[Earthlark]

I was observing the work done to my aunt's basement the other day, and I was a little bit confounded to see the low quality workmanship given the cost (at least in my amateur estimation). I don't know what the value of the work should be, so I thought I'd post here to see what everyone thought.

General job details

• Cost: ≈$20k
• 4 connected rooms with small hall and landing connecting them
• Flooring area: ≈800 sq ft
• Wall area: ≈2000 sq ft
• Flooring material: Waterproof rigid core vinyl plank flooring
• Rip out old rug and trim
• Put in new flooring and trim
• Paint walls
• Move furniture in each room out of the way (there was a fair amount of furniture, so I'm guessing this was a task in itself)

What I consider issues

• Dust on everything (from cutting): furniture, walls, etc (even though they wiped stuff down)
• Dust from the basement upstairs
• Poor trim job?
• Baseboards not very well aligned
• No shoe molding
• No base cap
• Lots of nails sticking 1~3 mm out from baseboard

Link to Google Photo Album of some photos of the job.

Again, I don't know what typical costs and quality should be, but it seems to me like a very high price for a mediocre job. What do y'all think?

 

[huesmann]

That does look pretty sloppy.

 

[Spyder]

Cost seems super high for the work amount, but someone agreed to it. I'm not a contractor, nor did I see the job. did it include leveling the floor too?

1) someone should have agreed to what type of trim was going in. If you remove the baseboard, shoe molding isn't required. I don't like shoe, but the top of the baseboard should be there unless that is the "look" you're going for.

2) the trim work sucks baseboard should have a cap or built in cap. The joint in the middle of the wall should have been at a 45, the corners should have been caulked, the nails should have been sunk in and filled and painted.
is that shoe molding on some of the baseboard but not all?

3) is that dust on the paint job that bad?

Personally, I would be complaining about this and I wouldn't let the guy who did the trim be the guy who fixes it. The contractor should have someone better than that...

 

[joecaption]

Looks like a first time DIY job to me, I would never pay for a job like that.
Who picked out that style of baseboard?
Regular baseboard would have been thinner and conformed to the wavy wall better and already have the ogee at the top.
Base never should have just been butted together like that, it's always cut at a 45 and over lapped so the seam will not keep opening up.
Sometimes for whatever reason a nail will bend, but who thought it was a good idea to leave it like that!
$20,000! I'd have to be there to see it but just sounds way high to me.
Take the time for them to do this job and divide it by $20,000, subtract any materials they paid, to see what they made per hour.
When my guys finished a job they always cleaned up after there selves, if there was a lot to do or we had other jobs to do I hired someone to come in to clean it.

 

[Earthlark]

Thanks for the comments! That tells me I'm not being crazy for thinking there are some serious issues with the job given the price. After reading these comments, I had my aunt call the guy. Apparently the contractor, who had done most of the flooring himself, had some employees do much of the finishing. He is coming back Monday to take a look at things... Glad I have a little bit more knowledge to help negotiate a fair deal. Thanks again!!

did it include leveling the floor too?

I'll have to check, but not that I know of.

1) someone should have agreed to what type of trim was going in.

Who picked out that style of baseboard?

I don't think my aunt knew much about it and just generally mentioned what she wanted, letting them pick the baseboard.

If you remove the baseboard, shoe molding isn't required. I don't like shoe, but the top of the baseboard should be there unless that is the "look" you're going for.

2) the trim work sucks baseboard should have a cap or built in cap. The joint in the middle of the wall should have been at a 45, the corners should have been caulked, the nails should have been sunk in and filled and painted.
is that shoe molding on some of the baseboard but not all?

I thought the bottom (with varying gap in the bottom of the baseboard) looks a little strange, but I can see how it wouldn't necessarily need shoe. But yeah, it makes it stranger to have shoe molding on only part of the basement. That really made me think someone didn't finish the job! The bottom isn't as noticeable as the top, so it's good to know that it definitely should have a cap and nails and joint should have been done better!

3) is that dust on the paint job that bad?

When my guys finished a job they always cleaned up after there selves, if there was a lot to do or we had other jobs to do I hired someone to come in to clean it.

Yeah, that's what it looks like over the whole job. There's also dust over most of the furniture and everything else: pictures, books, computer, etc. since the workers only covered a few things, so it looks like it's going to take a long, long time to clean everything. Hopefully we can get the contractor to agree clean things up... at least the floors and walls.

 

[chandler48]

I agree with the others on the sloppiness of the job. 1x4 base without a top cap looks so.....well plain. He could have procured WM623 or even Speed base and had a much better looking install. Nails are no excuse. Non mitered mid points are no excuse, except for laziness. Shoe molding is meant to flex up and down and in and out, so it would cover any gaps that you find that you can't live with. It should be nailed only to the base and not into the flooring.

As far as dust, some is to be expected. We try to create a negative atmosphere to the house when we have dusty situations. All our cuts are made outside, period. Inevitably there will be dust. It is not a deal breaker, IMO, unless no provisions were made to prevent it like plastic sheeting over doorways, etc.

 

[SPS-1]

Looks like a first time DIY job to me.....

My first time baseboard install looked a heck of a lot better than that.

Makes me wonder if they are supposed to be finished.

Painted baseboard always needs a thin bead of acrylic caulking between the wall and the baseboard top. A few minutes with a caulking gun will make that look 1000% better. But I'm not sure I would trust a caulking gun in the hands of these jokers. It would possibly be the first time they had tried this.

 

[huesmann]

That butt joint is U-G-L-Y. So many nails sticking out!

In pic #5 is that edge board cut too narrow—is that a gap to the base molding? (Can you even call it molding if it's just 1x4?) Also, that board doesn't look like it meets the next board, in the corner.

It also looks like the floor wasn't leveled out—looks wavy.