Buy Material Separately and Hire Your Own Labor

Saturday, August 06, 2011

There are so many things that can go wrong during the installation process, and many of those potential problems can be attributed to incompetent installation. So if you’re going to take the chance and have someone install your own material – please, please, please make absolutely sure that the installer is competent.

If there is a problem with your new floor, who is going to fix it? In the event of a problem, do you really think that the installer you hired, because they were cheaper, is going to remove your floor, replace the materials at their expense, and re-install the floor? (If you do, then pigs really do fly).

Here’s another scenario problem with a floor: The installer says the product is defective. The manufacturer says it is installer related and won’t pay for the claim or replace the material. What do you do? First of all, manufacturers are not thrilled to look at a claim that wasn’t installed by the store that sells their material – and for precisely that reason; they don’t trust the guy in the truck.

It gets even worse today, because of some of the cheap products invading our country are from China. Many of those products are bought by internet sales companies, and flooring stores and Big Box stores. They advertise very cheap prices and then the products get discontinued or the original factory changes or goes out of business. Where are you left? It doesn’t mean that all Chinese goods are inferior, but if something does go wrong I would certainly think it futile to have to call China and get someone to honor a claim. To purchase quality products from China, you have to have your own employees on site, in the factory, watching everything that happens. There are only a few companies that have the power to do that, and yes, we do have some Chinese product through those American manufacturers who have partnered with some quality Chinese factories. And if there’s a problem – I’m going to call the American manufacturer and get it resolved.

So what happens if we make a mistake in the installation and have to replace the floor? Well, my installers are really good and I haven’t had to do that, but let me tell you what happened once. I had installed a Bamboo floor, almost 1,000 square feet, having first checked the moisture in the subfloor. A couple of months later the wood started to cup. Typically, this is indicative of moisture – and when I removed a test section of the floor I truly expected to find a wet floor. It was dry. So what was the cause? I suspect, but still don’t actually know for sure; but it clearly wasn’t the installation or the adhesive. I got together with the manufacturer and together we replaced the floor at our expense. It’s not that I need a pat on the back. The question you have to ask yourself is, “who do I want on my side”?

 

 

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