That homeowner in Scottsdale told me to glue down her carpet over a floating floor

I was doing a bid in Scottsdale last Tuesday and the lady insisted I glue her new nylon carpet directly to her click-lock LVP floor because she wanted it 'permanent.' I tried explaining the LVP would buckle and the glue would never hold, but she just stared at me and said 'my brother does it all the time.' How do you guys handle customers who think their family's hack advice beats decades of install experience?

3 comments

3 Comments

jake_owens1mo ago

Oh man that's a nightmare waiting to happen. I'd have walked honestly. Glueing nylon carpet to click-lock LVP is like asking for a lawsuit when that floor buckles in a month and the customer blames you. The glue wont bond to the vinyl surface anyway, it'll just peel up as soon as someone walks on it. Her brother might do it all the time but he's probably also the guy who uses drywall screws for subfloor.

susana661mo ago

Jumped into a job last year where the homeowner wanted me to glue down some cheap foam backed carpet right over their brand new hardwood floors (which they'd just paid a fortune for). I tried to explain it would trap moisture and ruin the wood, but she insisted her cousin did it all the time and it worked fine. Ended up walking off that one too, because I just knew I'd be the one getting the angry call when the floor started warping and smelling like a wet basement. Some folks just have family members who do things the wrong way and swear by it, you know?

elizabethtaylor1mo ago

Geez, that's just crazy isn't it? It's like people trust their family more than the person who actually knows what they're doing. I see it all the time, not just with floors but with everything, like someone's uncle swears by putting duct tape on a leaky pipe and then they're shocked when it floods. It's a real blind spot, people just can't wrap their head around the fact that their brother or cousin might be giving them bad advice even though they mean well. You walked off and saved yourself a headache, that's smart cause you know you'd be the one blamed when their cousin's method backfired.