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Dealing with contractors Rant

Dave Hawksford

Dave Hawksford

Member
Messages
7,850
Location
Outside the beltway
When you know A-Lot more then the contractor.
I am keeping my cool. It's been 11 months since my house flooded and finally got the close in permits. Total rehab. The contractor went and put 1/2" chip board over 1x6 sub floor of our 51 built home. He keep saying the floor will be screwed down. I ordered the new floor 3/4" oak but the base floor is waive. I was speaking to the guy who will be laying the floor and he said he can level parts of the floor but it will still not been a great fix. And Shelly can't get over me not getting over the contractor putting the 1/2" chip board in when I had put in the contract 3/4" ply for the sub floor. I still tiring to figure out how to deal with this guy with kid gloves.
Hopefully we'll be in the house is 3 weeks.
 
I take it that the 1x6 structure is building up over a concrete floor? And when you say chip board, are you referring to OSB or particle board? Either way, neither is stable enough at that thickness for a subfloor to stay flat. Now assuming the oak is tongue and groove it will be harder to lay and keep flat depending on where the waviness is, but it may float over the spots it is wavy too. Your call, but I'd certainly be telling him to pull up the 1/2" and lay down 3/4" ply.
 
It seems to me that if the contract called for 3/4" ply, then the 1/2" chipboard should come back up and the 3/4" ply should go down at no additional cost for the correction. Does any form of chip/particle/OSB board meet the building code for flooring underlay?
 
This thread has caused me to do some Googling and reading about this topic and the result is :: many of the articles I have read about underlay now say that OSB makes for a better sub-floor than plywood. Apparently OSB is more moisture resistant, is more consistent in it's thickness and is flatter across the sheet than plywood.

Who knew ??

Maybe the contractor is correct ??
 
I would NOT be nice about it.

I don't care - 1/2" osb, particle board or whatever it is called is NOT acceptable

I would lock the doors and demand they STOP working and replace the floor.

Contractors HATE that action and they NEED to work. They will do what they need to do.

What I have my Mr. Handyman franchise I cannot tell you how many times I heard the story of the contractor screwing the customer.
 
Darren Wright said:
I don’t think 1/2” osb is acceptable, 3/4” osb is what I just bought as t&g subfloor
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since this thread started I have been researching the whole plywood vs OSB for a sub floor and what I have found the minimum thickness for a sub floor is 5/8 and 3/4 is better whether it OSB or plywood. I need to make sure that the building I am about to purchase is in specs since I plan on using laminate floor when we do the buildout.
 
Based on a couple of building codes I found online 1/2 is a minimum acceptable thickness.

BUT

You said it already looks wavy.

The building codes are MINIMUM. You should never be less than the minimum, but there is no reason you should not go more than minimum. Another layer on top is not as good as a full glued up 3/4 or even 1" thick plywood.

They might have you on the building code - but if the subfloor is QUOTED as 3/4 you can force the issue. Don't let them win!!
 
John Bartley said:
This thread has caused me to do some Googling and reading about this topic and the result is :: many of the articles I have read about underlay now say that OSB makes for a better sub-floor than plywood. Apparently OSB is more moisture resistant, is more consistent in it's thickness and is flatter across the sheet than plywood.

Who knew ??

Maybe the contractor is correct ??
Click to expand...
May be. My Son Jacob said it OK. It still steams me that he ignored the contract without saying anything. Would have be able to get me on board much easier then dropping my confidence in him.
 
Leo Voisine said:
I would NOT be nice about it.

I don't care - 1/2" osb, particle board or whatever it is called is NOT acceptable

I would lock the doors and demand they STOP working and replace the floor.

Contractors HATE that action and they NEED to work. They will do what they need to do.

What I have my Mr. Handyman franchise I cannot tell you how many times I heard the story of the contractor screwing the customer.
Click to expand...
Leo in my area there is plenty of work. He has been good working with Shelly. So that's a pluss in his column.
 
Leo Voisine said:
I would NOT be nice about it.
Click to expand...

Same here. Years of dealing with multi-story building projects on a university campus has honed my "off plan" alarm to a very fine edge. You build what the approved plan calls for or we have a change meeting . . . and don't expect to win unless you come bearing good documentation as to why the world changed between plan approval and execution :D
 
glenn bradley said:
Same here. Years of dealing with multi-story building projects on a university campus has honed my "off plan" alarm to a very fine edge. You build what the approved plan calls for or we have a change meeting . . . and don't expect to win unless you come bearing good documentation as to why the world changed between plan approval and execution :D
Click to expand...
That pretty much sums up my life when I was a construction inspector.
 
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