Eight Questions, in the Order You'll Need Them
Flooring mistakes happen in order. Wrong product in the showroom. House treated like every other house. Contract vague about both.
These eight questions interrupt that sequence. Four before you fall for a sample. Four before you sign.
How to work the list
Say them out loud, and get every answer onto the quote itself. The person talking may not be the person installing, and paper is how they stay in agreement.
Listen for reasons too. A crew that knows the work can tell you why the pad is rubber or the slab wants a floating floor. Confidence without a reason is showroom theater.
In the showroom
1. What exactly is this product, and can I take the spec sheet home?
Exact product name and line, on paper, before anything else. Without it you can't compare quotes, check a rating, or make a warranty claim later.
The one-page spec sheet answers half this list. Wear layer, ratings, waterproof language, warranty terms. A showroom that won't give it to you is selling adjectives.
2. Is this waterproof or water-resistant, and which word does the manufacturer use?
Not the salesperson's word. The manufacturer's.
For bathrooms, laundry, and kitchens, require waterproof on the product literature. Water-resistant is a smaller promise hiding behind similar copy. One word. Big difference.
3. What goes underneath, and why that one?
The pad is the invisible half of the purchase. Under floating plank or laminate, rubber. Not foam that breaks down or cork that takes on water. Under carpet, six pounds minimum, eight with a spill-proof layer if pets live there. Over concrete, add a moisture retarder.
You don't need a seminar. You need an answer and a reason.
4. What does this warranty actually exclude?
Read three exclusions. Sun fade, which matters with west windows. Scratches, which matter with dogs. Slab moisture, often excluded with testing pushed to the installer. Pet coverage exists only on specific lines and in writing.
The exclusions show what's still your problem. Read them before the furniture goes back.
At your house
5. Does anything about this slab change what you'd install, or how?
This separates an estimator from a price-reader. House age, side of town, movement history, flatness, moisture.
On the east side, honest answers may favor floating over glue-down and flexible over rigid in a house that has moved. No membrane promise, because it doesn't fix foundation movement. West of MoPac, the ground may not matter. Either way, look before answering.
6. Will you test the slab for moisture and put the reading next to my product's own limit, in writing?
Three commitments. Test the slab. Write down the result. Put it beside the limit from your product's installation instructions, not a generic chart.
The two standard tests measure different things and don't convert. Neither sets a pass-fail number. The product document does. A crew installing glue-down floors or wood won't be surprised by this question.
7. What is in this price, and what could still move it?
Start with inclusions. Removal and haul-away normally sit inside the installed price, with tile removal as a named $2 to $3 per square foot adder. Then the movers. Leveling if the slab misses your floor's tolerance. Stairs per step. Trim and transitions in linear feet. Dust containment if tile comes out of an occupied house.
You won't eliminate every variable. Name each one, price it, or exclude it before the crew arrives.
8. The house is older than 1978. What changes with the old floor and the painted baseboards?
Three rules follow that old floor out. A building put up by 1980 brings the asbestos presumption for resilient flooring and mastic, changing removal and disposal. Painted baseboards coming off a pre-1978 house very likely bring the federal lead renovation rule, which is why crews undercut casings instead. Mold past about a small closet's worth of area makes the contractor stop and hand the job to a licensed remediation person.
This isn't a quiz. You're checking for a plan before the floor is open and everyone is deciding in the dust.
The answers belong on the quote
A walkthrough conversation isn't a scope. Put the eight answers on the quote. Exact product and pad. Slab plan. Moisture commitment. Inclusions. Per-step stair line. Older-house handling if it applies. That's the page you compare and the page you point to if the job drifts.
FAQ
What should I bring to a flooring showroom?
Your room sizes, including closets, phone photos of the rooms and any problem spots, and the facts that narrow the choice: which side of town, roughly when the house was built, pets, west windows, and which rooms see water. With those, a good salesperson can steer you straight in ten minutes. Without them, everyone defaults to whatever is on promotion.
How many flooring quotes should I get in Austin?
Two or three, all quoting the identical product and scope. Comparing five quotes for five different floors produces noise, not information. Pick the product first, take its spec sheet, and let the companies compete on price, prep, and how they handle the questions above.
What is a wear layer on vinyl plank?
The clear protective coat over the printed design, measured in mils. It takes the traffic, and the thickness separates plank that still looks right in year ten from plank worn through at the kitchen sink in year three. Twelve mils is the working minimum for a busy Austin household. The number is on the spec sheet, not usually the sample.
Why does the installer want the air conditioning running before installation?
Because the floor has to live in your air, and wood and plank both move with temperature and humidity. Installers want the house running at normal conditions for days before the material arrives, and the material acclimating in the rooms it will occupy, so it goes down at the size it will live at. In Austin's humidity, skipping that step is how gaps and buckles get built into a brand-new floor.