Twenty minutes on site tells us more than an hour on the phone
The measurement visit is short and it is where the quote actually comes from. We run a straightedge across each room and mark where the floor drops away, because the tolerance for a floating floor is 3/16 of an inch over a 10-foot radius and a dip you cannot see will separate the joints inside two years. Over a concrete slab we take a moisture reading, since anything above 3 lbs per 1,000 square feet over 24 hours changes the adhesive, the barrier or the floor itself. Where we can get at an edge or a threshold we look at what the existing floor is fastened to and how thick it is. None of that can be done down a phone line, which is why the number you get before the visit is an estimate and the number after it is a quote.