Wood Floors ruined by Co.

helpmysis

Hello,

I own a house that was let to tenant's. They damaged the flooring and at the end of the tenancy said they would get the floors sanded down and refinished. They got a quote from a company that does just that, and agreed to have the work done.

The guy came to sand down, and before you know it, he has sanded too far, the MDF is exposed and the floors ruined. The tenant had paid a 50% deposit for the work.

I have emailed them and spoken to many of the office people (the manager is always out) and they have confirmed that they will not pay anything towards me now having to get new floors. My email to them was asking for a reasonable £400 towards the replacement cost.

Their justification.....in the option extras section it gave a quote of £2,000 for new floors, (rather than sanding down / reseal etc.) so my floors must have needed replacing! Also they said that they have gone out of their way to help me - not true, all they have done is ruin the floors. He also gave some very weak justifications of ' my floors were not that thick, I should go back to the house-builder' and they are not at fault.

I asked why the guy that did the quote would quote for a service that was not going to work, or why the engineer came didn't test patch an inconspicuous area first - not their fault apparently.

Where do I go next? I don't want them to get away with shocking behaviour.

I need to replace the floors ASAP as they are unsightly and once they get wet will swell and break up.

Thanks in advance.

visidigi

Ask them for their insurance details.

vaio

sounds like your issue is with your tenants and they should be chasing the floor company.

bris

Tbh you shouldn't have sanded down venereed floors, any wood flooring that is made with MDY is poor and and isn't up to the process needed.

It's not the co's fault, they wouldn't have know it was cheap MDF veneered flooring, they have to skim the top to refinish, if it was a 2 or 3mm veneer then there really wasn't anything to work with.

Chase the tenant's but remember to take the age of the floor into consideration as you can't penalise them for betterment.

helpmysis

bris wrote: »

Tbh you shouldn't have sanded down venereed floors, any wood flooring that is made with MDY is poor and and isn't up to the process needed.

It's not the co's fault, they wouldn't have know it was cheap MDF veneered flooring, they have to skim the top to refinish, if it was a 2 or 3mm veneer then there really wasn't anything to work with.

Chase the tenant's but remember to take the age of the floor into consideration as you can't penalise them for betterment.

I understand that, but shouldn't the company have checked to see what kind of floor it was before they took on the job? That's why I am angry. There were areas that they could have checked before they undertook the work to see if that was the case. I just think it could have been easily avoided, and now there is no option other than to replace the floors.

George_Michael

bris wrote: »

It's not the co's fault, they wouldn't have know it was cheap MDF veneered flooring, they have to skim the top to refinish, if it was a 2 or 3mm veneer then there really wasn't anything to work with.

If they couldn't tell what type of flooring they were going to be working on then they shouldn't have guessed.
Presumably they are a professional floor resurfacing company and as such, you would expect them to be able to distinguish between solid wood and veneered panels.

regprentice

Problem here is that the tenant has instructed, or at least made initial contact with, the flooring co.

Quite possible that the flooring co were told that the floor was solid wood as opposed to engineered boards if the tenant didn't know better.

Avoided engineered boards myself for this reason (limited scope to renew)

Hintza

regprentice wrote: »

Avoided engineered boards myself for this reason (limited scope to renew)

Engineered boards are much more stable and for UFH applications are generally recommended.

vassa

Ask them for insurance details.

If they won't play ball, you can sue them and will probably win.

vaio

vassa wrote: »

Ask them for insurance details.

If they won't play ball, you can sue them and will probably win.

The OP has no contract with the flooring company, the contract is between the flooring company and the tenants

vassa

vaio wrote: »

The OP has no contract with the flooring company, the contract is between the flooring company and the tenants

Well then in that care OP needs to sue her (former?) tenants.

However i'm sure there must be something that can be done legally, because it's OP that's suffered loss whether the contract was with the tenants or not.