HELP ! Advise needed on Laminate flooring laid badly !

[zogar75]

I really hope someone can offer me some good advise please.....sorry for the long wnded post but I'd be so grateful if someone could help.

We've recently had a company round to us to lay some laminate flooring on top of existing old pine floors in 2 rooms and on top of a concrete hallway.
We iniatially had problems from day one with the 'lad' turning up , doing half hours work and then saying the underlay was out of stock and then the laminate floor was held up in France !!! To list just a few !

I know absolutely nothing about floors but these are the problems i can see so far.

1. one board has a triangle shape on it that is pure white so its basically faulty and yet it was still laid.
2. the ' lad' couldn't get the beading to stick near my hearth so he used nails and left one sticking out and the others showing/splitting the laminate.
3. the floor bounces back in places when you step on it for example by the front door and around the edges.( no beading has been used as we are having skirting boards and new door frames fitted)
4. he used my garden slabs as a weight to keep the beading round the front door down and glue is visable !
5. in certain places the floor now creeks when you step on it !

The boss of the company has agreed that the job hasn't been done properly and promised to send someone more experienced round to fix it but the ' lad' turned up again a few days later ( embarrassing for him and me ) so we had to send him away ! We are now waiting for someone else but my concern is that there may be more underlying problems that will rear their ugly heads later on.

Do I allow this company to put the job right and how will I know that they have done it right next time round ?

Is there anyone out there that I can contact who will look at the work done and let me know what else is wrong...someone like Trading standards or someone else?

We have so far only paid for half of the work and obviously we won't pay the company until its resolved.

Also should they have used the same underlay for the concrete and the existing wood flooring ? It was like a carpet underlay with a silver foil top covering.

I just need to arm myself with some knowledge !!! HELP SOMEONE !!!

Many thanks

Zoe

 

[CortinaV8]

Sounds like the laminate floor I've seen in 70% of the houses I have ever been into.

Advice - Buy a carpet.

 

[zogar75]

I'd laugh if this wasn't causing me so much pain

We had carpet, a very nice one in fact but the children took it upon themselves to trash it so we thought we'd try good old laminate as we couldn't afford the solid oak that I really wanted

Oh dear...........don't know what I going to do....is laminate really always a shodding job or is that just from houses where people have fitted it themselves? Surely a pro knows what they're doing ?

anyone got any constructive advise !!!!

 

[WoodYouLike]

A pro should know what to do. Sounds like a shoddy job (carpet company adding laminate flooring to the range = "jump on the bandwagon 'cos everyone can install laminate" kind of thinking)

Get the company boss in and have him put in writing he and his company will remedy the floor or give you your money back.

 

[zogar75]

Thanks for the reply.

The company boss says he will put it right but I have lost faith in him now and how will I know if it's completly right? If the underlay is all wrong or other things that aren't as obvious as a nail sticking out then this time next year we could be forking out for a new floor which I don't want to have to do !

Don't really know what the best solution is........i just know i don't trust him to put it right.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Officially you have to allow him to set things right. Has he visited or does he just rely on your and "the lad's" word?

You should use two different types of underlayment or if it's in one area create one type of underfloor first.

 

[zogar75]

No he actually came out to see the work and then promised to send someone else to fix it but sent the young lad round again ! Which we refused as he clearly struggled first time round.

So now I'm just waiting to see if he will send someone else round but obviously concerned !

The underlay he used was the same for the old wood flooring he was covering in both rooms and the concrete floor in the hall............it was like carpet underlay but had a silver foil type appearance...if that makes sense ?!! Does that sound wrong to you ?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Silver foil indicates a DPM layer. Should never be used on existing floorboards: can cause condensation and even rotting.

I suggest you call the company again to chase them for a solution or your money back. Set them an ultimatum for say 7 days from the day you make that phone call.

 

[mattysupra]

give them a chance to fix the problem. If they dont then you can have a report done on the floor to point out things wrong with it. You can use this in court to claim your money back.

However, the report will have to be paid for by yourself and can go against you if there is nothing wrong with the fitting/floor

as you have only paid half the money i guess they will try and put the flooring right for you. Unless they just walk away from it and call it quits. Would you be happy to only pay half?

did anyone inspect the job before you purchased the flooring?

and ye, the underlay sounds like the wrong one. But there is methods of using the tinfoil backed one over wooden subfloors so may not be wrong if the installer knew what they was doing!

 

[IJWS15]

If you give them the "fix it in 7 days or" ultimatum verbally follow it up with a letter confirming what you have told them, recorded delivery.

Letters carry much more weight than a reported conversation if things get messy.

 

[big-all]

there should be 12mm expansion gap all the way round including door frames
has he undercut the doorframes and arcatraves to allow for expansion!!!

is the skirting in situ thats up for replacement it should be removed to allow the floor to go under by a few mm otherwise you may finnish up with a gap!!!

is there a threashold strip in doorways !!

is there an expansion gap around pipes /services that come out off the floor!!

 

[zogar75]

Thanks for your reply Mattysupra.....sorry didn't see your reply yesterday.
Can I ask what the mthods are of using the tinfoil underlay correctly on our wooden floors ? I doubt very much that he did know what was foing.
Looking at the quote ( yes someone did come round before the work ) they said they would put plywood down on the existing wooden floors but didn't.
I'm not sure i'd ven be happy to just pay the half and walk away as somewhere along the lines we'll end up having to have it done again I'm sure !

BIG-ALL ......thanks for your reply.

We basically had metal doorframes which were ripped out to make way for wooden ones and all skirting has been removed and new ones will eventually be put in along with the frames.

As for the expantion gap......well in the downstairs toilet for example theres a gap of 10mm on the end of one board but the next board along he has cut it a different length and theres not much gap atall and then the next one theres a gap of just over 12mm..... Its all so messy ! Also the pipe in the toilet has no room for expansion!

There is only a threshold by the kitchen where the floor ends. The rest is like one big floor that goes form the toilet to the hall and then on to dining room and lounge...so should there be a threshold for each room?

Can I upload photos of it on here atall ? So that someone can see what I mean !!!

 

[EddieM]

Why would you or should you pay half for something that is probably gonna have to be ripped out, would you pay half for half a filling at the dentists, no I didn't think so. Follow the advice given, but if they've used the wrong underlay, then its all gonna have to come up anyway. Good luck.

 

[zogar75]

Just had a look at the original quote and it says

will prepare existing floor with 3.6m Far Eastern WPB plywood to give satisfactory subfloor surface
To supply and lay suitable polyfoam underlay ?????

The plywood wasn't fitted in the 2 rooms that have existing wood floorboards.............the underlay used throughout was the one I mentioned with a silver foil top to it. Is that what the Polyfoam is and should it have been laid on top of wood floorboards and the concrete in the hall ???

 

[WoodYouLike]

3.6 mm ply to level existing floorboards??? Way too thin for the job. Or your floorboards would have been very level and the ply was only supposed to be used because the new floorboards would run in the same direction as the existing ones.

Polyfoam is used on underfloors that don't need DPM (like ply, existing floorboards, chipboard). They should have used a different type of underlayment on the concreted area - one that does contain a DPM, like the silver foil they now seem to have used in all areas.