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rico58

Eng hardwood installation nightmare

rico58
9 years ago

I purchased and had installed 600 sqft of lake ridge sutton birch wide plank flooring. I wasn't at home when floor was installed. Installers had specific instructions to nail floor down. They floated it. Floating requires all seams to glued. My wife was watching them. About every other one is glued. There are soft spots where you can see the seems teetering. They used cut off planks in the middle of the rooms. There are seems you can see the tongue in the seems, as they are not together. What a terrible job installing as they were in a hurry and had to finish that day.
Now they want to return and cut out there mistakes and replace with new planks. I'm afraid it is going to end up a horrific chop job and will be even more disappointed. I pointed all these blunders out to the owner of the store. He said they will be able to fix all of this. I need to know, do I demand this floor be removed and start over, or do I let them try and fix this.
I know that all seems are not glued, which already voids any warranty on this floor.

Comments (6)

  • gregmills_gw
    9 years ago

    What type of subfloor are you working with?
    There might have been a reason the floated. I agree with you that if you asked for naildown and it was possible to nail down then it should have been naildown.

    I wouldnt settle for them to glue it or even fix their mistake with more glue.
    The fact is to have a successful floating floor there needs to be subfloor prep. It needs to be flat. Simeone would need to spend some time going over every sq inch.

    Likely your install did that. I would get them to rip it out and do it right.

  • rico58
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I had a den and kitchen which flow together and a hallway which separate
    From other two rooms. Den kitchen had new plywood underlayment, the 80 sqft hallway was particle board. That is the reason they said they had to float all the floors, because they couldn't do two different installs on the same job.the hallway is on other side of house. I figurd they floated it because it was faster and they didn't have time to nail because they admitted to my wife several times they had no time to waste,they had to finish this job today, because they had to be on another job the following morning,and the boss was on vacation.
    The hallway has a 90o right turn. I requested they basket weave the turn. They told my wife that was a special installation, they didn't have the time, and they weren't doing that here! Unbeleivable!
    There are five or six places that I know of, they installed planks they had already cut off, no tongue, butted right up to groove of next plank end. This is totally unacceptable! They can't just cut these out and replace, but they seem to think they can.
    This is variable width,variable length plank floor, but somehow they managed to have continued H patterns across the den floor.
    The den flows into kitchen through a doorway. They managed to have 7"wide plank right centered in the doorway. To fit the H pattern piece into this threshold, they cut it half, then glued it back together. Now they want to grind,sand and stain this cut to look like a seem. That may be possible, but it isn't right.
    In den and kitchen I counted at least a dozen end joints that you can see the tongue. This is just to big of a hurry installing and to me is unacceptable. They want to stain these tongues so as to make them not so noticeable . I shouldn't have to accept this. I'm sure they wouldn't accept this in their home!
    My wife was watching them install, and she knows that only every other joint is glued.
    The owner assured my wife was seeing things, because his men would never do that!
    They are coming back 8/20/14 to try to fix there blunders.

    Here's my only plan.
    They are going to have to remove several planks to fix the cutoffs in the middle of the floor. If I see there are planks not glued, they are going to be asked to leave, and send their boss back!

    Actually the only way to fix this is to start over.

    Am I right or wrong?

  • geoffrey_b
    9 years ago

    Do you have a contract? Does it state that it will be nailed down? Does it state about the basket weave turn?

  • gregmills_gw
    9 years ago

    Normally a special install like a basketweave should have been discussed prior to the start of the job. Since it was small i would have just done it had i done the install but thats not my point. With it being floated you cant basketweave.

    Was their discussion about tearing out the particle board? Was that on you or them? If you only hired them to install and not do sub floor prep then they did they could only do.

    The glue issue and seeing tongues between joints is not acceptable. You are correct there. If there was only one id say let them fix it and move on but seems like there are more issues then that.

    Watch them as they remove the boards. If they slude out easily then you will know they messed up. Proper glue together becomes messy when taking apart.

    Check you contract with them and make sure you understand exactly what they promised to do. I have a feeling youre outta luck about the hallway but i hope im wrong.

  • rico58
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    You stated you cannot basket weave a floated floor. I need to know more.

    The owner has agreed to replace the hallway and put in the basket weave. The hallway has to be floated as it has particle board subfloor. If this will create further problems, I would rather leave the hallway and work on resolving issues with other floors.

    The hallway was carpeted and I didn't know what subfloor it had before the install. I work out of state, but can be reached anytime and they should have consulted me before they continued.

    In order to do what is wanted, it should have had plywood underlayment, been nailed down with the basket weave.

    I shouldn't have to, but I will probably end up doing that myself later.

  • gregmills_gw
    9 years ago

    I would not recommend floating a basketweave. Its just asking for problems down the line. As a pro i would not be willing to take the risk. Nail down or even glue down? No problem.

    There should be at least 1/2 in ply or osb underneath the particle board. Particleboard is not rated for structural use.

    So to nail down the floor in the hall the particle board should come up.
    Then you need to figure out if thers going to be a height difference with the ajoining floor. If so the either a reducer needs to installed or depending on size another layer of ply should be installed.