How do you know that the floor is a less expensive choice than your allowance?

After I saw what brand it was, I went to our local Lowes here in Redding and looked it up. Even if they bought the floor from another store, I'm sure it still would have cost less than our allowance by $500.

One consideration is markup. You have to respect the fact that it takes time on the contractors part to figure up how much materials are needed and ordering the products, setting up deliveries, or picking them up themselves. There's expense involved and no one likes to work for free. Contractors typically have suppliers that they regularly deal with as well, but a $500.00 difference does sound extreme. You might try to go in on a 1/2-1/2 deal where they agree to recompensate the difference by that 1/2. Sometimes it's a peaceful resolve rather than trying to get it all back.

Thanks for the response, sierraeast. I guess my understanding was that the contractors' markup is already included in their estimate. They're going to get the same markup on labor and project management regardless. When there's an allowance, it just seems like the fair thing to do is to charge me the difference if the floor costs more or credit me the difference if it costs less and I'm pretty sure (although I haven't seen a receipt) that the floor they installed costs less.

Then they should by all accounts credit you for the difference. On a related issue with a laywer firm, the costs were lower than the retainer we gave them and we have yet to hear from them. They were quick to send weekly invoices of charges and of course wanted the full retainer from day one. but I'm sure we will have to keep on them for reimbursement. I guess what you can do at this point is to keep in constant contact with them and hope they do the right thing without it going to the BBB or lawyering up, with the latter probably not worth the time and effort unfortunately. If it gets somewhat ugly and they dont settle with you, if they are licensed by the state, you can file a claim with your states contractors licensing board. Out here, licensed contractors dont want negatives against them as people considering them for their services can easily check them out through the license board, although most people dont. You might look into that. deliberately installing a lesser grade material when a higher end was promised, contract or verbal, is just bad business unless they had an accepable reason that was brought to your attention for aproval. It might not get your refund, but word of mouth reputation works both ways and you will want to steer folks away from this contractor so it might not happen to others. Hope it all works out for the best! Best of luck!

How do you know your allowance was for materials only? Sometimes labor and/or markup is part of the allowance.

This is why allowances are often bad for homeowners. Pick your materials first. Plan longer. Make your contract specific.

Sorry, I know that doesn't help you, but it's something for others to think about.

An allowance is a place holder in the contract. The actual purchase of the material will always result in a change order that raises or lowers the fixed contract price. In a well written contract labor would be in the base contract price instead of in the allowance and the final allowance amount should be the actual cost to the contractor including discounts; the contractor's OH&P should be in the base contract price.

Read your contract carefully.