Wood floor problem

bms1972

A friend of mine has a problem with a solid oak floor that was fitted a few months back.

The short question is - how should she go about complaining to the retailer and how should she expect to be compensated. The long version and the detail is below.

She bought the wood from a large DIY retailer and had the flooring fitted by a carpenter. The wood was left in situ to acclimatise before being laid during the early summer.

This solid oak floor was fitted as a floating floor in 3 rooms - living room (over concrete) and 2 upstairs bedrooms. The instructions stated that this wood could be fitted as a floating floor.

The problem is that a significant gap (several mms) has appeared in the middle of two planks in the living room and smaller gaps have started to appear in that floor and in the bedrooms.

My friend has complained to both the carpenter and the DIY store. Currently the carpenter is being helpful, he is provisionally verbally offering to fix the problem at his own cost using independent floorers. His investigations have led to him finding that fitting solid wood flooring as a floating floor is not good practice, albeit that the instructions said this was fine. We take his word that the problem will be resolved, although he is going to get some independent inspections carried out this week. Whatever method of resolution is chosen, my friend faces significant disruption.

The DIY store have not admitted any fault and are only just beginning the complaints procedure. They have sent one of their own inspectors to the house, but other than saying that the floor should be glued (it was) there has been little feedback.

We believe there are reasonable complaints here about the quality of the wood and/or the fitting instructions supplied. Clearly there are more inspections taking place, so the cause is not yet conclusive and could well be split between several possibilities.

Any advice on how best to approach this issue in terms of complaining in writing? Are there any pitfalls to be wary of at this point?

Last question - does section 75 have any bearing? The goods were partly paid for by credit card, so would the CC company have any liability over the quality and instructions?

Thanks for any advice you can give :-)

bris

Nothing wrong with the wood, it's a common problem for a badly fitted floor. Real oak should ideally be nailed and glued to stop the gaps, they can be left floating but the glue should be super strong and not many good fitters would agree with leaving it floating. There is only one thing that will stop the gaps and that is proper fitting using good quality glue, any weakness and it will expand due to climate change from season to season.
Your complaint lies with the fitter, it's his job to make sure the floor is fitted properly, if there are any other weak points they are going to open up over the next few months, it's what wood does only the quality of the glue will stop it happening.

Oliver14

Sounds like the fitting not the wood to me.

bms1972

Thanks Oliver14 and Bris for your replies, and thanks Bris for the extra info on the correct methods of fitting, much appreciated.

bms1972

An update and some more questions...

The carpenter has had another floor fitter produce a short independent report, which concludes that the fitting method was correct and in line with the instructions.

He commented that there was a pronounced "arris" (stop laughing at the back ;-) ) on many of the boards, meaning precise fitting was difficult. As I understand it, the arris is the outside corner - surely either this shouldn't be an issue or any incorrectly cut pieces should have been corrected or rejected?

He commented that the warm conditions (winter heating!) may have led to the wood shrinking. Would heat not cause expansion? In any case, the boards were acclimatised and fitted in the 'height' of our summer. And if there is expansion, would we not expect to see a rippled floor rather than gaps appearing?

The glue is only in the joins. In the absence of nails, should there be glue underneath? Or is it simply used to join wood to wood.

Last question for now, does anyone have a view on the supplier's responsibility in regard to the instructions? It sounds like they really should have recommended nailing not simply gluing?



Thanks again for any help received :-)

Hintza

What was the moisture reading in the concrete before laying?

Is there UFH?

Was any underlay used?

We have just started using our 18mm Engineered floating floor on a 3mm barrier membrane. We had to attach temp heating to our UFH which ran on an immerser system and cost us £600 just to dry the floor which had been laid 2-3 months previously.

MaggieBaking

I don't know much about the legalities, or have any expertise in fitting floors, but I do think reading your post about the fitters explainations sounds like excuses to me. It would be very easy for him to get another fitter to write him a "report" in his favour.

Call a seperate fitter, explain that you need some remedial work doing and ask him to quote and also ask him what caused it (so you can be sure it's rectified)

You might get some advice on the technical side on the DIY forum - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39

bromleymum

I'm not an expert on wooden floors but just want to share my own experience.

About 10 years ago I had parquet floor fitted down the hallway and into my dining room.

When it was completed it looked absolutely beautiful.

The fitter at the time warned me that the wood would move around with the seasons due to moisture and central heating and I may experience a few "tiny gaps" appearing and disappearing.

Fast forward to the first Winter and I was horrified at the enormous gaps opening up in random places and quite frankly, the floor looked like it had been thrown down rather than fitted by a professional. However, my (very patient) fitter was lovely and reassured me the floor was fine and just settling in. Believe me, there were some mornings that I wanted to rip it out and start again. I remember my fitter saying it wasn't laminate and would look different as the years went by but I was skeptical.

Now, ten years on the floor is fantastic. Every year the gaps decreased and you'd have to get down on your hands and knees to find them now (I could have stuck a penny down them in the early years).

Best thing I've ever bought for the house. Everyone loves it.

Mine is 1 inch blocks glued on concrete if that helps.

bms1972

Hintza wrote: »

What was the moisture reading in the concrete before laying?

Is there UFH?

Was any underlay used?

We have just started using our 18mm Engineered floating floor on a 3mm barrier membrane. We had to attach temp heating to our UFH which ran on an immerser system and cost us £600 just to dry the floor which had been laid 2-3 months previously.

I'm not sure if a moisture reading was taken from the concrete before laying, although no moisture is registered in the rooms now.

There is no underfloor heating.

There was underlay used, in line with the store's recommendations. Unfortunately I don't know the spec.

When you refer to drying the floor, do you mean the concrete floor prior to the wood flooring being laid?

bms1972

MaggieBaking wrote: »

I don't know much about the legalities, or have any expertise in fitting floors, but I do think reading your post about the fitters explainations sounds like excuses to me. It would be very easy for him to get another fitter to write him a "report" in his favour.

Call a seperate fitter, explain that you need some remedial work doing and ask him to quote and also ask him what caused it (so you can be sure it's rectified)

You might get some advice on the technical side on the DIY forum - http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=39

Thanks for the info on the DIY forum, had not noticed there was one :-) Yes, I think my friend will get a separate report done as clearly there is a question over the "independent" nature of this one.