What is the single most important question to ask?

What did you measure, and what did you find. A contractor who has measured slab flatness and tested moisture can tell you numbers. One who quoted from square footage cannot. That single answer separates a fixed price from a price that will change once the old floor comes up.

Should a flooring quote be fixed or an estimate?

A quote can be fixed for everything visible and should be. What cannot be fixed is what is hidden under the existing floor. The right structure is a firm price plus a written, priced procedure for handling discoveries, rather than a vague allowance or silence on the subject.

What should be in the written scope?

Specific product name and specification including wear layer or wear class, area in square feet, subfloor preparation included, tear-out and disposal, furniture handling, transitions and trim, expected on-site days, cure time before normal use, and payment schedule. Anything absent from that list is a question waiting to happen.

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Questions to Ask a Flooring Contractor Before Signing

October 5, 2024 9 min By Rosenberg Flooring

Before You Sign a Flooring Contract, Ask These Questions

Flooring quotes are unusually hard to compare because contractors describe different work with the same words. Two documents both say “install LVP, 1,200 sq ft” and describe jobs that differ by thousands of dollars and by whether the floor is still flat in three years.

These are the questions that surface the difference. They work on any contractor, including us.

About your subfloor

1. Did you measure slab flatness, and what deviation did you find?

There should be a number, expressed as something like a quarter inch over ten feet. “It looked fine” is not a measurement. In Fort Bend County, where expansive clay moves slabs seasonally, a slab poured flat decades ago frequently is not flat now.

2. Did you test slab moisture, by what method, and what was the reading?

The answer you want is an in-situ relative humidity test per ASTM F2170, or a calcium chloride test per ASTM F1869. A surface meter reads the top few millimeters and tells you very little. A plastic sheet taped down overnight is a rough indicator, not a test.

3. What is the manufacturer’s moisture limit for the product you are proposing, and how does my reading compare?

This matters because most manufacturer coverage is conditional on documented pre-installation readings. A claim without them is commonly denied, which means the answer affects your warranty and not just the installation.

4. Is leveling compound included, and for how much area?

If the answer is no and the flatness measurement showed deviation, the two answers are in conflict.

About what happens when something is discovered

5. If subfloor damage is found during tear-out, what is the process?

Nobody can price what is under an existing floor before it comes up. That is honest and universal. What varies is whether the contract says what happens next: who decides, how it is priced, and whether work stops for approval.

A written procedure is worth more than a low number with silence on the subject.

About the material

6. What is the exact product, and what is its wear layer or wear class?

“Luxury vinyl plank” is a category, not a product. Ask for a wear layer in mils for vinyl, an AC class for laminate, a wear layer in millimeters for engineered hardwood. These numbers determine lifespan, and they vary hugely inside a single price band.

7. Is this the product I will receive, or a representative sample?

Batch and dye lot variation is real. Material for the whole job ordered at once avoids visible differences between rooms.

About the crew and the schedule

8. Will the people installing this have seen the house beforehand?

Not a judgment on subcontracting, which is normal in this trade. It is a question about information transfer. The more hands a job passes through, the more likely a subfloor note gets lost between the assessment and the installation.

9. How many days on site, and how many days before normal use?

These are different numbers and both matter. Hardwood refinishing takes 3 to 5 days on site and 7 to 14 days to full cure, and Gulf Coast humidity pushes cure to the long end. Epoxy needs 24 to 72 hours cure. Leveling compound is walkable in 2 to 4 hours but needs full cure before the finish floor.

If a contractor gives you a two-day cure for a refinish in a Fort Bend August, ask them to put it in writing.

10. What are the working hours, and does my HOA restrict them?

In Sugar Land, Sienna, Cinco Ranch and much of Fulshear, associations enforce contractor hours and gated access. It does not change the price and it does change the calendar.

About what happens afterward

11. Who holds the workmanship obligation, for how long, and what does it exclude?

Manufacturer material coverage and contractor workmanship coverage are two separate things. Ask for both in writing, and read what voids them. Walking on an uncured finish and putting rugs down early both commonly void finish coverage.

12. What is the payment schedule?

A deposit is normal. Full payment before work starts is not.

What good answers look like

A contractor who has genuinely assessed your house will answer most of these without hesitation and will have written some of them down already. One who has not will get vague around questions 1, 2 and 5.

That is the signal. Not the price.

Call (281) 549-0305 or request an estimate in Rosenberg and across Fort Bend County.

Related services

Subfloor Preparation and Slab Leveling