . Never had an issue getting the deposit. But im very thorough. I cover every possible thing that can arise. I have recorded the contract portion with their permission. And email a copy if they request. Nobody requested. The recording takes away any doubt that we’ll do what I say. Every one has had issues with - u said this, no I didn’t. Usually it’s a miscommunication.
Even with my experience I have been screwed by contractors. Not large amounts. I’m too trusting because I’m trustworthy I guess
the problem is there are lots of videos out there of "professionals" ripping stuff out after a pay dispute with people commenting and egging it all on.
Yep, that’s true, seen it
This is why you counter sue for damages.
It’s hard to find an “ expert “ sometimes people buy throw pillows for a friends couch and all of a sudden they’re interior designer’s or people put a screen on your back door and now they’re a carpenter…. Good luck out there
Round here in the Lakes the situation is basically either don't get the work done, or get scammed. I wanted the garden landscaped - a £20k job - called 17 companies, 5 turned up, two quoted and one of those quoted £67k. Wanted a bathroom extension. Called 33 companies. 17 turned up. Three quoted. One was absurdly low. So I never got the work done. Wanted a wood burner. Called 14 companies, four showed up, two quoted. Went ahead with one of them but found out the guy was an uninsured scammer the day before the job started, and cancelled. And it's the same for everything except the local plumber, who's great. And I'll tell you the reason. Here in the Lakes, the demographic is quite elderly and pretty wealthy. The trades make their money basically scamming the elderly people (and when I say they make money, you gotta believe it). They quote outrageous amounts and people pay it. I'm relatively young so they don't want my business, because I'm less likely to roll over and pay their extortionate charges.
Not that it matters anymore, but I think the wood is not teak but kambala/iroko (some people here call it european teak).
Good that the client took action and didn't pay anything!
And yes, it is an art ;-)
Hi Ralph, I’d bet my house it was Sapele
Ah never heard from that one, keep the house 😁
I am currently on the other side of the coin, I have a customer refusing to pay for work we have done, \I have sent a final demand, and will have no choice but to take it further, I hear so many people say destroy their property, go round with the boys, a truly professional gardener (in my case) will be confident in his work and know he has done the work properly, and will go through legal channels. Trouble is, the whole situation knocks you for six, makes you ill doubt yourself, wondering if you DID do everything right. Wondering, did they want something different, The time and hassle to get paid.
We don't know how many people they must have ripped off
I always get same situation.. hire someone that apears to know what they are doing.
Some certifications are worthless. I have even called a manufacture to get local trained certified company. When I called the company, they had no idea of that manufacture.
To many diyers turn into a buisness and roll the dice.
How about you do one where customer does not pay the trader ? We did 2 jobs for a customer in Central London, all fine .. job was lovely.. in fact we saved the floor because he had a go at doing it by himself ... when it came to payment he went missing and then he was sending messages that we have the wrong number. ( I have a full video for you if you want to view it).
Again another old lady- Job was lovely, I paid extra attention not to scratch her marble border ( against the skirting there was a plank of parquet than a marble strip and then parquet again) imagine bow dificult it was sanding that without scratching it... sent her bank details 2 months ago not heard from her despite over 100 calls ( she doesent live there).
Damn, im sorry to hear that. I have done a video about the customer not paying, I linked it right at the end of this video.
So guys with contractors if they are only there for an hour or two for a big job - fire them on the spot. You should also have this built into the contract. I had this damn electrcian for TEN months to wire in a basement reno (at frame), add lights/rewire kitchen (at frame on back walls) and then there were two fish runs upstairs and he was doing that song and dance, he'd come for 2 hours 30 minutes setup/trying to figure out where he left off 3 days ago and then 15 min to have a smoke like an hour of work over and over.
I don’t understand how these guys don’t go bankrupt 🤯
@@HowToSandAFloor people settle instead of fighting. Like to fight my electrician in Canada it was going to cost around $20,000. There was no way to recoup court costs either.
@@husher5142 what I mean is, didn’t you agree to a price or were you paying day rate? Also, the judicial system in the US is completely broken. It cost me £25 to take this twerp to court and I got that 25 back.
@@HowToSandAFloor I had a contracted price for the whole job. I also had a very detailed list of what was to be completed which was itemized and what materials would be provided by myself. I ended up settling for $2500. For a lot of reasons mostly tho covid hit and then everyone's like just cut your losses - but its my biggest regret. I was like 20 days from trial and I already had expert witnesses out. AHH annoying ;/
If I could reopen the case and go back I would. They literally took out a 100 amp panel with 60 amp break 32 slots and installed the same thing too lol. Gong show, at least his work was on point, they just didnt show up and then it carried on for so long they made a lot of mistakes imo because they forgot what they were supposed to do. Also the time he was onsite, was a lot of dicking around.
If it was civil maybe, lawyer was hourly rates ~$300 p/h. Trial would have been $3k a day for minimum 2 days, and I had about ~$7k in
The fact the guy came in there with a hammer is a pretty big red flag, I wonder what the police had to say when they did turn up.
Everyone under 20 should look at these kind of video's. They think that if you need something done you just download an app. Or there must be some machine or robot that can do it for you. No people. Craftsmanship is not something you can download or pull a switch to achieve 😂 Some of these kids are completely hopeless in the real world.
@@xristinarose2409 I was just talking about the craftsmanship in the video. And that it is slowly disappearing.
@@Dani-it5sy ah sorry then i misunderstood, english is my 3th language. I get what you mean now, at first i tought you meant the young man from the video had to do more research 😅
Hilal seems like a top bloke honestly, feel sorry the the guy
Glad someone sees it that way, I get a lot of harsh comments against him. I don’t get it!
Name and shame them!
Wait was the floor existing or did this guy lay it? Was he just going to rip up the borders he did?
You nailed it, I should have cleared that up, he only laid some border and wanted to rip that up and take the seal off
@@HowToSandAFloor so he wanted to do a quick sander pass to take the finish he laid down off? That's not exactly putting it back the way it was lol.
Er, sorry, the "lacquer"
this is why you get money upfront for materials etc.
I'm a contractor with many years experience with flooring and I would never pay for this job either. Absolutely amateurish
In Australia, we'd call these people Bitumen Bandits. Scammers, not as bad as the fake tech support scammers but nearly as bad.
The "contractor" should be EMBARRASSED to ask for money for that mess.
Wtf was he sanding it with to leave gouges like that?
I've come across many a client who's fine with everything, until payday comes 🙄 and sadly sometimes ripping up your work is the only comeback you have. Often neighbours come up and tell you you're far from the first to do it, the people have the money, they just refuse to pay up to any contractors
This young lad is not one of those guys though, you can just tell from listening to him :)
And lol just heard the last 5 seconds of the video, and yea about half of the non payers are lawyers/solicitors or even higher legal jobs, something about that line of work makes them think they can get away with it
Haha I was about to say 😉 it goes both ways for sure
Why would u ever tear it out? U then have no recourse
@@Bone89 bingo, you spend extra time that could have been on another job and guarantee you never get paid
I just dealt with a contractor that was really mad that we weren't blind and could see the bad job he did...I don't get it, fix it and learn from your mistakes...
i can feel him.. 😠🤬
Alot of folks here saying to go with someone who is booked up for months and not to take on someone who is available, what if there a new company or sole trader getting there legs in the game? I have had people who haven't been in business long do a great job for me.
All got to start somewhere or you may aswel say right no more new business owners ever.
Guess with that attitude once all the old boys retire we have no more trades?
floor was beyond finishing ,needed a lot of repair and unfortunately the contractor didnt bid for all that and tried anyway
Looks fine to me 😂
It's easy to say in hindsight, but perhaps the real moral of the story here is to plan ahead to avoid the surprise of good workmen having a long lead time to shcedule the work.
GOTTA WATCH THEM OL WHAM BAMMERS. I SANDED AND INSTALLED HW FOR 30 YRS IVE SEEN HOME OWNERS DO BETTER JOB THAN THESES GUYS. IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN COMPLETED IN ONE WEEK 2 DAYS FOR REPAIRS 3 DAYS FOR SANDING AN 2 MAYBE 3 DAYS FINISH UNLESS YOU GO WATERBASE. A PERCENT FINISH COMES FROM PERFECT SANDING. THIS GUY WAS A BUTCHER. GOOD LUCK MY FRIEND!!!!!
Layed a new floor that looked like it had twenty years of a whole family wearing it down. shocking.
They could have sanded each wooden block individually by hand in that time.
Those "business men" are pure trash! Sadly this is the norm and people aka clients have no patience to wait for the professionals.
Agreed!
Probably because you canny get a tradesman anywhere
It's really not patience its knowledge to know what to look for and when to stop work.
Even I know there is no way to hide a bad preparation work, 100 layers of won't maters
They literally had no idea what they were doing 😅
Oh my goodness, there should never be sanding marks or chips or big gaps in the wood.
Algorithm going to send this video to the moon
I hope so 🤣
You never ever go with the guy who can do it today or tomorrow. Never.
Why? I’m usually booked up for several weeks but there are odd times, finished a job early, a job has cancelled or postponed, plenty of reasons why I can squeeze a job in.
@@PickleThePig I just wouldn’t recommend it.
He could have made a counter claim to cover his costs.
You had every right to get them out of your house by reasonable force , ie shove them by the shoulder . What crap work. They didn’t deserve one penny.
If the contractor has not been paid for the materials he owns them , so he is entitled to recoup his materials , really sorry to hear your trouble but you should have paid a deposit so you can retain the materials
imagine living in a country where you cant even get a person with a weapon to leave your house for fear of getting yourself arrested.....oh wait...I live in Canada so i guess i dont have to imagine it
It's a crime called theft of services. Always have them sign the ticket before you begin. Always charge half up front. If they don't pay then call the police department and tell them they are guilty of theft of services. Tell them if they don't pay you right then you want to press charges and you want them arrested. If the cops refuse to do anything tell them you'll file a nonfesance in office with the court clerk.
This comment is for the good contractors who get ripped off.
ANd This Is Not Only For Woood Floors, Its For Everything - Do Diligence
Yes they did a horrible job. There should be no marks whatsoever. Good job not paying. I've been doing hardwood floors for over 25 years.
A new floor may have been quicker and cheaper.
Police will say it’s a civil case.
Toooo many people out here tryna make money and own a business instead of knowing a craft.
I had an half indian guy who owed me 5K kept saying he would pay but never did, so I took him to court and he was ordered to pay 6.5K lol
lol the thumb nail thought i was watchin a joe rogan vid
Don't worry bro, just carpet it...guaranteed to hide their work.
if the contract didnt say filling holes than the homeowner is wrong.
It’s leafing on that builder work and etc he pays for that Any material and now it’s making drama the builder push him with the hammer
That cowboy must be blind , terrible job
shows a huge lack of passion and pride, I've worked with many tradesmen like that, it's sad to be honest. Without the satisfaction of completing a job successfully and well, it's just labour that you don't like. This man needs to find something else to do with his time
Terrible quality, piss poor sanding work that even a child could likely do better. Always go look at some of their previous work, speak with their old clients, if anything doesn't smell absolutely 100% correct get someone else. What people in a hurry don't realize is that if it isn't done correctly you're going to be trying to get it repaired well past the time frame that caused you to jump too early and not get the pros! Get the pro the first time, done right!
Your first gut feeling was right. They advertised their speciality, then the add ons. The add ons still require a pro!
I have worked in renovation and building for many years.
Floor sanding is a craft, but just using your brain gets you quite a bit.
You CAN sand a floor to a fairly good standard, without certain skills.
You just need to know what to do.
This guy is a complete clown.
Pay your bills
Name and shame!
Wow the guy wouldnt even take half payment for that hack job?
If you watch to the end he was offered payment in full and he refused 😂
should have let him do the demo and then charge him even more for destruction of property. The job you did was still terrible.
WTF 🤦🏻♂️👍🏼🇬🇬
You have to be careful who you hire you should have stopped the job when you felt that they weren't listening to you I would have not paid on either they did really really bad honestly I don't think they knew what they were doing
Tut.
That Finnish is shocking