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Flooring company refusing to reinstall laminate unless we pay for subfloor repairs
[England] Flooring company refusing to reinstall laminate unless we pay for subfloor repairs
We paid Tapi Carpets around £3,000 for laminate flooring and fitting in 2023. We’ve had repeated problems with the flooring and Tapi have been involved in attempts to put things right.
From a goodwill agreement (no liability or fault admitted) they recently removed the flooring from our living room and kitchen to carry out a full refit including ply, but then refused to reinstall it and left which has left us with a completely bare and unfinished floor. They say the existing plywood subfloor is uneven and flexible and needs remedial work first, which they say we would have to pay for. We have a photo from before the original installation showing the subfloor in what appears to be a very similar condition. These were the same fitters from 2023 who came today.
We’ve now had an independent fitter inspect it. He agrees there is some movement, but says the laminate installation is doable. He’s quoted £600 to reinstall our existing laminate. He also said additional plywood would cost around £700 but would provide very little benefit. We’re considering proceeding with the independent fitter next Tuesday, getting our house back to normal, and then pursuing Tapi for the £600 cost. I’m aware of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, particularly the requirement for services to be carried out with reasonable care and skill, and the provisions around repeat performance.
Would proceeding with the independent fitter be reasonable mitigation, or could doing so harm our position with Tapi? And if Tapi should reasonably have identified the subfloor issue before the original installation, could we potentially recover the £600 from them?
As an addendum, my wife is pregnant, I’m really trying to reduce the stress and make good on the floor as quickly as possible while also exercising consumer rights.
Thanks for your help
Comments
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Who prepared the sub floor originally?
Laminate requires a good sub floor or it will never achieve an acceptable and lasting outcome.
If the sub floor was poor originally and was not made good originally then you are only incurring the cost now that would have been incurred originally to get the flooring done correctly.
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This maybe what the OP is on about that they posted in August.
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Yes indeed this is a direct follow up from this post, thank you for that.
Our plan this morning is to phone Tapi Carpets one last time and plead they do the job as planned (now armed with an individual fitter who has deemed the floor acceptable and has availability next Tuesday), and see what they say.
If not I’m going to need some help navigating the fight to recover losses from Tapi. Or unless someone else has better guidance here as we are now becoming desperate to have a functioning house back, accept potential issues and close this chapter
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I can understand Tapi's reluctance tbh, they don't want to be held liable should the same happen again. Only way I see is that you give them a written assurance that should it fail again it's on you but CRA overide that.
Personally I wouldn't be relying on one fitters opinion (especially one who has quick availability). The original flooring hasn't failed for no reason.
£700 for plywood? How many square metres are we talking?
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If there’s an option for it I’ll take it. I was only acting on the floor being broken and wanting it repaired, but it’s clearly come at a financial and emotional cost too much and basically we’re now willing to accept the faults we originally pointed out.
26.4m2 floor area in total, take away a small portion of the living room that was left untouched by Tapi, and a small portion for kitchen floor cabinets, oven, sink.
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Seems reasonable to me… they made the mistake of thinking they could fit it on the poor floor last time and its cost them having to replace the complete flooring. This time they want to make sure the subfloor is fixed so that they arent replacing the laminate again in another 2-3 years. What would be unfair would be to blame your subfloor and refuse to replace the laminate at all
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I can understand that position. But practically speaking, they have left us with no functioning floor and the downstairs looks like a building site, they just f’ed off and left us in that state. We want this house back to a functioning state asap through an independent fitter and wanting to know if pursuing losses is a viable option. There is no world in which we can afford £1000’s for a potential subfloor fix to a level they may or may not deem acceptable
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We’ve now had an independent fitter inspect it. He agrees there is some movement, but says the laminate installation is doable
What do they mean by "doable"?
Is that not what you have had 3 years worth of problems with 🤷♀️
Life in the slow lane1 -
Yes, as stated before, we are aware the issues will reoccur. But we simply cannot afford the potential remedy of fixing the entire ground floor subfloor, we had no idea things would lead us here, so we are willing to accept the issues and move on
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Why £1,000? You said you had been quoted £700?
The reality sometimes is that the problem only comes to light after removing stuff. In my old line of work of motor claims it happened fairly regularly, looks like minor bodywork damage, panels come off to be replaced and its discovered there are major structural problems behind the panels unrelated to the accident… garage cant just put new panels over the problem and let the owner drive away in a unroadworthy car0
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