When a business owner or home owner is making arrangements for hard surface flooring, it’s an exciting time for them. Hard surface flooring—like tile, stone, resilient, laminate or hardwood—can turn an average space into something extraordinary. Customers trust their hard surface flooring installers to do the best job they can in order to provide many years of trouble-free walkways and floor surfaces.
When the installation job doesn’t go exactly to plan, customers have every right to lodge a complaining with the company. After all, they are paying a lot of money for a service that is being performed by experts in their field. Subpar installation problems can not only lead to a change in the appearance of the flooring, but it could also lead to safety issues, such as a slip and fall accident.
Here are just a few of the most common installation problems in hard surface flooring.
1. Failure to Acclimate
The most common installation problem for hard surface flooring has to do with not acclimating the material properly. For example, when acclimating hardwood flooring, the material is kept in the same environment where it will be installed for several days. Bringing drier wood flooring into a moister environment could lead to cupping, gapping, crowning or other expansion and retraction issues.
2. Noise from Improper Installation
When hard surface flooring is not fastened down correctly, it can lead to squeaking, movement and shifting. Not only does this make the flooring look and sound terrible, but it can lead to further problems as dust, debris or moisture works its way into the material, amplifying noise and possibly causing damage. Proper fastening of the material is imperative for long-lasting flooring performance.
3. Mismatching Material
While manufacturers do their best to match material, it’s possible for different production runs to have visually noticeable differences. Installers that don’t notice or don’t care about the flooring material not matching in texture, color, pattern or size will definitely receive a number of complaints because the flooring will not look cohesive and the flows will be even more glaring.
4. Poor Substrate Preparation
A hard surface flooring is only as good as the substrate beneath it, so when installers do a poor job of getting this under layer ready, it shows. Improper substrate preparation will not be easily overcome, and customers have every right to complain because it can be very expensive to fix.
5. Sloppy Pattern Placement
When hard surface flooring has a prominent pattern, the installer must really know what they are doing to ensure that the best possible placement is made to highlight the beauty of the flooring and the room. A skewed floor pattern or alignment due to improper layout will generate many complaints by customers.
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