Laminate floor installation

[Art Begun]

We signed a contract to have Mannington glueless laminate floors installed. I thought our experience might be helpful to others.

In the contract we stipulated that it must be installed per manufacturer's specs.

There are only 4 significant specs in the instructions. Must use manufacturer's moisture barrier Aquabarrier II, no laminate shorter than 12 inches, no laminate narrower than 2 inches, and subfloor must be level.

I showed the guy who was sent to measure the rooms the only bad bump in the floor. He said no problem for installer. He did not know that a special moisture barrier had to be used. They always use their favorite non-Mannington brand. After I told him in 3 separate conversations he finally called Mannington and learned I was right and he's been using the wrong stuff for previous jobs.

I was dissappointed when I checked out the substantially completed job after the first day of work. The installer had not handled the bump adequately. I also found some areas where the flooring was less than

2 inches wide and shorter than 12 inches long. A few pieces were only 4 inches long. When he showed up to finish the job the next morning I showed him the problems and told him the contract said the material had to be installed per manufacturer's specs and if he did not want to do it that way he could pick it up and take it away (it snaps together and apart). He decided to quit and had it up in less than an hour and packed in his truck. He probably could have fixed it in 20 minutes. I was completely polite. He was polite too but was only going to do it his way and not per manufacturer's specs. (He was saving himself some planning, measuring and sawing.) The store said he was their best installer so they are backing out of the job. We have talked to another store that handles the same brand and told them the story. They assured us that their installer will follow the manufacturer's directions. We will soon find out. Now I have to walk on subfloor for the extra week or so waiting for a new installer. Also toilets were removed and I had to re-install one. I don't have an estimate from the new store but if it is significantly higher I'm thinking of sending the original store a bill for the difference.

[3GCPO]

sounds like the manufacturer sucked in another one. get ready to pay twice as much.

mfgs. specs are usually to sell you their brand (at a higher cost) otherwise it voids the warranty.

just like buying a car only the dealerships can do all maintenance and repairs to stay under their warranty. last time I checked the dealership was double the price of the local mechanic.

warranties are useless guarantees................now you're talking.

good luck collecting the price difference. my guess is: you will have to pay all of the expense or pay a restocking fee. either way....you loose.

next time buy "real wood"

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-----ooO----(__)----Ooo----- 3GCPO

[Art Begun]

I would have preferred real wood and considered it but it is mostly on a slab and in very high traffic areas. It is for my parent's who are in their 80's so area rugs are not a safe option to protect the wood from dents and dings from furniture legs.

Are you familiar with Minwax wood hardener? It is made to fill in soft wood. Basically a solvent with polymer in it. You poor it on the soft wood, it soaks in, the solvent evaporates and you have hardened wood. Too bad the wood flooring manufacturers can't do something similar to make natural wood extra hard for floors.

[MSH]

Don't know your setup but its possible they have to have rips less than 2 inches along a wall line.

Natural wood has been used for hundreds of years for floors. Not sure how much damage two 80 year olds will do to real hardwood. I see floors routinely abused by young children that don't seem to have a problem. The real problem is people who don't adequately protect their furniture legs. Those same legs will eventually damage that plastic floor as well.

M Hamlin

[Tim Fischer]

I mean no disrespect, but please don't attempt to state facts that just are not true.

Fedreal law prohibits auto manufacturers from requiring that service occur at their dealerships to honor the warranty. As long as maintanence is done (and done properly) you can do it yourself, take it to a non-dealer mechanic, or take it to the dealer. Warranty work, of course, will happen at the dealer, but you're not paying for it either.

-Tim