When a business owner or homeowner 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 complaint 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
Improper fastening can cause hard surface flooring to squeak, move, and shift over time. 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, different production runs can have visually noticeable differences. Installers who don’t notice or don’t care about the flooring material not matching in texture, color, pattern, or size will definitely receive several complaints because the flooring will not look cohesive, and the flaws will be even more glaring.
4. Poor Substrate Preparation
A hard surface floor performs only as well as the substrate beneath it. Proper substrate preparation plays a critical role in the appearance and durability of the finished flooring.
When installers fail to prepare the underlayer correctly, problems often become visible after installation. Uneven surfaces, movement, cracking, and other defects may develop over time.
Poor substrate preparation is difficult to correct after the flooring is installed. Repairs can become expensive and time-consuming. Customers often become frustrated because many of these problems could have been prevented with proper preparation before installation.
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 from customers.
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