Laminate floor finish... bodge job or 'acceptable'

Wolfsbane2k

knight_rider wrote: »

Yes some of that is bad but how do you expect them to do around the pipes without cutting the laminate or removing the pipes down to floor level.

Regards the kitchen units a gap should be left but then you would need beading around the edges.

Pipework does need to be cut out from the laminate, but it should be done with a 22 mm (typically) drill bit for a 15mm pipe,giving 7mm expansion.
This is already pressing up against the pipework,so come winter the moment the heating comes on and expands in one way or another, as metal does, will push against the laminate, and with no where else to go, break, resulting in loss of all heating and the flooding of my house.

Wolfsbane2k

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

OMG Wolfey, that looks bl00dy horrendous ..... you sure they actually knew what they were doing.... I've pretty much done my whole ground floor myself and that looks like it was done by my kids (Who are 5 & 7) compared to my own DIY job...... Sorry but they really made a pigs ear of that !!! How they can call themselves professionals is beyond me... DO NOT PAY THEM !!!

Thanks.
The guy who fitted it is a carpenter, so everything is 'perfect', which you can't have with laminate, and I'm not sure I'd want it with oak or other flooring either!

What worries me is that they say they have done it this way in other houses, and they haven't complained. Very scary!

warehouse

It's a very poor job. As above poster said it looks like kids did it.

Beading can be put around skirting to make it look neat and tidy and you can get pre made circular beading that clips around the radiator pipes, tidies it up completely.

warmhands.coldheart

Wolfsbane2k wrote: »

Thanks.
The guy who fitted it is a carpenter, so everything is 'perfect', which you can't have with laminate, and I'm not sure I'd want it with oak or other flooring either!

What worries me is that they say they have done it this way in other houses, and they haven't complained. Very scary!

Carpenter or Carpet-Fitter ????

As far as no-one else complained... I'd say that's down to people are afraid to complain a lot of the time and are just glad to have cowboys like this out of their houses....

I stand by the DO NOT PAY THEM comment. get your independent fitter to do up a report and send it to them. Give them opportunity to reply and rectify........

Wolfsbane2k

warmhands.coldheart wrote: »

Carpenter or Carpet-Fitter ????

As far as no-one else complained... I'd say that's down to people are afraid to complain a lot of the time and are just glad to have cowboys like this out of their houses....

I stand by the DO NOT PAY THEM comment. get your independent fitter to do up a report and send it to them. Give them opportunity to reply and rectify........

Supposedly he is a carpenter with 30 years experience. Of what, I'm not quite sure!

I have not paid, and have send them a letter with a bunch of photos and pointed out what is wrong with it already. Given that be already given them an opportunity to respond which they fobbed me off with 'sufficient expansion gaps are ftted', and we have then found more examples where they weren't so they have already had a chance to respond and rectify which they declined.

I've told them I dont want them in the house as we feel that they will try and intimidate my wife and children which obviously we can't have, so once the independent surveyor has been I'll get the flooring and skrting removed and made available at the end of our drive for them to collect it.

One thing I've not done yet but will do in the morning is let CAB kno.

andyhop

You must allow them the chance to rectify the faults. You seem eager to not pay the bill and not allow them back, this will go against you if you want this to go legal

All of the issues could easily be rectified in just a couple of hours, expansion gaps could be cut in place with a fein and damaged boards could be lifted

warmhands.coldheart

andyhop wrote: »

You must allow them the chance to rectify the faults. You seem eager to not pay the bill and not allow them back, this will go against you if you want this to go legal

All of the issues could easily be rectified in just a couple of hours, expansion gaps could be cut in place with a fein and damaged boards could be lifted

I'm afraid I'd agree with this, I would give them one last chance to rectify, if you are worried about your wife and kids in the house when they are there, take the day off yourself, pants I know but you have to give them the opportunity to fix it so if it does go legal you can be seen to have been reasonable......

I_have_spoken

What are they charging per sq/m? You may have got what you paid for

Wolfsbane2k

I_have_spoken wrote: »

What are they charging per sq/m? You may have got what you paid for

We've paid £50 psm for which £20 is the laminate. That's for removal of existing flooring covering and laying new. So a high installation price, hence the expectation of a bloody good finish.

Wolfsbane2k

andyhop wrote: »

You must allow them the chance to rectify the faults. You seem eager to not pay the bill and not allow them back, this will go against you if you want this to go legal

All of the issues could easily be rectified in just a couple of hours, expansion gaps could be cut in place with a fein and damaged boards could be lifted

I was more than happy to have them come back in and rectify the situation to add the expansion gaps, but they said it wasn't required and wouldn't do it when I asked as part of the snagging list work, so I wasn't particularly happy then, and having given them a second chance to rectifiy the situation they declined again.

Therefore, the only bargaining chip I had to get the job done was to withhold payment until it is addressed, at which point they said they would see me in court.

Given that we have since learnt they are winding the business up in 3 weeks or so to start a shop instead, I feel that this is the only option I have, especially as I'm paying for a floor with a 25 year guarantee, which is currently invalid due to the poor installation.

And this is before any damage gets done to my house... I currently have a 7m run which as no expansion gap butted up against a PVC door at one end and brick at the other, and the door has already started to move...

And the pictures above are just the tip of the iceberg.