Quarter round question

[SandJ]

We just had floors installed in our home. They are also installing the quarter round. We had a slight (huge) disagreement over the work. This project was over $20k for the flooring and quarter round :eek:

These are some photos of the redo job. Would you find these mitered corners acceptable or not? Just the quarter round, not the baseboards.

 

[Cell]

Not square.

 

[homer1475]

If I payed someone to install it, HECK NO!

 

[Dave Cureton]

Oh heck no!

 

[MTBake]

I would not be happy if I paid someone to do that work. Looks like an amateur did the work with no supervision.

 

[SandJ]

Not square.

You are exactly right, the wall in the first picture is not square. But they didn’t take the effort to cut the correct angle and left the one piece chipped.
The second picture is (but they cut the front piece of quarter round too long so the left side does not touch the wall).

 

[SandJ]

If I payed someone to install it, HECK NO!

Oh heck no!

I would not be happy if I paid someone to do that work. Looks like an amateur did the work with no supervision.

I feel the same way. And this was the redo work with someone from the company (their boss) watching over. We agreed to part ways before they finished the correction work...in their wordsbecause “I don’t think we are going to be able to please you”.

This was the first attempt.

 

[Mark Novack]

Quarter rounds should not be miter cut on inside corners. One should be straight cut, the other coped round to fit perfectly over the other. Outside corners should be mitered and dressed to perfect length on a mitered sander if the cut is not within 1/64" or 0.1mm. A false square with a protractor should be used if the outside corners are not perfectly square to calculate the cutting angles. Your pictures look as though it was done by an impatient builder. Those outside corners should have been finished with putty. No excuse for that gap behind the quarter round. I do masonry, carpentry, painting, furniture refinishing and basic renovation. Only small jobs because I'm a one man band. Currently I'm redoing a bathroom floor and laminate ceiling for a lady who's entrepreneur made a disaster, took her money and walked away. Not too many entrepreneurs think long term. A quick buck today and bankrupt tomorrow because people are starting to read those Google reviews. Use it. Don't get emotional and just bash. Quantify the faults and be specific about the details.

Mark

 

[Grigs]

"Finish" carpenters often aren't. On one hand I feel for them, as our homes often don't have ACTUAL 90's in our corners, etc, but when told "That's what painters are for" I tend to lose it...

I agree... there is NO CHANCE that I would be satisfied with that work, particularly the attempted corrections

 

[Ziggy10]

We just had floors installed in our home. They are also installing the quarter round. We had a slight (huge) disagreement over the work. This project was over $20k for the flooring and quarter round :eek:

These are some photos of the redo job. Would you find these mitered corners acceptable or not? Just the quarter round, not the baseboards.

I don’t mean to be mean but this is horrible! You should get refund for quarter round!

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

No! I wouldn't be satisfied with that job. A finishing carpenter has a good grasp on geometry and knows how to navigate those "out of square" corners.

@Mark Novack hit the nail on the head.

For me the finished product would have resulted in sealing everything with caulk, but even with those gaps you wouldn't be able to hide that shotty work.

 

[Ziggy10]

No! I wouldn't be satisfied with that job. A finishing carpenter has a good grasp on geometry and knows how to navigate those "out of square" corners.

@Mark Novack hit the nail on the head.

For me the finished product would have resulted in sealing everything with caulk, but even with those gaps you wouldn't be able to hide that shotty work.

Whoever this guy was it’s not a finish carpenter for sure!!

 

[Copingwithpods]

Although ugly they aren't bad, my cuts are usually a thou off or 2 but I finish them with putty and sand them smooth. Caulking is unacceptable though unless it was stipulated in the contract. We charge more for putty/sanding than we do for Caulking, some folks opt for the Caulking as it's cheaper and they feel they can live with it.

Its definitely fixable although I understand you shouldn't have to fix it. It shouldn't take an experienced guy long to putty, sand and paint them to perfection.

This is a major issue here, companys are cheap, more often than not a project I estimate at 60hrs (to do it right) is sold as a 40hr project leaving me to cut corners to make up time and pinning the company vs the customer on how much after the fact repair work is needed for the all clear. More often than not tempers flair and the company is asked to leave, don't do that, hold the company to their word and don't sing off on that final until you are happy with the work.

I've worked with many company's over the last decade and have a huge deal of dirty little secrets about the industry, some practices are right down disgusting.

 

[SandJ]

Although ugly they aren't bad, my cuts are usually a thou off or 2 but I finish them with putty and sand them smooth. Caulking is unacceptable though unless it was stipulated in the contract. We charge more for putty/sanding than we do for Caulking, some folks opt for the Caulking as it's cheaper and they feel they can live with it.

Its definitely fixable although I understand you shouldn't have to fix it. It shouldn't take an experienced guy long to putty, sand and paint them to perfection.

This is a major issue here, companys are cheap, more often than not a project I estimate at 60hrs (to do it right) is sold as a 40hr project leaving me to cut corners to make up time and pinning the company vs the customer on how much after the fact repair work is needed for the all clear. More often than not tempers flair and the company is asked to leave, don't do that, hold the company to their word and don't sing off on that final until you are happy with the work.

I've worked with many company's over the last decade and have a huge deal of dirty little secrets about the industry, some practices are right down disgusting.

It was not talked about in the contract what products they would use on the quarter round. I agree that caulk is not ideal, they smeared it over the quarter round and made a mess that I have to sand/scrape off.

Do you have any recommendations on a putty to use?

 

[Copingwithpods]

Real shame what transpired there, you have no idea how often I deal with stuff like that.

I use this one all the time, using it as we speak, easy water clean up, goes on easy and sands super easy.

 

[tripdad]

The outside corners need to be back coped so they will mesh perfectly. Not hard, takes a few seconds per joint with a coping saw. On the inside corner, first piece goes in square then miter and cope the second piece for a perfect fit. Again just takes a minute or two per joint. Doing it right is faster than puttying and sanding. Man this world needs to start valuing trades people again. Sorry your going through this pain.

 

[Flippers4pups]

Back in February we decided to get our carpet out of the whole house and go with luxury vinyl plank. Had estimates from two different places and all wanted over $10,000 to do the work. I refused.

I'm a carpenter's son and for just a very short time worked as a union trim carpenter when I was a late teenager.

My wife didn't want me to do the work because of my health condition, but I figured material wise I could do it for $4,000 cash.

Took me two weeks off work to get it done. The whole freaking house!


Pictures are before filling nail holes, joints and paint.





@SandJ, I'm so sorry, but that's some of the worst trim work I've seen in decades! A good company wouldn't ever allow that kind of work to be done!

 

[Grigs]

Back in February we decided to get our carpet out of the whole house and go with luxury vinyl plank. Had estimates from two different places and all wanted over $10,000 to do the work. I refused.

I'm a carpenter's son and for just a very short time worked as a union trim carpenter when I was a late teenager.

My wife didn't want me to do the work because of my health condition, but I figured material wise I could do it for $4,000 cash.

Took me two weeks off work to get it done. The whole freaking house!


Pictures are before filling nail holes, joints and paint.





@SandJ, I'm so sorry, but that's some of the worst trim work I've seen in decades! A good company wouldn't ever allow that kind of work to be done!

You should be very proud of your product! It looks outstanding!

 

[SandJ]

Back in February we decided to get our carpet out of the whole house and go with luxury vinyl plank. Had estimates from two different places and all wanted over $10,000 to do the work. I refused.

I'm a carpenter's son and for just a very short time worked as a union trim carpenter when I was a late teenager.

My wife didn't want me to do the work because of my health condition, but I figured material wise I could do it for $4,000 cash.

Took me two weeks off work to get it done. The whole freaking house!


Pictures are before filling nail holes, joints and paint.





@SandJ, I'm so sorry, but that's some of the worst trim work I've seen in decades! A good company wouldn't ever allow that kind of work to be done!

Awesome work! You should be proud of that work, and you know for sure it is done right!

 

[Flippers4pups]

You should be very proud of your product! It looks outstanding!

I've worked on multi million dollar new single family houses and high end commercial buildings back then. There isn't any "redo" if you want to continue working in that field!

I agree there's a lack of talent and training in the construction trades, even union.

Companies that do shawty work don't stay in business long. Word of mouth travels far and wide, especially with social media.

I'd demand that they redo their work or go to the better business bureau and report them or get a lawyer.