• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Laminate wood floor installation

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

Sitbck

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? MI

I had laminate floor installed by a contractor and the work was very poor. I told the contractor I want a full refund of the money or he would have to re-install the floor correctly. He said the work meets industry standards and he will not accept those terms. I have a contract that says the contractor has to install the floor to my approval. I also have had 4 different contractors look at the floor and they all said the workmanship was horrible and incorrect. Since I have already paid the full amount is their anything I can do? Will this hold up in court?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:


S

shell007

Guest
Sitbck said:
What is the name of your state? MI

I had laminate floor installed by a contractor and the work was very poor. I told the contractor I want a full refund of the money or he would have to re-install the floor correctly. He said the work meets industry standards and he will not accept those terms. I have a contract that says the contractor has to install the floor to my approval. I also have had 4 different contractors look at the floor and they all said the workmanship was horrible and incorrect. Since I have already paid the full amount is their anything I can do?

Thanks.
small claims court
 

badapple40

Senior Member
for the OP:

shellandty indicate that you should sue in small claims court. I think that is an option. One thing that I would like to know is how much did the floor cost?

You will want to sue either for:

1) A refund of the price;
OR
2) the cost to redo the project by another contractor to make it correct.

It may be that the amount of the floor exceeds the small claims maximum in your state. Seems to me that you may want to look into an attorney on this.
 

Sitbck

Junior Member
Floor cost

The cost for the wood floor was $2,600. I think the max for my county is $3,000. Do I need a lawyer to look over the contract I made before going to court?
 

John Se

Member
why did you pay if you werent happy?

also, you should complain to the registry of contractors (or equivilant) as they will make the call on workmanship defects. Also describe fully the defects, are any defects from poor existing underlayment?
 
Last edited:

Sitbck

Junior Member
Floor problems.

The floor was not leveled. Lots of high and low spots. The floor comes with underlayment attached to it.
The laminate floor was cut around the door casing and jams leaving 1/4” or larger gaps. He never used an undercut saw.
He nailed the floor down in certain areas. The floor is supposed to be floating.
He used the wrong wood color for the transition pieces.
On one transition from wood floor to carpet he left a 5” gap between the tack strip and transition piece with no padding under the carpet. If you step hard enough on the carpet you can feel the tacks.

I had given half the money up front without a contract. I was out of town at the time the floor was finished so I wrote up a contract that said I have the right to inspect the floor and it must be installed to the customer’s satisfaction. The only way he would sign it was if I gave him the rest of the money. I was worried he was going to run with the half of the money I had already given him.

How can I contact the registry of contractors? I’m trying to get his license number.

Thanks.
 
S

shell007

Guest
I was out of town at the time the floor was finished so I wrote up a contract that said I have the right to inspect the floor and it must be installed to the customer’s satisfaction. The only way he would sign it was if I gave him the rest of the money. I was worried he was going to run with the half of the money I had already given him.
So...did you mail the contract to him along with a check for the balance, and then he signed the contract and mailed it back to you? :confused:

Just curious how the rest of the cash and the contract changed hands. If I assume YOU RETURNED HOME to get this paperwork taken care of....then how did YOU NOT SEE the problems with the floor?
 
S

shell007

Guest
shellandty said:
So...did you mail the contract to him along with a check for the balance, and then he signed the contract and mailed it back to you? :confused:

Just curious how the rest of the cash and the contract changed hands. If I assume YOU RETURNED HOME to get this paperwork taken care of....then how did YOU NOT SEE the problems with the floor?
OP....WHERE DID YOU GO???
 

justalayman

Senior Member
The floor was not leveled. Lots of high and low spots
.Ok, what type of floor structure are we talking about hee. It is impractical to try to level a wood floor on floor joists. Not only can the joists themselves be warped but the entore foundation may have settled. This makes it a major undertaking and is a totally different job.

The laminate floor was cut around the door casing and jams leaving 1/4_ or larger gaps.
Not unusual. As a matter of fact, most floating floor sysytems recommend a gap (I don't know the recommended specs) to allow for expansion without causing the floor to bulge. Floating flooring works best with a kick molding trim. What brand of flooring did you have installed?
He never used an undercut saw.
Usually no need to undercut. As I stated before, a gap is often recommended. An undercut would be senseless.
He nailed the floor down in certain areas.
Usually a big no-no is floating flooring. This is definately a concern.
He used the wrong wood color for the transition pieces
.At least this should be easily remedied if necessary.
On one transition from wood floor to carpet he left a 5_ gap between the tack strip and transition piece with no padding under the carpet. If you step hard enough on the carpet you can feel the tacks.
Acually what you feel is probably a "tackless" strip, but you still should not be a able to get punctures from it. I agree this is a poor workmanship situation.
I had given half the money up front without a contract. I was out of town at the time the floor was finished so I wrote up a contract that said I have the right to inspect the floor and it must be installed to the customer_s satisfaction. The only way he would sign it was if I gave him the rest of the money. I was worried he was going to run with the half of the money I had already given him.
I do understand the justification but it might have been better to only have to fight for 1/2 than the whole. Although you wanted it top be to your satisfaction, you should have done this to start with. As well, many of the things you mention are simply poor workmanship and you would have been able to sue for these anyway.
How can I contact the registry of contractors? I_m trying to get his license number.
Here a a few links. The first is for the license, the other two are some info that might help.
http://www.cis.state.mi.us/bcs_free/default.asp?profession=builder
http://www.michigan.gov/cis/0,1607,7-154-10557_12992_13953-41430--,00.html
http://www.michigan.gov/cis/0,1607,7-154-10557_12992_13953-41470--,00.html
 
Last edited:

Sitbck

Junior Member
shellandty said:
So...did you mail the contract to him along with a check for the balance, and then he signed the contract and mailed it back to you? :confused:

Just curious how the rest of the cash and the contract changed hands. If I assume YOU RETURNED HOME to get this paperwork taken care of....then how did YOU NOT SEE the problems with the floor?

The contractor arrived to do the work the same day I had to leave for business in Auburn Hills. My wife (who was at home) called me that night to tell me that she thought the floor was being installed incorrectly. The contractor was installing the floor with all the seams lined up (like a brick house). I talked to the contractor over the phone and told him he had to start over with a random pattern (he was almost halfway complete with the floor). He was very angry and I was worried he was going to walk off the job. I told him my wife will write a contract and if he agrees to those terms my wife will write him a check for the remaining amount. He agreed, signed the contract and started over on the floor. He worked late into the night and at that point my wife was asleep. When I returned home 2 days later I noticed the problems and called the contractor to report the issues I had. He said that the floor was installed correctly and he would call me back in a couple of days. In the mean time I had 4 different flooring contractors examine the work and they all reported the floor was incorrectly installed and needed to come up to be installed correctly. 3 of the 4 contractors refused to waste time re-installing the floor. Both the contractor and I have a signed copy of the contract. I also sent out a formal letter to the contractor which lists my complaints.

Thanks.
 

Sitbck

Junior Member
"
justalayman said:
.Ok, what type of floor structure are we talking about hee. It is impractical to try to level a wood floor on floor joists. Not only can the joists themselves be warped but the entore foundation may have settled. This makes it a major undertaking and is a totally different job."

The instructions that came with the floor said it needs to be level within a 1/4". Do this buy sanding or using leveling compund. Most of the spots im worried about are up to a 1/2" or more of bumps and dips. The flooring contractors who looked at the floor said they would have leveled it first.

"QUOTE=justalayman].Not unusual. As a matter of fact, most floating floor sysytems recommend a gap (I don't know the recommended specs) to allow for expansion without causing the floor to bulge. Floating flooring works best with a kick molding trim.
Usually no need to undercut. As I stated before, a gap is often recommended. An undercut would be senseless."

The flooring contractors I talked to said they undercut the door jams and slide the floor underneath leaving plenty of room foor expansion. Kick molding was installed on the base boards to hide the required gap but the gap by the door jams was left exposed and looks horrible. I have the instructions that came with the floor showing how to do this.


"QUOTE=justalayman].Acually what you feel is probably a "tackless" strip, but you still should not be a able to get punctures from it. I agree this is a poor workmanship situation."

I pulled up the carpet and checked, its not tackless.


The floor was purchased from Lowes. I talked to Lowes installers and they also agreed the floor was installed incorrectly.

Thanks for all the help. I will try to post pictures.
 
Last edited:

justalayman

Senior Member
The flooring contractors I talked to said they undercut the door jams and slide the floor underneath leaving plenty of room foor expansion. Kick molding was installed on the base boards to hide the required gap but the gap by the door jams was left exposed and looks horrible. I have the instructions that came with the floor showing how to do this.
Sorry about this. I kind of spaced on this part. I was thinking about something totally different. You are correct. The jambs being undercut would provide the same hiding of the gap as the kick mould would.

I pulled up the carpet and checked, its not tackless.
Not that it makes many real difference and not knowing what you may or may not know but a "tackless strip" is a strip of metal with teeth pointing towards the wall and up from the floor a bit and it is nailed to the floor..The carpet is stretched and hooked onto this strip. I don't know anybody who actually uses tacks anymore. A tackless strip still has sharp projections that can injure if the carpet is not installed correctly. It can actually be felt even when installed correctly but your description does sound like shoddy work.

The floor was purchased from Lowes. I talked to Lowes installers and they also agreed the floor was installed incorrectly.
I didn't mean to make it sound as it wasn't. I was just trying to point out some possibilities for some of the situation. It does sound like it was a poor install at best.

I will try to post pictures.[
That would be nice.

Have you checked out the links I provided? . Let me know if I can help anymore.
 
S

shell007

Guest
justalayman said:
Sorry about this. I kind of spaced on this part. I was thinking about something totally different. You are correct. The jambs being undercut would provide the same hiding of the gap as the kick mould would.

Not that it makes many real difference and not knowing what you may or may not know but a "tackless strip" is a strip of metal with teeth pointing towards the wall and up from the floor a bit and it is nailed to the floor..The carpet is stretched and hooked onto this strip. I don't know anybody who actually uses tacks anymore. A tackless strip still has sharp projections that can injure if the carpet is not installed correctly. It can actually be felt even when installed correctly but your description does sound like shoddy work.

I didn't mean to make it sound as it wasn't. I was just trying to point out some possibilities for some of the situation. It does sound like it was a poor install at best.

That would be nice.



Have you checked out the links I provided? . Let me know if I can help anymore.
This really does sound like quite a mess.

OP: Hopefully you will prevail in the end. Justalayman will help you as much as possible.
 

Sitbck

Junior Member
Thanks for all the help.

I guess my next step is to have an inspector look over the workmanship.

I cant seam to find the license number for the contractor using the web site you suggested. I tried calling and e-mailing asking for the number but no reply. I read on the website that in MI you need a license for work over $600. If the contractor does not have a license what would that change?
 

justalayman

Senior Member
Sitbck said:
Thanks for all the help.

I guess my next step is to have an inspector look over the workmanship.

I cant seam to find the license number for the contractor using the web site you suggested. I tried calling and e-mailing asking for the number but no reply. I read on the website that in MI you need a license for work over $600. If the contractor does not have a license what would that change?
It means he isn't supposed to be doing this type of work.

If you PM me his business name, address, and his name, I will try to find the info.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top