Q: We had a Kempas hardwood floor installed 12/07 in our new home. When the finish people were in our home afterwards it was damaged by them dragging an air compressor, dropping a nail gun, and by painters dragging their ladders across the floor. Needless to say we are very upset.
The builder never covered the floor to protect it so now we have gouges, scratches and indentations over 80% of the floor. The builder is wanting to replace a few of the boards. Do you know what the policy is on replacing tongue & grove boards? Please help. We are having to go to arbitration over gouges in hardwood floor and other issues for our home.
A: I can certainly understand your anger over the damage to your floors. I can understand that mishaps do occur to the best of workers. But when you are talking about dings, dents and scratches over 80% of your floor, that is closer to neglect. I don’t like to say it, but from my observation working in the trade for over 36 years, tradesmen may be good at what they do, yet are totally blind to the work of everyone else around them. With so many marks, this floor needs to either be replaced or sanded and finished on site. The latter will be the least expensive. As a side note, the floors should have been about the last thing done in your house.