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Question with quarter round

9K views 14 replies 12 participants last post by  RenovatorLLC 
#1 ·
We did a job doing all new oak trim through out this house. Doors, Windows, closets etc... In the basement the owner wanted quarter round trim between the cieling and the walls and soffit. Mind you this is a older modular home. We didnt want to install the quarter round just by itself but thats what the owner wanted. He supplied and had stained all the trim so all we had to do was install it.

My question is do any od you install quarter round to be used just by itself as trim?

I ask becuase the trim flexes quite a bit and the walls and cieling flex as well. After all was installed we didnt like it and needless to say the owner didnt either. It was terrible but just didnt look right being up there by itself. After we installed the quarter round we still had more trim to finish upstairs. so between the time we finished the quarter round to the time we finished the job itself 3 weeks had passed.

After the whole job was done he payed us the agreed amount, which was only $500. The owner calls back and says hes having someone redo all the quarter round and that person is charging him $350 now. Now hes threatening to sue in small claims for the money he payed us.
 
#2 · (Edited)
Well, based on the premise that the guy wanted quarterround installed as some sort of ******* crown molding on his modular pretty much pre-qualifies him as to his disposition and grasp on what would be considered normal behavior, so him suing you is probably what should be expected.

Unless you have a mind to talk to him before the court date, nothing you can do but show up to defend yourself. It sounds like his basis will be below standard quality of installation. So probably it will be a show and tell with him showing the judge pictures of your work. If you did a proper job of installation you might be okay, however like you said there is the issue of the flexing walls destroying any tight miters and looking like you did a bad install.

One thing you might want to think about is actually developing a written warranty for you customers. On that warranty you can stipulate your conditions for warrantying your work, and more importantly you can stipulate that the customer must contact you and allow you to fix something before he brings another contractor in to fix it. You can also void your warranty on jobs like this. A simple discussion before installing the quarterround and telling him you can't warranty it because of the flexing walls, or limited the warranty in some ways, might have stopped him cold with this suing stuff.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for the reply Mike. With this job there wasn't a contract. It was just helping out a friends brother in laws father. And to do what we did was not worth the money I told him. More or less this job was just a favor. This guy has had 2 other guys come work for him but never bothered to show up again. After the first day we worked there i knew why but felt obligated to finish because of the situation.
 
#6 ·
I would not worry to much unless you did a real bad job which would have been hard to do. As long as your cuts are good and you nailed thru to wood you cant be responsiable for a wall that was wavy.
Just take a small piece of 1/4 round and regular crown into court. Explain to judge 1/4 round is never used for crown molding but this is what the customer wanted and insisted on. He paid for the job so that will show he just changed his mind later. Also most courts will say he has to give you a chance to correct if your fault. I myself would ask for the name of the new contractor and call him and see why he would say it was installed wrong. You might find out he is just installing different crown molding which is good for you as shows customer changed his mind from what he picked out.
 
#7 ·
Thanks for all the replies guys. I'm not really sweating it. I know I installed everything nicely and correctly. And i know the finish product of the quarter round was not the ideal look, but with the circumstances it was the best it could be. We spent almost a full day installing it just to make sure it was all properly done. Oh well, I'll just let the next guy deal with this guys wrath. Once again thanks for the feedback guys.
 
#8 ·
for a job that small. if you have to get a lawyer involved, it's not even worth your time to go to court. just refund him some money and it'll save you headaches, i'm not saying you are in the wrong.
this guy is definitely messed up, to sue you, when you are doing him a favor. it'll be cheaper to throw some money back at him, then to deal with taking time off from work to go to court.
 
#9 ·
Save your money and don't bother with a lawyer....the guy is full of crap. I've seen a lot of this type on calls (I'm a Detective Sergeant for a decent sized city - 17 yrs). Some people are always complaining and threatening to sue somebody over some bull but almost always lack the brains to pull it off. Hot air whiners.
The cheapskate isn't going to spend the cash or gas money to file a small claims suit and then show up. Scare tactics only - bordering on attempted extortion. Whether or not you had a contract, you completed the task assigned. Who cares if the idiot doesn't like what he picked out?
Whenever you do an estimate, spend a little time talking to the people and listen to them. If the guy seems to complain about the past contractors or about too much in general - then you probably want to screen him better, or do not work for them at all....Some people are never happy.
Stand tall on this one.
I bet you this guy would sue wal-mart because the shirt he bought himself either didn't fit, or made him look fat.

*I steal the wife's camera and photo almost all my jobs in the end - mostly for a scrap book but they would come in handy in court. Because you're honest, don't think some people won't screw your work up and then blame it on you.
 
#14 ·
Save your money and don't bother with a lawyer....the guy is full of crap. I've seen a lot of this type on calls (I'm a Detective Sergeant for a decent sized city - 17 yrs)......
Because you're honest, don't think some people won't screw your work up and then blame it on you.
In your detective work,
do dates ever come into play?

I feel pretty sure the OP's
problem has been resolved
one way or another....
in the two years since he posted. :laughing:
 
#11 ·
don't even waste your time thinking about it. The judje is going to ask if there was a contract or writen agrement that specifies any type of guarranty if there is none than case dismised. you got to remenber is a court of law documents are very important no contract no case. what we started doing is a material scope where we write down paint colors, trim type, tile selection and breaf description of the job being done then you make the ho sing so even if he tells you "thats not what i wanted" like they all do you just show them the paper with all sku numbers on it sing by them that really pisses them off.
 
#13 ·
The guy didn't pay enough to make it worth his while to try and get it back, even if he wasn't full of BS.
Qtr round is usually only found at the ceiling to hide a seam, like when someone installs panelling, and there's a gap. Or when they either can't afford better, or don't know any better.
 
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