Poor floor fitting? What to ask?

[rodrialcazar]

Hello,

About five months ago we had glued-down LVT installed at our home (first they did a survey; no potential issues were raised during the installation process). I have two questions for floor pros that would be very helpful for us:

1. Do you think this has been correctly fitted? In our opinion—as you can see in the pictures—the stairs carpet is poorfly fitted, the hallway transition into the living room is uneven, the pieces on the border of the steps are falling apart, there are wide gaps between skirting and flooring all over the house, the vynil is poorly cut around radiators and sanitary, the planks at the end of rooms is poorly cut, and the floor is very noisy/squeaks a lot around the whole house despite having paid for plywood, preparation, etc.

2. Now that, after restrictions, the installers can come back home to do repairs: what should we ask them to do to make the installation good?

Many, many thanks.

 

[Floorist]

I don't see how most of that can be fixed, at least to meet our standards. It is very poorly installed. But I don't know what is expected there. I know, having talked to some installers in England, their standards are a lot different than ours.
For example, I know that flat metal is expected in all doorways in England and most installers use only a knee kicker. Two things that would not be acceptable here.

 

[C.J.]

I remember you from posting on TFP. Did your floor squeak before the plywood install? Trying to figure out if it’s poorly installed underlay or if the problem existed before the plywood was installed. As far as all the bad cuts up to the walls n such, some shoe molding may be an acceptable out for the installers because trying to caulk away the issue will likely look worse than it currently does. The dimples in your stairs look like crud but can be fixed. The cuts around your pipe can be cleaned up with an escutcheon ring. The duct could be redone or caulked better.

Others will chime in with their 2 cents.

 

[Tile Tom]

I remember this too from TFP. I actually thought it was resolved, guess not.

Definitely sloppy craftsmanship. At least it's salvageable though. The stairs can be fixed by pulling the staples and properly stretching. A few planks can be replaced and calked neatly. The stair nose can be popped off, fix the plank & try to line up better. Like said above, the subfloor squeeks could be a lot of different things. You will have to elaborate on what you hired them to do with it?

 

[Mark Brown]

I spent a doctorates worth of words on that job, exactly what and how and why and we are still where we started by the looks of things so I have decided this time around I am not getting into it

 

[Tile Tom]

I spent a doctorates worth of words on that job, exactly what and how and why and we are still where we started by the looks of things so I have decided this time around I am not getting into it

I feel the same way. But I just wanted to get back into the swing of things so I dropped a line.

 

[highup]

Looking at the level, is impossible to advise without seeing the job. If the house has a slope to it, fixing that would be expensive and possibly run into other issues because of correcting the slope.
Carpet on the stairs could possibly be cleaned up enough to be acceptable. That carpet on those stairs would not be the simplest of tasks. Like the others mentioned a shoe molding would work to clean up the LVT. Not the best installation by far. If the installation was not expensive that's part of the reason for what you're looking at
.....or should I say, what I'm looking at.

 

[rodrialcazar]

Hello, and thanks everyone. With lockdown, they have not been able to come back to the house. Now that they can, I tried to visit the old forum post to remember what the general advice and opinion was, and I found the whole website has disappeared (at least, I don't know how to access it). I think in the past I only asked about your opinion on the installation, but not on ways to make it good, or at least I can't remember (last months have been quite challenging). Sorry for reposting this in here, then, and many thanks for your help.

@highup: installation costs were about £4k (apart from material).

 

[C.J.]

Post away, we’re glad to help. Jim McClain, the owner of TFP, has passed away so we’re all in the same void as you.

 

[highup]

Hello, and thanks everyone. With lockdown, they have not been able to come back to the house. Now that they can, I tried to visit the old forum post to remember what the general advice and opinion was, and I found the whole website has disappeared (at least, I don't know how to access it). I think in the past I only asked about your opinion on the installation, but not on ways to make it good, or at least I can't remember (last months have been quite challenging). Sorry for reposting this in here, then, and many thanks for your help.

@highup: installation costs were about £4k (apart from material).

I don't know how many square feet of material were installed..... I mean square meters....
That doesn't sound like a cheap or budget installation cost depending on how much floor prep was needed. the quality of the entire installation doesn't impress me a lot. If they should trims were needed the installer or the shop should have brought that up and it should have been part of the project. You shouldn't be up to you unless that was discussed and you agreed to it.

 

[rodrialcazar]

I don't know how many square feet of material were installed..... I mean square meters....
That doesn't sound like a cheap or budget installation cost depending on how much floor prep was needed. the quality of the entire installation doesn't impress me a lot. If they should trims were needed the installer or the shop should have brought that up and it should have been part of the project. You shouldn't be up to you unless that was discussed and you agreed to it.

Thanks. No discussion was made and the house is 92 m2 (or 990 square foot I think). Thanks!

 

[rodrialcazar]

Thanks to everyone for your answers. The floor didnt make noises before but there was carpet on it. Do you think glued-down vinyl like this can be lifted to make the underflooring good so it is not noisy anymore? Thanks!

 

[C.J.]

Could be that the fasteners were driven too deep on your ply underlayment. Or the underlayment wasn’t firmly against the subfloor when it was fastened. Dirt n crud left under the underlayment before it was installed. Numerous reasons for a noisy floor and none of them are good. Not many ways to fix that but to redo it. I went to a job a couple years ago where I lifted all the underlayment, vacuumed up all the crap that should have been cleaned up the first time then refastened the underlayment back down.

Make a list and do a pre-repair walk through with your salesperson? (Or whomever you signed the contract with), addressing all the listed issues, then do a post repair walk through after the repairs and go down the list. Hopefully you still owe them some money? Or paid with a credit card?

 

[rodrialcazar]

Could be that the fasteners were driven too deep on your ply underlayment. Or the underlayment wasn’t firmly against the subfloor when it was fastened. Dirt n crud left under the underlayment before it was installed. Numerous reasons for a noisy floor and none of them are good. Not many ways to fix that but to redo it. I went to a job a couple years ago where I lifted all the underlayment, vacuumed up all the crap that should have been cleaned up the first time then refastened the underlayment back down.

Make a list and do a pre-repair walk through with your salesperson? (Or whomever you signed the contract with), addressing all the listed issues, then do a post repair walk through after the repairs and go down the list. Hopefully you still owe them some money? Or paid with a credit card?

Thanks, CJ. Good advice.

Yes, still haven't paid a portion of the agreed price. No contract was signed.

I didn't know you could contract someone to make good what had been poorly installed as in the example you mention, although I don't think that's possible with glued-down vynil planks, right?