- Update -
The owner contacted me and was genuinely apologetic for my experience, and has since done what he can to make up for it. More so than I was expecting.
I tried contacting the company about our bad experience with them, and haven't received a response. The installation took over four weeks, and here’s why.
Day 1
The installers showed up 2 hours later than I was told they would
They finally left around 9:00 pm, with half of the kitchen still to do, and left all their equipment in the kitchen. We had planned to start installing our cabinets the following day, but weren’t able to.
My wife and I walked around the floor and noticed large sections that were uneven, corners that were misaligned, etc.
We had paid to have the subfloor extended for a new set of stairs that we were going to install after the flooring was done. This new section was 100% square and measured perfectly to the stairs that we were going to install. After the guys left, I noticed that they had shaved off about an inch of the plywood, and it was crooked.
The house was left in a complete mess. Garbage from their lunch on the floor, sawdust all over. Funny how the people who removed our tile left our house much cleaner than the ones installing the flooring.
Day 2
Installer has to remove everything in the kitchen to re-lay it. He didn’t finish, so again, all the equipment was left in the kitchen with the flooring half installed.
I called up Gary and told him about all the issues we’ve had, specifically about the damage done to our cabinets and fridge, and he says that the installers are subcontractors and that I need to work it out with them. So Flooring Solutions doesn’t take any responsibility here?
There are parts of the floor that visibly give when stepped on, and it’s because the subfloor isn’t even. I had asked Gary beforehand if we needed to level the floor, and he said it wouldn’t be a problem. Well, is the floor really supposed to sink when it’s stepped on?
I’m losing track of the days now at this point. We had to have them come out many times over the last four weeks because things were still wrong. Most recently was the stair nose that was installed obviously crooked...by like two inches. It was obvious even to our kids just by looking at it. And even after it was redone yesterday, we saw this morning that it’s only marginally better. But at this point I just have to move on.
So here’s where we are.
A 1-day installation turned into over 4 weeks. This put us over 3 weeks behind our kitchen renovation. We had granite, railing, plumbing, cabinet installation, and HVAC work that was all put on hold until the flooring got done. This means 3 more weeks of not having a kitchen.
We now have to figure out something to do with our stairs due to the installers inexplicably shortening the platform that we had installed. We can’t have the platform redone because that would mean tearing up half of the flooring. So likely, our stairs are just going to have to look off.
We need to spend about $200 to repair the pantry cabinets that were damaged. Nothing we can do about the dinged up fridge.
I was charged me an additional $200 for a “prep fee,” which was not discussed with Flooring Solutions at any point until he gave me the bill.
In the end, I paid more money than I was told to expect, I have to pay more money to fix some damage, our set of stairs cannot be installed properly, and we’ve had to push everything else out by at least 3 weeks.
The people at Flooring Solutions and the sub-contractors were all very nice. But the fact is, this has been a very poor customer experience overall. We have two more floors and two flights of stairs that we’re going to redo the flooring for this year, and I just can’t see how I can use Flooring Solutions for those. They've got our money, so I’m not sure if there’s anything they care to do to rectify this experience.