Hardwood Horror Stories with Hunter Ross: Learning from Expert Mistakes

What Are Your Top 4 Hardwood Horror Stories?

Every beautiful home renovation starts with a dream, but without proper planning and expertise, that dream can quickly become a nightmare. Hunter Ross sheds light on the hardwood flooring industry by sharing four jaw-dropping installation disasters that will have you rethinking your approach to home improvement projects.

The first cautionary tale follows a homeowner who chose to ignore expert advice in favor of a bargain price, only to face the painful reality that cutting corners on specialized work like hardwood flooring typically means paying twice. As Hunter explains, "If somebody is really good at their job and you've done your research on them... it's better to take their advice because you're going to save a lot of money, time and heartache." This story serves as a powerful reminder that expertise comes at a price—but inexperience costs far more.

The podcast then delves into an unexpected plumbing disaster where a nail pierced a hidden, improperly placed pipe during what should have been routine baseboard installation. This harrowing experience teaches listeners to never assume previous contractors completed their work correctly and highlights the importance of working with professionals who can handle emergencies efficiently. The final disaster revolves around scheduling complications, driving home the crucial message that quality craftsmanship requires realistic timelines with built-in flexibility.

These stories collectively underscore the value of working with established professionals who specialize in hardwood flooring rather than generalists promising unrealistic results. Whether you're planning a renovation or simply fascinated by construction mishaps, this episode delivers practical wisdom wrapped in entertaining tales from the frontlines of flooring. Ready to avoid becoming the star of your own renovation horror story? Subscribe now and learn from others' mistakes before making your own.

To learn more about Wood Floors of Dallas visit:
https://www.WoodFloorDallas.com
Wood Floors of Dallas
159 W. Main St., Suite 200
Lewisville, Texas 75057
972-525-0026

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
Welcome to the Wood Floors of Dallas podcast, where
we bring expert insights onhardwood flooring design and
craftsmanship, hosted by HunterRoss, owner of Wood Floors of
Dallas, with over 20 years inthe building product industry.
Whether you're a homeowner or ageneral contractor, we're here

(00:27):
to help you create amazingspaces with honor, quality and
expertise.
Let's get started.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
Not all flooring projects have a fairy tale
ending.
In this episode, Hunter Rossshares with us four
unforgettable hardwoodinstallation disasters and the
key takeaways every homeownerand contractor should know.
Welcome back everyone.
I'm Sofia Yvette, co-host andproducer, back in the studio
today with Hunter Ross, owner ofWood Floors of Dallas Hunter

(01:07):
how are you, hey, sophia, I'mgreat good to see you.
Great, good to see you again too.
Now I've been looking forwardto this one.
There is nothing like a goodflooring horror story to remind
us why experience matters.
So, hunter, what are your topfour hardwood horror stories?

Speaker 3 (01:29):
All right, so we'll just we'll dive into them
because they're prettyridiculous.
Not all of them I did, okay, solet's just be real clear about
that.
I was there to pick up thepieces and most of them, but
okay.
So, right off the the bat andthere's a lesson in this is that
if I'm telling you what youneed to do and you don't believe

(01:51):
me, um, that's on you, it's noton me.
Okay, that's that's.
You come to me because I'm anexpert.
So you ask me for my advice andI tell you and if you don't
want to heed that advice, thencall me later when it screws up.
So that's where it starts.
We had a client not too long agoand very you know nice lady,
very thorough in her questions,pretty well educated.

(02:14):
She had done her research, shehad done, she had talked to a
number of different people.
We were one of the flooringcompanies, the flooring experts
that she talked to, one of thepeople that she was getting an
estimate from, basically kind oflike promised her the world and
promised her it could be donein no time and promised her it
could be done for a lot lessmoney.
Okay, and this is a complicatedjob.

(02:37):
This is they have existingsolid hardwood.
This is getting it needs to get.
Basically it's called lacing inor weaved in to the existing
hardwood, solid hardwood floors.
You've got a lot of preparation, all these types of things that
had to go on, and we explainedall these things to her and she
basically just said hey, listen,you know.
This guy said that's not right.
It's like okay.

(02:57):
Needless to say, she didn't gowith us.
She let the other contractor,who we like to call Chuck, in a
truck, you know.
It's like hey, yeah, I can doanything.
My name's Chuck, you know, fixa light bulb, build you a
building, change your toilet,all the things.
And it's no different than ahandyman.
We're talking about people whoclaim to be experts at
everything, right, so, anyhow.

(03:19):
So she called us back like twoand a half, three months later
and she was like hey, can youcome look at this?
And we were like why do youwant us to come look at it?
And?
And we were like why do youwant us to come look at it?
And she's like well, I made amistake.
I didn't listen to you.
Just exactly what you told mewas going to happen happened.
The guy completely messed up.
He didn't know what he wasdoing.
He tried to come back and fixit again after it was done and
it didn't work.

(03:40):
Blah, blah, blah, blah.
We go out there, we look ateverything and now what we were
supposed to charge her?
Now we have to charge her evenmore because now we have to
completely undo all the problemsthat this guy made.
We explain this to her and shestill says, no, that doesn't
make any sense, I don't want todo it, I'll find somebody else.
And I'm like I don't know howmany times we have to, like,

(04:03):
help you and tell you the honestinformation before you believe
it.
But in her case she didn't wantto listen the first time.
She didn't want to listen thesecond time.
So the moral of that story is,if somebody is really good at
their job and you've done yourresearch on them and you've been
very thorough in yourexplanation and all that, it's

(04:24):
better to take their advice,because you're going to save a
lot of money, time and heartacheover time than you would if you
went with somebody else.
Right?
If you go with the expert,you're going to get what you
asked for the first time andmost of the time you're going to
save money on that projectbecause you're not going to have
to redo it.
All right.
So that's lesson one.
Lesson two, when it comes tohorror stories, is never count

(04:49):
on somebody else that was therebefore you to do the right thing
, all right.
For example, at one job we wereinstalling, we had gotten an
entire beautiful floor laid fora client.
Okay, we're going around andwe're installing baseboards.
This is the final thing that wedo at the end of the greatest
installation.
So we're installing baseboardsand all of a sudden, one of my

(05:12):
guys calls me and he's like wehave a problem, there's water,
there's water, and I'm like whatis happening?
So we race over there, we getthe water shut off, we, the
house, flooded.
It wasn't bad, it wasn't likereal bad.
We could, we cleaned up andwe're able to, you know, remove
some floors and fix it orwhatever.
But what happened was somebodyhad gone in long before we were

(05:36):
there and behind the sheetrockthey had put plumbing in there
that did not belong right there,on the baseboard level.
Somebody had just kind of likefixed it all up and thrown it in
the bottom of the wall and soas soon as we hit the nail
through the wall, it pierced thepipe that was inside the wall
that was not supposed to bethere.
So the point to that is youwould hope that everybody else

(05:59):
did their job before you, right,like the plumber and stuff like
that.
But you just always have to beready for emergencies.
In this case it's don't wasteany time.
Hey, something bad happens,like call the boss, you know,
call the homeowner, callsomebody, get it taken care of
immediately so it doesn't turninto a bigger issue.
But that one was bad.
It was very sad because thehomeowner had been waiting so

(06:20):
long for our house to getfinished and we were literally
finishing and this happened.
So that was, yeah, that was fun.
The clients sometimes, whencatastrophe happens, will
surprise you, even if they'reall nervous or they're very
ready for you to get out oftheir house because you've been
working there for a while orsomething, and then a
catastrophe happens.

(06:40):
And it's so funny becausesomeone would just laugh with
you and be like of course thishappens, but okay.
So Another horror story dealingwith scheduling issues.
It's so rare when you have abunch of people involved in a
project that no mistakes everhappen, because people are human

(07:02):
.
We're not flawed, but what wetry to do is plan.
We always try to plan ahead asmuch as you possibly can and
leave some space for timing andstuff like that, much as you
possibly can and leave somespace like for timing and stuff
like that.
But it this is I mean, this isa one-off thing and I just want
to be real clear because this issomething we pride ourselves in
as being very like on pointwith our schedule.
But I have to be transparentbecause this is real right.

(07:24):
We had scheduled a client's job.
Everything was lined outperfectly, and this is a solid
hardwood install which itbasically takes three weeks to
do.
They have all these deadlinesthat they have to get
accomplished and all thesethings.
Well, this is a true story.
So we had to move the starttime of this job a few days

(07:47):
forward because just some otherscheduling things that happened,
like I said, rare, but ithappens.
The day that we're supposed toget there to show up and start
our installation, my crewliterally has to leave to go
somewhere else to take care ofsome family emergencies.
This sounds like it's made up.

(08:08):
When I said it out loud to theclient it sounded like it made
up, but it was serious.
My foreman's mother got really,got really sick, he had to go
take care of her.
That was the bottom line, right, but we had already moved the
schedule a little bit.
So now and we have multipleguys that work for us with you
know, a lot of crews that workfor us, etc.
But just so happens on this job, when we had to have everything

(08:31):
lined up perfectly for them toget in this deadline that they
were hitting um, the crew showsup or the crew can't show up
because he has to go take careof his mom.
I can't get anybody else therefor another week.
So the catastrophe startedthere and it just went downhill
and downhill and downhill fromthere.
So when it comes to timing, whenit comes to planning and it

(08:55):
comes to the strategy behindgetting everything done in your
house, always give yourselfcushion.
I tell people when they'regetting a project done in their
home.
When you start something likethis, you have to get your head
and your heart right, because ifyou're not prepared emotionally
and mentally for the stress ofhaving a bunch of people in your
house, there's a good chanceit's going to crash and burn.

(09:18):
And the other part of that isdon't try to get your schedule
and all the things you'replanning so tight that you can't
handle a change.
It's something I hear fromclients all the time.
I have to have it done by thispoint and for that, to that end,
we tell clients all the time.
That sounds great.

(09:39):
I really hope that works outfor you.
But if you want it to be doneright, we can't meet that
timeline.
You should have called me twomonths ago so we can plan this.
So just be prepared.
If you're going to be doing ahome renovation project, don't
expect that anybody that'sreally good at're going to be
doing a home renovation project,don't expect that anybody
that's really good at their jobto be able to jump on it next
week because we have otherclients then we're always
working right.

(10:00):
So, yeah, take care of yourselfby giving yourself some more
space in your and planning time.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Yeah, wow wow, now those are some very helpful
insights.
Hunter, before you go today, doyou mind summarizing all the
main takeaways for our listeners?
Just a quick recap.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, I think I can.
We'll go backwards.
So first things first, giveyourself plenty of time when
you're scheduling things.
Don't try to cram your foreignwork and your contractor's work
and everything into a reallytight schedule, cause there's
just so many you know room forfor problems to happen.
The second thing is always beprepared for emergencies and
don't expect anybody else thatcomes before you to do their

(10:41):
work properly, because it canflood your your customer's house
.
And then the other thing isreally, really trust the experts
.
Trust the experts.
Save yourself time andheartache and money by paying
someone the right amount ofmoney to do something very
technical and very special theright way.
Flooring is not a simple thing,especially some things like

(11:04):
solid hardwood.
Pay the person who is the bestto do it the right way the first
time.
And when you make a mistake,don't you know as far as making
a mistake on who to pick.
Don't continue to make the samemistake over and over again.
Just call it.
Call it a lesson.
Get it done the right way soyou don't have to deal with it
anymore yep, wow.

Speaker 2 (11:24):
Well, thank you, hunter, for not only sharing
those stories with us today, butfor filling us in on those life
lessons that you learned alongthe way yourself.
We'll catch you in the nextepisode.
Have a fantastic rest of yourday.
Thanks, sophia.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
Have a good one.
Thanks for tuning in to WoodFloors of Dallas podcast.
Ready to transform your space?
Call 972-525-0026 for a freein-home consultation or visit
woodfloordallascom to learn more.

(12:03):
Work with honor.
Build with excellence.
See you next time.