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Lauridsen Consultancy Group Consulting, Inspection, & Training for the flooring industry

09/26/2026

Some advice for the new installer or those who seem to experience too many callbacks.

“But it worked before for me” is something I hear from installers. My typical response “well you were lucky all these years, but now your luck just ran out on this one job”.

No one likes to be wrong and most certainly no one wants to “eat a carpet” or a floor. Years ago I was watching one of those consumer advocacy tv shows where a viewer had wrote into the show about their bad experience with a carpet installation and if they could do something about it. The show’s host went onto say that the show’s producer called the carpet installer who responded in a defeated attitude, “well I guess I’ll have to eat that carpet”. The host went onto ridicule the installer questioning just how one goes about “eating a carpet” and even laughed, but for those of us who have worked down on the floor and had to eat a few, we knew exactly what it meant. And we weren’t laughing.

I’ll never forget a job I was doing at a new furniture store about to open in a well to do area in Southern California back in the 70’s. My job, install carpet over vignettes in the store allowing the carpet to flow over the edge. After I was done and packing up to leave an interior designer in the store complained how the direction of the nap was opposite what she wanted. So I lifted all of the carpet, turned it 180 degrees and reinstalled it. After I was done the interior designer came and said to me, “you know I think I was wrong, you had it right the first time can you change it back”. At which point I picked up my tools and left. I was working for my dad at the time and have no idea if he collected that COD from them. All I know was I wasn’t going back. I was done.

So I do understand the meaning of being treated poorly, especially by those who see us as no better than the guy picking fruit in the field. Many don’t get how many of us have not only years of practical experience taught by one’s dad or uncle (like me) but also received professional training at one of the many clinics. My first training I took was in 1977 from GAF Corporation. For those of that era who remember they were a top name in vinyl sheet goods that were competing with Armstrong, Congoleum, Mannington and others. It was a one week course and every day we were working on our knifing and seaming skills, doing flash coving, etc. I had already been installing vinyl sheet but it was a place to hone my skills. I wanted to develop my muscle memory, a term i understood physically but never knew there was a name for it until later in life. I had some great instructors, just as I had great instructors when I decided to become a senior carpet inspector back in 1993. That school was a grueling 6 days including homework at night and a 12 hour examination on the 6th day. But it was worth it because I fell into a new career I never expected would happen to me after I sold my flooring store in 1996. It’s how I got involved on the manufacturing side of the business and in the industry working on committees and boards for nearly 30 years. If you’ve read installation guidelines or technical publications there is a good chance I might have worked behind the scenes in helping create its development.

But getting back to advice for the new installer just starting out and those looking to reduce those call backs, just understand you’ll make mistakes and it’s okay. Why because we are all human. Instead of looking at mistakes as failures or becoming mad because you feel mistreated from a charge back try to turn that negative experience into an important learning experience. Sometimes some of the hardest things we’ve learned in life have come from the school of hard knocks.

Many years ago I did this sheet vinyl job in a home where I installed an underlayment, ran patch over the seams as instructed and then installed the sheet vinyl as a full spread. Days later the homeowner called to complain about joints telegraphing so I called my distributor and a site visit with the plywood manufacturer, distributor and I were present. After examining it the manufacturer asked if I could repair it and send them a labor bill and I said okay. Days later I went back, heated the seams and lifted the vinyl only to discover that the ridges seen were not because of the plywood but the way I laid the patching compound and left a small ledge.

It was basically my fault. I took care of the area, re-glued the floor and sealed the seam. The customer was then satisfied. Having a guilty conscience I never billed the manufacturer for the repair work, even though they said they would pay. I chalked it up to experience learning not only what I did wrong but how to fix it. Some of the best training I’ve ever had involved eating a floor and I’m proud of it.

But you don’t need to go through what we’ve already been through. There are a number of old timers like me that have many years of wisdom to share all you need to do is seek them out. For me I’m grateful for having some of the greatest experts in the business to have taught me. I would not be where I am today without them passing on their knowledge and expertise to me.

08/06/2026

In the past I’ve taught about flatness when it comes to subfloors and its importance. But another area of flatness happens to involve flatness of flooring material. In this case I’ll limit my comments to flatness in engineered wood floor boards and its installation in glue down applications.

According to the ANSI/HPVA EF national voluntary standards for engineered wood floors, boards that are less than 3/4” in thickness have a flatness tolerance of 1.5% of the length of the individual board. Where the thickness is 3/4” and thicker the tolerance is reduced to 0.75% of the length. So a board length of 48” with a plank measuring 1/2” thick, the allowable amount of bow would be .72” or close to 3/4”. I know, I know that’s quite a bit but that’s also over 48”. If we reduce the length to 24” the calculation is .36” or about 3/8” as opposed to 3/4”. But even with a reduction to half as much allowed, it is more challenging to install a board with a 3/8” bow with only a 24” span, versus correcting a 3/4” bow over 48”. It even becomes more challenging when we change the installation method from nail down to glue down or floating.

While the standards tend to be universal regardless of the species, moisture content, product width, even the standards don’t address bow versus end lift which can be more challenging to install. There is even no difference with respect to thickness 1/4”, 3/8” and 1/2”, all fall under the same standard, yet 1/2” would be more challenging than a 1/4” product. But do we understand bow? I’m not talking bow and skew as sometimes seen in carpet but bow that occurs where you place a board face up on a flat surface and it lifts off the surface in the center of the board. The bottom of the board is not touching the surface, generally at the center but the ends of the board are touching the surface. If neither touched, the center and ends lifted off the surface at the same time it would be a neat Houdini trick. And so then what is end lift.

As the term suggests it’s the opposite of bow where the center is touching the surface but the ends are lifted away from the surface. So with a flatness standard which seeks a single number (ie 3/4” in 6’) how do we then measure for end lift and compare it to the HPVA standard? Turn it over. Measure the distance between lamella face and flat surface and compare it to the standard.

If you’re an installer, you’ve probably seen it. You open a carton of wood and what do you see? Boards. Often flat looking boards because if they were all bowed how would they get the carton sealed? So it’s not that every board coming out of the carton is bowed or at least not yet! So you take boards out of the carton and now you see it. Some boards appear flat with no issues and then there are boards that all of a sudden decide to lift. How did that happen? Well when you saw the material in the carton what did you see? Layers of flooring and each layer interconnected at the tongue and groove. It would then stand to reason that when disconnected and looking at Individual boards there is nothing guiding the board. But once placed into the rack of the floor it stands to reason that surrounding boards that are flat would pull down that which is bowed. The weight of the floor is what helps to pull down the floor. But all things being equal it does depend on the circumstances.

In a glue down installation it’s a little more challenging as with a nail down floor a nail, a cleat or a staple help to flatten to board. With a gluedown you are dependent on the glue not only transferring adhesive from the subfloor to the back of the wood but maintaining that bond. If a bowed board is installed in a gluedown installation but lifts out of the adhesive before the glue has the ability to cure or develop enough strength to hold it, what you wind up with is a lot of hollow areas under the floor. There is glue on the subfloor and back of the wood, but it didn’t maintain its position. So this is where tolerances come into play because if it’s in tolerance it should be installable. Right? Should be. An experienced installer recognizes the challenge and will often place weights on the floor to hold down that which is bowed. Or often seen he will use his rubber mallet to essentially beat the floor down and into the adhesive. If working on top of the floor it’s important to use a knelling board so as not to displace the adhesive underneath which can lead to a lack of glue and hollow spots. Also scooting a board over wet adhesive isn’t a good idea as the adhesive could develop memory and cause gaps in a floor. Keep in mind glue can dry unequally out on a jobsite and so areas exposed to direct sun and air vents will dry faster than unexposed areas when dealing with acrylic adhesives. Same can be said for urethane which is dependent on moisture from subfloors and air to dry. This again can have an impact on bowed boards installed in a floor during its installation. In any event the installers should follow the manufacturer installation instructions which may vary between manufacturers. Some want the floor to be rolled others do not specify. Rolling a wood floor with a 75 or 100 pound 3 section roller will aid in gaining transfer to the back of the wood and thus obtain bond. If the subfloor will accept the adhesive application. A burnished concrete slab may be challenging to bond to if it is not first profiled to make it more porous especially with urethane adhesives.

Have a question, post it here. Evan

04/25/2026

Setting and Managing Real Expectations

One way for retailers and flooring contractors to set and manage real expectations with buyers is with an addendum to a sales contract.

Typically the addendum should be introduced after the close of the sale where a commitment has been received from the buyer and the addendum made as a part of the sales contract prior to the sale being concluded. An addendum of this sort would be an advisory document as to what to do or not do and what to expect and when.

A couple of examples as to what you might include in your addendum would be a notice about product care and specific areas to be addressed such as natural characteristics found in wood flooring. This is especially important where a manufacturer may not provide complete care and maintenance instructions for a finished product or one where you finished the wood onsite. Typically care and maintenance instructions must be provided to a homeowner at the time of sale. It eliminates the potential for a buyer to later claim “the installer told me to use vinegar and water on the hardwood floor and now it’s ruined”. Believe me once you experience one lawsuit and how much it costs you in time and money just defending yourself, you’ll never want to go back to doing it the way you were.

With respect to informing the buyer as to proper expectations this is another area you can excel at and appear fully transparent. Remember how McDonalds got sued for hot coffee being spilled on a patrons lap? It wasn’t just the temperature of the coffee that got spilled and caused alleged injury but the fact that the coffee cup did not contain the warning “Caution Hot Coffee!” that got them into some hot water.

So if you’re selling a character grade floor, they get a character grade but the sample does not have the literally hundreds of characters in that one 2 x 2 sample on your display you may want to add to your addendum an explanation for character and what to expect.

Again it’s one thing to say it another to put into writing to protect your business as the mind gets fuzzy after a while. This is especially important for those in certain regions of the United States where a particular floor or species may be impacted greatly because of local climate conditions and your customer’s failure to maintain the climate control as recommended.

At Lauridsen Consultancy Group we offer retailer/floor contractor specific customized text for your needs to be added to your addendums to take to your attorney for review as part of our consultancy service. Call us at 972-689-5190 for a quote today.

04/09/2026

Explaining flatness and its accuracy

Q. I keep hearing about flatness but isn’t that the same as level?
A. No it’s not. Level is the same as slope. So if you were to place a level on a floor and the bubble doesn’t remain in the center, there is a slope in the floor. Flatness on the other hand is a measurement of two points. So if using a 10’ screed point A would start with the screed touching the surface and point b, which would be at 120” would touch the surface as well. Anything under that screed not touching the surface would then be the flatness measurement. That’s in a perfect world. Often along the way of that 10’ the screed may touch the surface which if it does the span has just been decreased and can no longer be reported as x” in 10’ but rather where it touches. So if it touches in the middle and the gap between screed and floor is 1/8” then it’s reported as 1/8” in 5’. When measuring all of the humps, valleys and crowns in a floor count and any coming into contact reduces the span.

Q. If span is reduced by crowns in a floor, can’t we just measure the crown?
A. Absolutely but then you are no longer measuring flatness but for a crown. To be fairly accurate you need to place a level, preferably a digital 4’ or 6’ level centered on the crown so that the gap at the ends of the level are equal in distance from the floor. If there is only one gap at the end where the level is hanging in mid air while the other end is touching the level you are then technically measuring slope in the area.

Q. Is using a screed or straightedge on top of a concrete slab an accurate way of determining flatness?
A. According to the concrete industry it’s an approximation, but normally all that’s required of installers and inspectors as it’s still recognized by the industry. But the most accurate way of determining flatness is the F number system and using a device called a dipstick which is very expensive equipment. It’s found under ASTM test method E1155. In my personal experience it has its applicability 48/72 hours after placement on the slab but I would argue it’s practicality in the flooring business especially after the concrete has cured for personal reasons I won’t get into here. It essentially uses a grid system of measurement in which it takes measurements every 2’ at which the center point 1’ a measurement is obtained and converted into an Ff number. There is a chart that is produced by the concrete industry that provides an approximate conversion into a fraction of an inch in 10’. So an Ff 50 corresponds approximately to a flatness of 1/8” in 10’ which would be a very flat floor. Most specs for flooring call for a Ff of 35. There is another method using an F meter but I won’t get into that here. Just know there are many options for determining flatness of a slab.

Q. Can an inspector use a laser level to test for flatness?
A. An inspector can do just about whatever he wants on a jobsite but the question is not what he uses but how he interprets the results. If I take a laser which I’ve done and point it at an object, and at the end of the object I produce a result, what is the result? If done correctly I obtained a slope measurement. A slope measurement is the same as level according to the concrete industry. With only some minor exceptions that’s not what the flooring industry cares about they want to know the flatness of the surface. Now I’m not saying an inspector cannot obtain flatness with laser but two things would be in question, one the accuracy of the laser as most have a tolerance listed in their technical data such as 1/16” or 1/8” and the second is determining two points which are exactly at 0”. There must be a point A and a point B within a span that both are exactly at 0” or no deviation. And somewhere would be a deviation between the laser and floor in which to capture a measurement between said two points to create a span. Sounds challenging, it is. I would put my string against any laser any time.

Q. Can an inspector measure for flatness on top of an existing floor covering?
A. Many inspectors do this including me. It’s not so much about obtaining the measurement as it is about interpretation of the results. I one time received a call from a sales rep asking me to come to a jobsite as his customer was tearing up and replacing a floor because the inspector wrote in his conclusion that flatness was off by 7/16” in 6’ and the claims department denied the claim and blamed the installers. I went there and did all my normal tests then let the installers take up the floor. What did I find? A rigid core floor that was floated over a concrete slab that was floated with patch/leveling compound. Not one area was 7/16” in 6’, in fact the vast majority was 1/16” in 6’ with the exception of one area was 1/8” in 6’. So how did the inspector get 7/16” in 6’ then? I cannot say for sure as I wasn’t there. I only know that no flooring was taken up during his inspection so he had to be measuring on top of the floor. A cupped floor (we refer to as curling). Surely the inspector would have surmised a measurement on top of a cupped floor would produce a measurement at the center of each plank and that would essentially create a “cupping measurement” but he didn’t write that in his report. He wrote that the subfloor was out of flat and he was disproven. The floor was torn up for the wrong reason as they had a subfloor moisture issue causing the curl.

Today’s webinar with FCICA attendees
02/12/2026

Today’s webinar with FCICA attendees

01/21/2026

See me live and in person next Monday at the FCITS recertification class just before Surfaces in Las Vegas. That is as long as my flight to LAS from DFW airport doesn’t get canceled because of the incoming winter storm. I have an early Sunday morning flight so hopefully not! In any event I hope to see you all at surfaces.

11/16/2025

How a wrong diagnosis code can result in a claim turndown

I sometimes hear installers and some dealers complain “they turned down my claim”, adding some choice adjectives at times. But when I’ve looked into the reasons behind the turndown sometimes I find it’s simply a coding error.

I use the example of a claim I was asked to inspect after a turndown was issued and the dealer wasn’t happy about it. The floor was previously inspected by an independent certified inspector and after his determination it was coded as an “installation error: out of flat subfloor” resulting in a cupping of an spc rigid core floor.

According to the inspector the flatness was 7/16” in 6’ which was greater than the 1/8” in 6’ allowed by the manufacturer. But upon arriving at the home and the floor taken up by the installers who were there to replace it because of what the previous inspector stated, I checked the floor for flatness using a straightedge and found it to be 1/16” in 6’ with one area of the floor 1/8” in 6’. All of it, the entire substrate was within flatness guidelines.

So how could it be mis coded like that? Well I wasn’t there so I don’t know what the inspector did or did not do to come up with that number. I can only surmise he checked on top of the floor and that the concave appearance of the floor created by the curling of edges along the long side of the planks resulted in height difference between the edges of the plank and its center which some would say was cupped. While that number may be true for an installed plank measured onsite it’s not a flatness measurement of a subfloor. I for a number of years have contended it virtually impossible for an inspector to get a very accurate reading of the subfloor underneath by measuring on top of a rigid core floating floor. However with every rule there are exceptions to a rule and so it takes a very experienced and knowledgeable inspector to make such assumptions. Still I had the proof right in front of me that the installers properly floated the subfloor with a leveling compound before installing the floor.

All that said, the curling had nothing to do with floor flatness at least on this jobsite leaving the unanswered question, what caused the curling. Upon checking attic stock I found the material to be flat which would suggest something had to occur after the fact and act as a catalyst, post installation.

As I went about checking for other alleged causes for curling the one thing that stood out to me was the concrete ongrade subfloor. It was high on my meter and so I issued a report still naming it an installation issue, but should be coded as installation- subfloor moisture related. Why installation and not site related? Only one reason because the installers didn’t test. If they had tested and documented it was within the manufacture guidelines at time of installation then it would site related subfloor moisture. Arguable you bet but without testing how do we know what it was that time of installation 

Now I don’t know about you and how you view things but there is a big difference between coding something as install-flatness versus install-subfloor moisture. I’m not saying the manufacturer will change its stance but depending on its positions a manufacturer might be more lenient about a subfloor moisture issue than a purely installation error. I want to highlight the word “more” here as most manufacturers list what subfloor moisture limits are, and can turndown claims for high moisture. So it becomes a question of “just how high was the moisture” and that I couldn’t answer as I was only doing qualitative analysis. But based on my experience I believed it to be high.

Even so there are other parties to a claim and some of those others may have a partial responsibility when it comes to subfloor moisture as I always argue that an installer owns the testing of the subfloor or at the very least must verify it was done just prior to his arrival. But what the installer doesn’t own is the moisture. He didn’t come into the home with 55 gallon drums and pour water on top of the slab. It’s not his water. But he can essentially make himself the owner of that surface by essentially accepting the conditions present at the time of install. Which is why testing is crucial because you don’t know the slab intimately and you dont need to know its future. If one tests it and its dry but then tests wet a year later because of a water leak, how is that the installers fault? Well it isn’t but the question will come up well did you test and if you say no then you’ll be asked well how do you know it wasn’t wet? When you installed it you accepted the conditions by present by installing the floor, but yet you didn’t test it. How are you not responsible? So testing is a way of protecting you from future events you have no control over.

So i started this post with how a wrong diagnosis code can result in a claim turndown and the above example even though turned down for the wrong reason was still a turndown as i explained above. But there are other times a wrong diagnosis code can result in a turndown such as: edge breakage, installer related. Absolutely installation can result in some corner or edge breakage in a given floor but when I investigated it further I found the damage occurred on the same corner and traced it back to manufacturing who then corrected the issue on the line. That resulted in a coding error and changed to manufacturing related. But it’s how one presents the evidence and supports it to truly show a manufacturing defect exists that makes a difference between whether a claim is paid or not.

A big part of that is use of terminology and correctly applying it. If you say something is cupping but it’s really peaking that creates a totally different scenario in the mind of the claims analyst which is why it’s best to just explain what it’s doing instead of applying a label which maybe wrong. That’s best left to the experts but just like anything you can find good inspectors and the not so good, which maybe another reason for being highly selective especially when you are the one doing the requesting. tn

11/04/2025

Welcome new and not so new friends following this page.

While I’ve typically picked a topic and wrote some detailed response I thought it would be interesting to have a casual conversation on any flooring and related questions you might have had. A bit of a Q&A session.

So what’s on your mind?

09/17/2025

Help me to help you. Please invite your flooring friends to like my page and follow. Right after the live training I’ll be doing at the synergy convention I’ll be sharing with you some other live and over the web training I’ll be offering in complaint prevention and what to do (and not do) when you have a claim. I have a passion for this after spending years as an installer, then as a dealer and finally working for manufacturers in fixing the huge disconnect the lack of synergies we could be doing together to prevent complaints from occurring on the jobsite. I’ve been told by some naysayers what I’m doing will never work and I disagree. Let us refuse to be defeated and rise up to the occasion and do this. Attend one of my live presentations and learn how. More info to come

09/17/2025

Those of you going to my session tomorrow it is at 10:30am in the Evergreen room at the Synergy convention. There was a mixup on the internet page via the QR code on the time scheduled but it is correct in the printed program and signage at the show. Don’t miss out because I’ll be sharing information you may not get anywhere else and may just change your lives!

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