Fear and Loathing in the Hallway

My greatest flooring fear after Derek replaced old carpet with new laminate flooring in the front room a few years ago, was that by the time we were ready to continue the job down the hallway and into the back of the house, the brand or shade would have been discontinued. It almost happened. 

We’ve been waiting for our flooring installer – my brother-in-law – to become available, before investing in more of the product. That time has arrived. He starts tomorrow, so this took up most of our weekend.

wide hallway with white baseboards and piles of green dust, tooks and overturned carpet After 30+ years, underpadding turns to dust. It’s disgusting. When we weren’t exposing a tiny bit of hardwood and miles of subfloor, we were trying to hack the dust out of our lungs and lugging rolls of old carpet outside.  

Derek and his buddy Barry went to Home Depot after checking online and finding that 30 boxes of our colour were in stock. What happens when they get there? No flooring. It’s been discontinued. The woman checks her computer. Thirty boxes at another H.D. in the city. She calls. The guy looks but can’t find it. Good news! They can order it and it will only cost 30% more and take three weeks to arrive! 

“No way”, says Barry. “Let’s drive to the other store, just in case.” 

They walked into the other store where the guy “looked all over” and couldn’t find it and practically ran right into boxes of exactly what they wanted. They cleaned the store out – 35 boxes of flooring. The same guy who couldn’t find it forklifted a pallet of it to Derek’s truck and promptly dumped the pallet on the pavement. It just wasn’t his day. Fortunately, no planks were harmed in the process. 

We came awfully close to missing out on a flooring match, or having to pay significantly more per square foot this time around. Can you imagine the crying and carrying on if that had happened? I would have been pretty upset too! 

 

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