If the OSB was glued down with proper subfloor adhesive and then nailed and screwed tight, no it will not pull off. Drywall deliveries to a basement are often put through a removed section of subfloor. Doesn't work when it's properly adhered. (OTOH, I once saw a builder use white glue as adhesive--the stuff your kids use on kindergarten projects. Likely a different story.) R and R an existing hardwood floor will be very expensive. Many of the boards will be destroyed and useless. Let alone the double labour. If you still insist on that, add a layer of plywood. You can transition the added height to the hallway. However, for the hallway the stair problem is nearly insuperable. As Reno8 suggests, work from underneath. Blocking, nailing and screwing may do the trick. The fault here, as you note, is your last minute change from carpeting to hardwood. This post was edited by worthy on Mon, Aug 4, 14 at 13:51

There shouldn't BE any screws in a cabinet side. I don't think your "contractor" has a clue as to how cabinets are made if he's using screws and glue in a cabinet side. As far as the damage from the heat, most cabinet lines have you install an internal heat shield into the cabinet. It's NOT insulation. It's small strips of metal that dissipate the heat quicker. I'd also be concerned if he actually understands proper clearances needed if you are getting any scorching. I'd suspect that the described problems are merely only the visible tip of the iceberg from someone who shouldn't be using the label "cabinet maker".

First, wamot, I'm sorry you're having to go through this. It's the nightmare we all have while planning and going thru a reno. I'm mostly putting this here for others who might find this thread down the line. I know that the GCs and KDs at each store are unique and that becomes part of the puzzle that we have to untangle as we make our decisions. We first went to Lowe's and had them measure (paid) and do a design. There were some things they wanted to do that we thought were excessive (possibly in the wake of the violations that lucille posted) and I felt that the 'designer' was more of a sales person. I think he might have been handing things off to another designer to do. I never once saw him in the design software. We REALLY liked the GC and tried to make it work because we wanted to work with him. But we decided to check out HD. A friend had HD do their kitchen last year, so they also had the recommendation thing going for them. We had measurements from Lowe's, but we had HD come out to measure to protect ourselves ($49 in the midst of this was a bargain, even though we'd already had to eat $91 for Lowe's to measure). The hard part for us was every step with HD took two times longer. There wasn't such a tight arrangement between GC and store. We had to wait longer at each step, and as such, while I was hoping our cabinets would be here next week or so but we're looking about another month out past that. The big reason I'm posting this here is that we were told the GC would come to measure and his wife did. I was not here, MIL was here and remarked what a thorough job she did and how impressed she was. The measurements went from GCs wife to KD. She tweaked the rough design we had based on my measurements to what the GC provided. She was off in four places. FOUR! So that led to a whole round of 'How are you putting that there, that won't fit?' because I knew pretty much all the measurements by heart. I remeasured most things, confirming my measurements with Lowes' measurements. We tweaked the plan for the 3rd or so time and the GC revisited to confirm everything was good. I'm pretty sure THAT's the point that they're responsible up to. After that, I did some switching of things. I did things like move to a 36x33 Susan to gain 3" more in trash pullout to get two cans and make a base and wall into a tall to create a transition from an area that will have a backsplash (interior wall) to an area that will have masonry behind it (exterior wall). Since no floor measurements will change, I should be good. My KD at HD is very good, but she let me know she was a little intimidated by me (and often regrets giving me an old spec book). And more related to the OP's issue, as I was deciding whether to make the jump to HD from Lowe's, I did some reading. I wish I could remember what I googled, but I read that if you want your kitchen done on time, don't use Lowe's. But if you want to save some money in the end, do. They're known for delaying things for many reasons (misordering, not organizing installs well) BUT the flip side is that there are non-performance clauses in their contracts and so you often get $ off per day for each day certain things are delayed. I'd look things over and see if you can find anything like what I'm remembering. I was concerned with Lowe's because they wanted us to pay for everything (all materials and all labor) up front and when I balked that I watched too much People's Court to pay contracting things up front...they have no incentive to finish, I was told there were non-performace clauses (just as I'd read on the internet). Whatever I googled, I also came across a forum with current and former Lowe's employee's posting about changes to the structure of the way they work with outside contractors etc. It was all very interesting. Good luck. If you end up doing away with the fillers, make sure that at least you don't get charged for what will become 'extra pieces you don't need'.

Hi everyone! Thanks for weighing in. In trying to post this in the "right" place I unfortunately got two threads going—so if you're interested in seeing more of the awful trim carpentry, I can point you to my post in the other one here: [Other thread[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/cabinet-cracks-on-screw-holes-acceptable-dsvw-vd~3669213) (see my post from the morning of Monday February 8 for all the image links). I'm glad to hear that you all agree, because I wasn't sure how much of this is me obsessing over details versus having a reasonable complaint. I really, really hope that they are capable of doing a better job when they come back out.