Hello everyone,
I’ll try to cover several questions in one thread. About nine months ago (before we moved in), we had hardwood flooring installed.
On the ground floor, it was glued down, and overall I’m quite satisfied. What I do notice, however, is that there are spots where, if I run my finger over the floor, it sounds hollow. Not that there’s a hole underneath, but it seems as if there is no glue beneath the floorboard in those areas. These are wide plank boards, about 2 meters (6.5 feet) long, and the hollow spots are always small. Mostly near the edges, e.g., by doors or walls, but sometimes between two boards. Everything is still firmly in place, nothing moves.
A friend of mine also had wide plank boards installed by another specialist company, and he said he has the same issue. So now I wonder if this is "normal." Hopefully, it doesn’t have any drawbacks.
2nd question: On the upper floor, I had the same type of hardwood (engineered wood flooring) installed as a floating floor. Before the furniture was in place, I noticed a clearly springy feeling when walking on it. The craftsman said that would change once the furniture was in the room—and he was right. In the rooms, the feeling has indeed improved. However, in the hallway, it is still noticeable, and there is one spot with a visible dip where the floor noticeably sinks. You can also hear a slight creaking sound when walking in the hallway. I mentioned this to him back then, and he said he had added extra support under that area. My first guess was that the boards would settle over time. But after summer and autumn, it hasn’t improved. There is also no furniture in the hallway, so the effect that helped in the other rooms can’t happen here. Since the boards are floating and not fixed to the screed, I wonder if this is acceptable. Otherwise, I will have to file a complaint. It’s definitely still within the warranty period.
In the basement, he installed vinyl flooring, also floating. I notice small dips in a few spots in the room. I think the subfloor is not perfectly level. Is this tolerable? It is rigid vinyl, so I don’t think it’s harmful to the floor, but if I want to complain, I can’t just wait another two years. Reinstalling the floor there would be a hassle, especially since I don’t find it very disturbing.
In the attic, cork laminate was laid on chipboard. It was clear that this would be challenging. During renovation, it was obvious that the floor wasn’t completely level and the chipboard was installed incorrectly. According to the floor installer, fixing this was neither necessary nor cost-effective. But you can see with the naked eye that the cork laminate follows the unevenness of the subfloor across the room (from the middle of the room towards the stairs, the floor slopes slightly). You can also hear this when walking over it. Now I don’t know if the squeaking and creaking are caused only by the chipboard underneath. The neighbors have carpet there, and their floor makes noises as well. I can’t blame the floor installer here because the subfloor is what it is, but I wonder if the cork laminate will eventually get damaged because of this.
Lastly, the strangest thing: this company carried out most of the renovation work for me.
I’ll try to cover several questions in one thread. About nine months ago (before we moved in), we had hardwood flooring installed.
On the ground floor, it was glued down, and overall I’m quite satisfied. What I do notice, however, is that there are spots where, if I run my finger over the floor, it sounds hollow. Not that there’s a hole underneath, but it seems as if there is no glue beneath the floorboard in those areas. These are wide plank boards, about 2 meters (6.5 feet) long, and the hollow spots are always small. Mostly near the edges, e.g., by doors or walls, but sometimes between two boards. Everything is still firmly in place, nothing moves.
A friend of mine also had wide plank boards installed by another specialist company, and he said he has the same issue. So now I wonder if this is "normal." Hopefully, it doesn’t have any drawbacks.
2nd question: On the upper floor, I had the same type of hardwood (engineered wood flooring) installed as a floating floor. Before the furniture was in place, I noticed a clearly springy feeling when walking on it. The craftsman said that would change once the furniture was in the room—and he was right. In the rooms, the feeling has indeed improved. However, in the hallway, it is still noticeable, and there is one spot with a visible dip where the floor noticeably sinks. You can also hear a slight creaking sound when walking in the hallway. I mentioned this to him back then, and he said he had added extra support under that area. My first guess was that the boards would settle over time. But after summer and autumn, it hasn’t improved. There is also no furniture in the hallway, so the effect that helped in the other rooms can’t happen here. Since the boards are floating and not fixed to the screed, I wonder if this is acceptable. Otherwise, I will have to file a complaint. It’s definitely still within the warranty period.
In the basement, he installed vinyl flooring, also floating. I notice small dips in a few spots in the room. I think the subfloor is not perfectly level. Is this tolerable? It is rigid vinyl, so I don’t think it’s harmful to the floor, but if I want to complain, I can’t just wait another two years. Reinstalling the floor there would be a hassle, especially since I don’t find it very disturbing.
In the attic, cork laminate was laid on chipboard. It was clear that this would be challenging. During renovation, it was obvious that the floor wasn’t completely level and the chipboard was installed incorrectly. According to the floor installer, fixing this was neither necessary nor cost-effective. But you can see with the naked eye that the cork laminate follows the unevenness of the subfloor across the room (from the middle of the room towards the stairs, the floor slopes slightly). You can also hear this when walking over it. Now I don’t know if the squeaking and creaking are caused only by the chipboard underneath. The neighbors have carpet there, and their floor makes noises as well. I can’t blame the floor installer here because the subfloor is what it is, but I wonder if the cork laminate will eventually get damaged because of this.
Lastly, the strangest thing: this company carried out most of the renovation work for me.
H
HubiTrubi4012 Apr 2023 00:28HubiTrubi40 schrieb:
I think I’ll wait one more week and then submit a formal complaint about the defects.At least he has responded now. So I’m hopeful again.H
HubiTrubi4024 May 2023 22:28KlaRa schrieb:
Larger deflections carry the risk that repeated loads (from walking on the floor) can unintentionally cause the locking mechanism between the “clicked” floorboard elements to open, or cause the milled edges on the long sides and/or ends to break, which destroys the element. The contractor has now inspected it and said nothing serious should happen, but he will repair it as a precaution. He looked under the parquet flooring and found that the screed has a depression at that spot. He said removing and refilling would be a major effort. Instead, he applied beads of construction adhesive under the impact sound insulation membrane, effectively shimmed like with battens. At first, I didn’t understand, but he really meant construction adhesive. I’m not sure how reliable I think this is, but he said it should work. If it’s not enough, he asked me to get back in touch and then he would remove and redo it. Does anyone know this trick with construction adhesive? Basically, it kind of makes sense as it's a type of filler material. But I’m just not sure how long it will last.
X
xMisterDx30 May 2023 00:03HubiTrubi40 schrieb:
I called about this four weeks ago to ask what was going on with the invoice. He said he hadn’t gotten around to it yet. It’s now been a whole year since the project was completed. Can someone tell me what might be causing this? Honestly, I’m getting frustrated not knowing what to expect. (...) This isn’t necessarily common, but it can happen. I received the invoice last week for my utility connections, which were installed in November 2022. It was from a fairly large civil engineering company that has dedicated staff for invoicing. The tradesperson sometimes doesn’t handle that...
Aside from that:
Did you have the work done on a time-and-materials basis? You should have signed a quote where the price for their work was clearly stated. Subtract what you’ve already paid from that, and then you’ll know what they still expect to receive.