Apologies for the long post but I've got a real problem here 
so any advice from flooring experts would be very gratefully received! My wife and I are renovating a house. We had oak flooring in our old flat and wanted it in on the ground floor of the house. I was worried though because the floor is cement (laid about 10 years ago) and I know that its a problem for moisture. However the flooring company we eventually settled on said that the cement wasn't a problem because they would glue down marine ply with special flexible glue and then glue kiln dried 18mm oak planks to the ply. I said that what mattered most was that the floor needed to be flat and solid, no bumps & lumps or hollow sounds. They said "It will be".
I asked them to bring in the wood a few weeks early to aclimatise it but they said it wasnt neccessary because it was kiln dried. When they came in they roughly cut a load of ply and glued it down with flexible glue. It was lumpy but they said it wasnt a problem as the wood would flatten it, then the oak went down and it was ok but not great. It wasnt level where it met the walls, with gaps under the skirting and so on. But away from the walls it was very flat and looked ok, so I figured I could live with the gaps at the skirting so I paid them their 5000 pounds and everything seemed fine.
Big mistake! After two weeks a small hump started to rise in the middle of the back room floor. Over the next 2 weeks it got really big and the floor developed a wave effect. Running my finger across the boards I could tell each plank was cupping, ridging up at the sides. The floor at the door flexed about an inch when you walked into the room. I rang them and they came in for a couple of days and cut out the big lump and patched in new wood but it wasnt a good job, some bits of plank were a couple of inches long, but they assured me that it would "sand up just fine", then also screwed down the floor at the door banging in some noticable plugs then they left to see how it settled saying they would come back in a week and sand it.
In the meantime I've been looking at the floor and I hate it. My wife cries when she thinks about it. The boards are cupped, the floor is still lumpy and uneven with gaps under the skirting. It's also lumped up at the edges in the dining room and the hall. It's a disaster and I'm worried that if I go down the 'letting them fix it' route then it will just look worse and worse and the problem will just keep re-occurring. I'm sure thats its a moisture problem and that their approach was wrong so surely its just going to keep happening?
We wanted oak flooring because we love it and and it would add value to our house. This floor justs detracts from the house. We know its bad because we keep talking about which rugs we can get to "hide the floor" and what furniture we can put against the wall to "hide the gaps"
I dont know what to do. Should I let them try to fix it? or just say "forget it. its rubbish." take them to court and then get it ripped out and replaced by another firm.
Please any advice ?
so any advice from flooring experts would be very gratefully received! My wife and I are renovating a house. We had oak flooring in our old flat and wanted it in on the ground floor of the house. I was worried though because the floor is cement (laid about 10 years ago) and I know that its a problem for moisture. However the flooring company we eventually settled on said that the cement wasn't a problem because they would glue down marine ply with special flexible glue and then glue kiln dried 18mm oak planks to the ply. I said that what mattered most was that the floor needed to be flat and solid, no bumps & lumps or hollow sounds. They said "It will be".I asked them to bring in the wood a few weeks early to aclimatise it but they said it wasnt neccessary because it was kiln dried. When they came in they roughly cut a load of ply and glued it down with flexible glue. It was lumpy but they said it wasnt a problem as the wood would flatten it, then the oak went down and it was ok but not great. It wasnt level where it met the walls, with gaps under the skirting and so on. But away from the walls it was very flat and looked ok, so I figured I could live with the gaps at the skirting so I paid them their 5000 pounds and everything seemed fine.
Big mistake! After two weeks a small hump started to rise in the middle of the back room floor. Over the next 2 weeks it got really big and the floor developed a wave effect. Running my finger across the boards I could tell each plank was cupping, ridging up at the sides. The floor at the door flexed about an inch when you walked into the room. I rang them and they came in for a couple of days and cut out the big lump and patched in new wood but it wasnt a good job, some bits of plank were a couple of inches long, but they assured me that it would "sand up just fine", then also screwed down the floor at the door banging in some noticable plugs then they left to see how it settled saying they would come back in a week and sand it.
In the meantime I've been looking at the floor and I hate it. My wife cries when she thinks about it. The boards are cupped, the floor is still lumpy and uneven with gaps under the skirting. It's also lumped up at the edges in the dining room and the hall. It's a disaster and I'm worried that if I go down the 'letting them fix it' route then it will just look worse and worse and the problem will just keep re-occurring. I'm sure thats its a moisture problem and that their approach was wrong so surely its just going to keep happening?
We wanted oak flooring because we love it and and it would add value to our house. This floor justs detracts from the house. We know its bad because we keep talking about which rugs we can get to "hide the floor" and what furniture we can put against the wall to "hide the gaps"
I dont know what to do.
Should I let them try to fix it? or just say "forget it. its rubbish." take them to court and then get it ripped out and replaced by another firm.Please any advice ?
