Expert: Joe Turner - 1/14/2008

Question
My brother and Dad and myself recently built a house as owner builders.  During the course of Construction we failed to put vents in for the crawl space.  Our hardwood guys installed the hardwood without checking underneath the house to see if there where vents the county also missed the fact that they were not there.  As a result we had our floors cup and then we had to re-sand, reseal, and restain the hardwood when the the floor finally dried out.  Do we eat all the bill for this or does the hardwood contractor eat some of the cost as well.

Answer
Competent flooring installers will check for several things: level floor, no movement of the slab, etc.
However, I think you are responsible for this one. If you act as the contractor and present the structure as complete and accurate at the time of installation, you are, in a sense, certifiying that it is ready for installation