I get called over to a house on Friday. They were doing their main floor with a new laminate. The laminate looks great, it is tough to work with but will make a really nice floor. They called me over as they realized halfway through the floor install that the guy installing had no clue what he was doing.
It was not good. All of the pieces were glued together (and this is not meant to be glued) and banged together with force (it should just click in easily). The joints were all damaged and buckled from the force of the blows. The finished joints were cracked and there were some really poorly placed pieces.
It looked bad. They stopped the install half way and called the professionals that they wanted to call but decided to install it on the cheap.
We told the homeowners the two options.
Option one: rip out this half installed floor and get a really nice floor installed.
Option two: We try to finish this install... but we might not be able to finish due to how bad it was. No promises or guarantees... but we will try to get it in.
They deliberated. They decided for option 2. We tried to install the first piece, and because the boards were so badly beaten and there was dried glue stuck where it shouldn't be, the piece did not go in well. We had to pull it out and in the process, the two pieces broke. Granted, they were nearly broken before we showed up.
They way the floor was installed, and the way this flooring works... blah blah blah, long story short... we had to get the floor ripped up anyway.
The price you pay for cheaping out on things is sometimes more than what you would pay to get it done right the first time. That is the lesson here.