Wow, @kai_west nailed it. Maybe thank Karen later for the silent push?

How steep was the learning curve for thermal imaging? It seems like you'd need to know what normal looks like before you can spot the weird stuff, which takes time. I bet it gets easier once you've seen a few problem areas for real.

Yeah the mallet can totally crack those cheap planks if you're not careful lol. Honestly a hair dryer on low works just as well as a heat gun and is way less risky. Just warm up the locking edge for like 30 seconds and it should click right in without any force. That thin stuff is such a pain to work with.

Isn't it funny how the best fixes are usually the simplest? You see it everywhere, not just in kitchens. People just adding a bit more water to the soup, literally or not, to make things work.

My local garden center got a whole pallet of hydrangeas last spring that were basically cooked in a non-refrigerated warehouse for a week. It's like the whole supply chain forgets these are living things, not boxes of screws. You see it with grocery store produce too, stuff just sitting out getting wrecked before it even hits the shelf. Makes you wonder how much waste happens before a customer even sees the product.