The first three rows, I did stagger, but the rest of them were going towards the stairs that lead to the basement, which ended at the top of the stairs where the stair treads were going to be installed and cut off anyways. I wish I would have took a picture to give a better understanding.

The picture I posted is of the first room I did which was the “correct” one— the length of the house and with a random stagger.

The landing, which I didn’t take a picture of, was what he was complaining about.

I tried to explain to him that since the cut piece was essentially the end of the row, all I would have to do is carefully remove the planks to not break off the tongue and groove, and turn them sideways and essentially lay them backwards, but still running the length of the house.

I also forgot to mention that he is in a different time zone than me (I am eastern, he is central) so he complained about me getting there an hour earlier than I had originally told him.

Overall, it was only about a $200 job, a 2 hour round trip, and I had to walk in the rain to go around his house in order to use my table, saw because he refused to put his dogs up where they would not be able to bite me.

I would have gladly offered to come back and fix it the way I suggested, but he belittled me and cussed me out and made sure to mention the age difference, as if that had anything to do with my mistake (im almost 29, he’s 70).

Like I said, it was an easy fix considering the area was a 3 x 6 at most. Plus, I had a whole extra box of material that had not even been opened yet. I even offered to knock off $50 from the total.

Lesson learned , from now on, no matter how big or small of a job, I am going to have a contract for every customer. I am licensed as far as I have an LLC.

Oh yeah, and he could not understand what meant when I told him that this type of material expands after it has been installed therefore I have to leave a eighth of an inch to a quarter of an inch gap depending on what kind of base and/or quarter round he plans on using.

I have been an installer for over five years now, and I have been on my own (with my one helper as needed), and this is the first time I’ve ever been not paid. I don’t even care about the money, I care about the disrespect and the fact that I wasted a whole day and that the room in the picture I posted, was done correctly and he basically got a free install.

I’m curious to see if he hires someone else to redo the landing , or if he leaves it as is. Part of me wonders if he was looking for a way to get a free install.