A few months ago my team and i was working on a Oak veneer floor in Hertfordshire, the client had just moved in and was having lots of work being carried out by various trades, We was approached by the carpenter who was contracted to fit the clients kitchen, Wow what a great job your making of this floor he said, What are you going to seal it with he asked. Hard wax oil we replied, Great he said and then went on to tell us that he had a couple of veneered floors at his home that he had attempted to sand himself and had made a terrible job of it. He asked me for my phone number and gladly i gave him it. He popped by a couple of times after that and again told us how great we were and how great the job was, the guy seemed very enthusiastic and didn't stop telling us what a great job we had made.

For the sake of this Blog and to keep the (Carpenter guys) identity from being known, We will call him Rupert.

Rupert called me some weeks later and asked if i could go round to his house and take a look at his floors, So i arranged a convienient time for us both and arrived for the appointment on time. I noticed CCTV Cameras outside his front doors which i thought nothing of at first. Rupert answered the door with a welcoming smile and a handshake, He took me to what he called his games room on the ground floor, It was a walnut veneered strip floor, It had horrible ripples running through it where Rupert had attempted to sand it with a HSS drum sander and the edges had not even been attempted but had been Varnished along with the rest of the floor, I checked the veneer thickness at the threshold where the edges were exposed, we had a good 5mm to work with, but i explained that maybe the ripples were too deep, but we would see what we could do to try and straighten it all out. I asked Rupert what finish he would like and he replied "Exactly what you put on the floor at the house i met you at in Hertfordshire". Hardwax i said, Yes thats the one he said. OK i said, Matt or Satin, Matt he replied but ill have to check with my wife. I did not measure the floor as i thought to myself ill do this fellow tradesman a favour, he seems a really ok guy.

We continued to the first floor where there was a pre-finished Oak veneer, He told me about a flood he had had with a fish tank, this had made the floor Kick up around the edges and some gapping was appearing all over, but considering the amount of water that had been spilt, It really wasn't that bad. He mentioned that he had had an insurance claim. But the floor had not been replaced, Perhaps he claimed for damage to ceilings and decor, I didn't ask. The Oak floors pre-finish had gone somewhat orange and looked like it needed re-finishing, plus Rupert was considering colouring the floor Walnut, so i suggested a re-sand, Stain and Hardwax the same as we had discussed down stairs with the finish on the Walnut floor. Yes, Yes Rupert had replied, Great i replied. Ok so we want to Sand and Hardwax the Walnut down stairs and Sand, Stain and Hardwax the Oak floor, Yes please, Rupert replied. Well we'll call it £600 pounds Rupert i replied. Great Rupert replied, Ill give you cash. great i replied but i will give you an Invoice and Work order and my terms and conditions as i like to keep things straight, I said. Yes. Fine said Rupert, and i will require a deposit either 5 days before works commence or a cash payment on the day. Yes. Fine Rupert said. With this all said and done we shook hands and the deal was done. How long will it take Rupert asked, Well it should be two days but allow three days just to make sure as i do not like to rush the job. Great Rupert replied and we agreed a date, Then Ruperts wife appeared holding a piece of silvery grey material in her hands. Hi she said im (we'll call her Sharon) Sharon, Hi sharon i replied, can you take a look at this she asked passing me the piece of Silver material. Could you make this floor the same colour as this material so it will match my furniture. Wow i said, Maybe i could make something along the lines but not exactly the same, Obviously i realise it wouldn't been the same she said but something around this nold out misty effect. I explained i had seen some new type of mettallic hardwax at my suppliers and that i would experiment with some stains and wax on some samples for her and we could give it a try, but i said to her, It would be the first time i've done anything like this appart from messing around on small pieces of samples .so you may have to reconsider the staining Walnut idea if something goes wrong, Fine they both agreed we would stain the floor and go with plan A if problems occured.

We had some more meaningless chit chat and then i left. I left feeling confident i could make a nice job of these nice peoples floors, inspired for there enthusiasm and slightly, just slightly a tiny bit unneasy, because i hadn't charged more for the extra work Ruperts wife had asked for, we had sort of already sealed the deal before she showed up and it felt a bit meen for me to be going back on that, as i drove further my mind calculated the price i had given for the standard services which was way to low for about 40 m2 of hardwood it should have been £800 at the least and then i had not weighed up the odds properly for a specilised finish which would have made it at least a thousand pounds. I had got so caught in all the enthusiasm buzzing around me at the meeting, that i had forgot to up the price. Still i managed to dismiss this with the fact there were two easy sands a coat of stain on one and couple of coats of hardwax on both one be it silver and besides it would be a learning curve and a good chance to see what this new product looked like, which could also open some new avenues for my Company.

How right i was, it would certainly be a learning curve either way at least. But not the sort of lesson i was looking for.

We arrived prompt at 830 am on the Monday morning with full intention of getting both floors prepped and at least one coat of Hardwax on the Walnut floor and a coat of stain on the Oak floor before we left on the first day, leaving the next day to apply one further coat on the Walnut floor and two coats one being the mettalic wax i had obtained from my suppliers on the Oak floor.

Rupert greeted us when we arrived, handed me a deposit in an envelope and i gave him a receipt. He made us tea while we fetched in our euipment. Once tea was ready he had a smoke with us outside the house, chatting. Rupert stayed the whole of the first day watching it seemed everything we did and asking question after question on what we was doing, with his wife supplying a constant flow of Tea and Coffee. What a great job, Lovely people plenty of brew can't ask for more we thought, besides im always happy talking about what we do so the constant questions wasn't that much of a bother for me.

Rupert asked if i would put some Bona gap fill in the gaps upstairs on the Oak floor, I did this for him no problem, I had to use a similar colour to what we were going to stain the floor and it turned out to be a medium brown so i applied the filler a couple of hours prior to us sanding the Oak floor. My partner took a couple of hours to sand the walnut floor upto a lovely smooth ripple free 120 grit and ready for hardwaxing of which i was carrying out while he would be sanding the Oak upstairs.

The Oak floor took a little longer to prep as pre-finishes are usually a lot deeper into the grain than what waterbourne finishes are, so we started with a 36 grit to clean off the old solvent pre-finish and worked upto a 120 grit finish through the grades which is pretty standard stuff to us. We proceeded to stain the floor the desired colour and after tidying up we left for the evening getting exactly done what we had planned, tomorrow we would put the final coat of wax on the Walnut floor and put two coats of the speciality finish on the Oak and hopefully achieve what had been approved on the sample i had supllied, which admittably looked really good but very Ikea to me personally.

We arrived promt the next morning, Rupert greeted us, then shot off to go and do some work himself, Sharon made us a nice cup of tea, which we drunk outside while having a smoke. We put the final coat of Matt hardwax on the Walnut floor and then set about applying the coloured wax on the Oak floor, The first coat went down well but was hard work getting all the colour into the Oaks grain, Once the first coat was put on i suggested us getting the buffer to apply the second as my arms were dropping off, It would make it easier to get Even, I explained to my collegue.

We popped back to the depot picked up the machine, some buffing pads and returned a few hours later, we waited for the first coat to dry and then buffed in a second coat, but the opacity was not the same as the sample i had carried out, the two coats on the sample board was a lot more metallic this was looking like a washed out beige and around the edges had gone darker, It didn't look nice, so i called Sharon to show her. She was optomistic saying that she quite liked the effect, I explained the patchyness around the edges and into the threshold, she agreed, then Rupert turned up, He agreed on quite liking it, But asked us to wait until the next morning and we could take a look in the daylight, He then looked at the end of the room where we had had to cut in around a TV stand, Looks patchy here he said, I explained we could not properly get to that point without removing the stand and he suggested us all moving the stand and re- sanding that area before we left, to complete the job. We agreed and continued into the night to sand an area that should have been exposed for us in the first place, OK we should have pointed this out at the time, but we thought the dark going into a shaded area would be sufficent to mask the slight change, but Rupert was insistant that we finished this before we went. We eventually finished up at about 11:15 pm, I passed Rupert our invoice and he replied, I think we better take a look in the morning first, We arranged to meet at 10.00 am.

Rupert and Sharon were waiting when I arrived, i could see from there facial expressions that they were not happy, Well i said, how does it look, Not too good, Rupert replied, It looks patchy, thats what i said last night, i replied, well what would you propose we do then, Rupert replied. I would opt for cutting it back with a fine disc and re-applying some more coloured wax, which may smooth out the patchyness. Why have we got wax on these floors anyway, Rupert said. Because that is what you asked for Rupert, i replied, But we wanted something that would be tough and maintenance free, Sharon said. But you asked for Hardwax, I told you the pro's and cons and you agreed that was what you wanted. i explained. May i suggest re-sanding both floors and having a matt lacquer, Rupert replied. We did not want hardwax. But hold on i said, we went through this, the sample i showed you was hardwax. Well Rupert replied, The sample is not the same as what we have on this floor, So we would like it Stained Dark and Matt Lacquer put on. But that means a re-sand. I said which i can't do right now as i have other commitments and besides it will cut down the life span of the floor. Thats Ok, Rupert said, It is ok to sand again, Yes i replied but i wouldn't give it a heavy sand, Just a light one starting with a 50 grit, what about the walnut floor downstairs. I asked, Yes we would like lacquer on that also, Rupert replied. Right i said. Well we can reschedule for some time next week i explained. No it has to be done by the end of this week. Rupert replied. We have guest coming to stay and we need both rooms ready for Friday. Wow i said, Its just not possible, Unless i call in another sander to carry out the prep and i can finish it. Yes can we do that Rupert replied. ill see what i can do, I said.

I walked out of the house in disbelief, I could believe that they denied wanting Hardwax at all, Blatently lying to my face, I was half expecting them to laugh out loud tell me not really and pay me up, Now i had been given the job of footing the bill to Re-sand and Lacquer both floors when i was only coming to collect what money was left owing to me.

This was the point when i shoud have backed out. Forgotten my pride and just taken the loss, besides it was peanuts left owing to me, In fact the whole job was being done for peanuts. I wished then that i had never started this job. Something told me at the time we first met that this guy was too friendly, my collegue had also commented at the time.

Damage limitation had me calling a guy i knew, to find out if he could help me out, He could. Great we needed to nip this in the bud and get out fast as these customers were turning very awkward. I phoned Rupert and told him my Guy would be with him at 830 am, Rupert thanked me.

I met Rob at the Job the following day, He ushered me to the side and said. What the hells going on here, why are we re-sanding this. I told him and he frowned. look i said, I messed up the effect on the waxing and now they want Lacquer so we give them lacquer. Ok Rob said, Ill have both ready to coat by 5 oclock. Great i said, Ill see you back here then. Cool He said.

I returned at 5 to see Rupert having a smoke with Rob outside the front door, I joined them. We will need to do a stain test to see if your happy with this stain colour Rupert. i said. Yes. Ok Rupert replied. I quicky finished my fag and shot upstairs to see how the floors were looking. All good. Great i thought, Just need to stain and 3 coats of Varnish then i can put this to bed.
I put a test patch down, waited 20 mins for the solvent burned off and called Rupert and Sharon. They entered the room took 1 look at the stain and both said. Yes, thats the colour. Yes. Rupert seemed to approve everything thing with sharp. Yes. Great i replied ' Lets stain it up'. Luke gave me a hand buffing off as i applied the stain. Rob then went down and proceeded to coat up the walnut floor with polyurethane Lacquer. Both floors needed de-nibbing on all but last coats, but that was pretty standard stuff and all in all the final coat seemed to go on very nice.

By the time i had put the final coat on the Oak floor Rob had already packed away all the machines and tools, It just left the roller and trough that were in my hand, Rupert was watching closely as he had since i got there, Sharon i assumed had gone to bed. Right Rupert thats us done i said, finally. It was now about 11:15 pm. OK then Rupert replied, I guess we'll have a meeting tomorrow and see if we are happy. Right i said, but i really need some sort of payment now, i have to pay Rob he's been here all day, well i would like to see the floor, Look i said i need to pay Rob, you give me half of what you owe, Have your friends come and stay at the weekend, Ill call you in a couple of weeks and if there's any more problems ill glady put them right, if not ill collect the remainder of my money then. Right, Yes, OK Rupert said, But my money is in my safe, which is on the other side of the walnut floor. The floors OK to go across a voice said, It was Rob. In socks you'll be OK now, he explained. OK Rupert said. He counted me out 50% of the final amount. We bid him goodnight and drove home, Walking to the van Rob said. Reckon you should take that and forget the rest. No Mate im sure it'll be OK the jobs good, it looked the business. Yeh it did. We agreed, I said, Bet the guys gonna want his money back next. Or a new floor. Rob said, We both laughed.

2 weeks quickly past, So i decided to call Rupert and perhaps chase up the rest of my cash, Hi Ruperts hows things i asked, yes good. Ok so hows the floor. Yes Sharon and I was just discussing that. OK So, Well wer'e a bit unhappy with some of it, The edges around the Walnut floor are a bit poor and i think there may be a bit of grain raise. Fine i said, thats OK, I will be able to pop by next week and rectify that. Ok he said, he then said, erm can i call you back in a moment. Right OK I said. He never called back.

I dabbled with the idea of not returning and forgetting the money, but then thought, Actually No, We did a good job, It cost me to pay for 2 lots of materials and 2 lots of labour. No I thought i deserve to be payed for this and besides if the edges are not right and there's grain raise then i would want to put it right anyway. So i waited for the call. It never came.

A couple of weeks later and after nearly forgetting about the Rupert job, I was prompted by an email that i received in my inbox.
This is what it said:

Dear ******,

Sorry that it has taken us almost a week to get back to you but we have been looking into possible solutions for the floors.

Here's where we stand at present:

*Despite 3 attempts at each floor, we remain dis-satisfied with the finishes:

*We have had to compromise on the finish of the living room floor despite receiving a sample, which we approved, from you.

*The gaps in the living room floor which have been filled have not taken the stain and therefore stand out considerably.

*The edges of the games room floor are very bad and inconsistent with the rest of the floor.

*Generally, both floors have glupy marks where they were rushed in order to finish and coats were applied without leaving the reccommended amount of time in between.

*Each floor has now been sanded 3 times.

As a result of the above points, we have taken advice from the manufacturer of the floors and another floor sanding company based in St Albans and all agree that it would be very risky to re-sand the floor yet again in order to rectify the problems. Also, in addition to this, due to such a lot of sanding we have now lost the life span of the floors and they will have to be replaced much sooner than we anticipated. Therefore, we really do think that at this stage that we need to have the floors replaced rather than go through the upheaval and risk of another sanding.

However we are willing to compromise if you are in agreement with either of the following options:

*You 'touch-up' the existing finishes and not re-sand completely to achieve a reasonable finish. However should you break through the remaining veneers in the process, the floors will need to be replaced at your cost.

OR:

*You refund the money paid by us to date.

Please can you let us know urgently whether this is acceptable to you as we will need to consider further action if not as soon as possible.

Many thanks,

Rupert and Sharon

I stared at the email in disbelief, I read it over and over, I couldn't believe this. I composed myself after thinking of all the bad things i could do, Stopped and thought. This was now no laughing matter, Replying to the email without seeing the floor would have been foolish. So I called Rupert, I made no sign of being disgruntled, was polite, but to the point and arranged to go over and take a look the following saturday.

I arrived prompt on the Saturday morning on ringing the bell I was greeted by Rupert, Hi i said, Hi How are you Rupert replied, Fine i said. We did not shake hands, To be honest i didn't want to, I felt our bond had broken and I knew by now, that these people were trying to take me for a fool, I knew what they wanted, what does any disgrunteled customer ever want. Compensation was on there minds, I could smell it.

Right, Sharon are you coming, Rupert called Sharon and lead the way to the walnut floor, As we approached i could see it was nice and smoove and the matt varnish had a nice build, Right i said, can you point out what the problem is, its around the edges isn't it. Yes over hear. Rupert was pointing to the edge. Yes it did look a little unsightly, The wax had not been sanded off completely and the slightly yellow wax was showing through in a couple of places, I explained that it was a light sand, done in poor lighting, which had caused it. OK i said, not commenting further. I jotted this down in a pad i was holding, What else i said, Well the seal looks a little glupy, Rupert was hovering around trying to catch the glupyness in the light, Its somewhere around here, eventually he gave up and said, Shall we take a look upstairs then. OK, I said. Sharon was now with us, Oh Sharon where were those glupy marks,Rupert said, Upstairs on the other floor, She said, No they were here too, i caught them in the light, I said, Do you agree though that this looks a whole lot better than the job you made of it, well yes but we are still not happy with it, OK I said.

Approaching the floor upstairs i could see that it looked really nice, OK i said whats the problem here, The colour, Sharon piped up, Yes, we hate it. Rupert said. Hold on i said, You chose the colour, You rushed us into choosing this colour, Rupert said. No I said, you specifically asked for Dark Oak, I showed you a sample on the floor and you approved this. No we didn't, Sharon piped up again. OK i said, Things were getting heated now, so i pulled out, took a step back and said, Right what next. The filler, I can see the filler in the gap running parallel from the hall, Rupert explained. Thats because the floor was originally stained a lighter colour and i match the original colour with mastic filler that is not stainable. Well i don't like it, It shows up, But, I said, If i had used saw dust and resin or any other stainable filler, it would crack. Because the floor is moving where you had the accident with the fish tank, I explained. Right is there anything else. Yes Rupert said, There is glupy marks, Rupert and Sharon was both now looking at the floor from all angles to show me these glupy marks. here Rupert said, look here. I looked. Where i said, here Rupert pointed. Right i said. Can you see it Rupert said. Not really i said, but OK. So what do you think, Rupert said. I think i will go home and answer your email. I said. I bid them both a good weekend and left.

This was the worst case of horrible two faced customers i have evr encountered, Rupert being a small tradesman himself knew it too, Perhaps his wife was making him do this or perhaps he did this all the time, Maybe that would explain the CCTV he had pointing at his front door, perhaps that would explain why he had to keep his precious fold of cash in his hidden safe or perhaps he was just so hard up that he really needed his money, the guy certainly didn't seem this way, but had more than proved that he was to me.

I wrote back, gave him answers to all his questions and offered £100 pounds as a way of goodwill jesture and a recoat on both floors in the future to maintain the finish and help with there lifespan, This little lot would have totalled about £450 pounds, I refused to go back and re-do the edges, as the threat of having to pay for new floors if i broke through the veneers was too much. This i thought was more than generous as there was actually nothing wrong with the floors, they looked very nice to me and believe me, I see a lot of floors, I would have been happy myself if they were mine and i have a fine eye for quality. There was no mention of his St albans floor sander guy actually seeing the floor as i know they would charge for this and i knew Rupert would not have parted with a call out fee, No way, i would have like to have seen a report at that, because no flooring contractor would honestly say the floors looked bad, in the same scenario, If i was inspecting the work and it had been done by someone else, I would have told the customer that the floor was fine, yes the edges were a little unsightly but unless you were looking up real close at them, you would never notice and considering the floor was sanded in poor light there was no wonder, But it wasn't perfect i had no real excuse and i would of gladly put it right if they had not got all legal on me, so i felt a good will gesture would settle this up as it was obvious they were only after squeezing my hard earned cash out of me and they had not even payed up there bill in the first place.So i was being more than fair, most others i know in the trade would have told them both to F off, but i always remain professional with my clients.

A week past with no reply, i thought they had seen sense and decided to leave it at that, but i was wrong, I received another email with this letter attached.

Dear ••••••,
Thank-you for your email and apologies for the delay in our response; we have been away on holiday.
Unfortunately, we are not satisfied with your response and have therefore looked into the matter further. The offer of £100.00 and a ‘refresh’ on the floors is not acceptable as the floors need re-doing completely.
Having sought advice, we are happy that we have complied with our legal requirements on contractual law and have given you a reasonable opportunity to rectify the floors however we remain unhappy with the compromise due to the following reasons:

• Both finishes on both floors were agreed between us prior to works beginning and neither have been achieved successfully. We even had to compromise on the finish to the living room floor as you were unable to supply the sample that you provided. You were also aware of the gap in the living room floor at the time of estimation, as this was one of the main reasons that we wanted the floor sanding, which you said that you could fill. At no point did you mention that this was carried out through your ‘good nature’ as you put it.

• The lifespans of both our floors have been considerably shortened due to sanding three times on each therefore we will never obtain the full value of them as we are unable to now re-sand.

• An independent expert has looked at the floors and advised that to rectify them would mean re-sanding which cannot be attempted at this stage.
The fact that you stayed at our home in an attempt to complete the job which was unsuccessful was certainly not at our request but because, despite having not finished the job, you informed us that you could not return the following day to do so; thus leaving us completely upside-down which was simply unacceptable.
You have already admitted the following in writing:
‘we were unable to achieve the desired effect’
Re the gaps in the living room floor: ‘quality was compromised around the edges on the re-sand’
Re the gaps in the living room floor: ‘I had to use silicone which is not stainable’
‘I agree that the lifespan of the floors has been shortened’
‘I do understand that you expected a high quality finish and I did not quite achieve this for you’
The bottom line is that we have two floors that look dreadful, in our opinion, and have no way of putting them right as we are unable to re-sand, therefore we are forced to now go to the expense of replacing them at around £1500.00 per floor plus fitting costs.

As a result, we still agree to compromise as per our previous correspondence by either of the following options:
•. You improve the floors to a reasonable finish without breaking through the veneer which would have to be replaced at your cost should this occur.
•. You refund all monies paid by us to date.

Should neither of the above be acceptable to you then we will be forced to take the matter further and make a claim against you for the replacement of the floors in full.

We would be very grateful if you could respond at your earliest convenience as we really would like to get the floors sorted as soon as possible.
Yours sincerely,
Rupert and Sharon Succubus

Unbelievable i thought, I showed the letter to my wife, who asked me, How much is it to date that they have paid you. £420 in all i replied, Ive offered them £450 in services as good will but they are after more. So why won't you just go back and put the floors right, She said. because, I said. the floors probably won't cope with another sand and besides, you know what, I wouldn't go back if they owed me a million pounds, Im sick of these people, Rupert is a disgrace to tradesman, i was doing him a favour and i feel he has emptied his bowels straight on top of me, the guys unbelievable pretending to be all nice to my face and then robbing me blind, I won't give him a penny now, I was getting angry now. Hold on my wife said, How much will it cost to get a solicitor on this, maybe you'll win the case, maybe not, Maybe you could put it right, But really how much do you need that 420 pounds, Its only 420 pounds for gods sake, a days money, Well a good day i said. Darling these people will have you turning cartwheels while pulling out your own hair all for the sake of a few measley pounds, They must really need the money. They must i replied, i was now making light of the situation, i tell you what ill give them back there poxy 420, its little to pay for not seeing there swarmy faces again.

I replied to there email, telling them that i would pay them back all they had paid me, and sent a cheque.

I have not heard from them again, I hope they enjoyed there money,I learned a big lesson from this, I will never be turned over this way again as i now make customers sign dissclaimers on everything and favours are not something i will do for anyone again, these types of people are everywhere, people go on about rogue traders but never mention the Rogue clients.

So beware of Wolfs in sheeps clothing, They're everywere.