How cross can I be with our flooring company

[churchmouse84]

We ordered Karndean flooring to be fitted in our new kitchen/lounge and hall.

We wanted it to look good as it is such a large area.

The hall floor laminate had been taken up when then new kitchen was fitted. Local company came to do a quote. There were old hall tiles which he said would need to be sealed before floor could be laid.

Get to the end of the project and the floor fitters come.

Turns out those kind of tiles can't be sealed and need to be dug up

We've had a quote for £1000.

I'm furious. For one, this all could have been done two months ago when he first looked at the floor and the house was still a dusty mess.

Also, there's no way we would have gone for such an expensive floor if we'd had to factor that in.

I took it that he had seen the tiles he would know what he was talking about or at least know to check.

So far the lounge and kitchen have been done as we couldn't go any longer without flooring. But we have to make decision about Hall.

Only other options are carpet or laminate, which will both look shit.

I am guessing the whole project has been expensive and you have perhaps chosen the same flooring throughout? In the scheme of things, while it is very annoying and yes could possibly have been spotted earlier is £1000 and some mess whilst it's done, is it worth spoiling the ship for a ha'porth of tar?

When there were queries about the different subfloors in our kitchen, the flooring company sent one of the fitters round to take a look and say what needed doing as the estimator was a salesperson rather than an expert. We didn't go with them in the end as the fitter claimed it was six days work and wanting paying for six whole days. We got an independent guy in and he did the whole job in 2.

I meant to say that it could be worth talking to the flooring company and explaining you relied in good faith on their expertise and are now facing an additional bill for £1000 which you hadn't budgeted for and can they do anything re: the removal cost of the tiles?

Our kitchen fitter has just been back and says we can have ceramic tiles, which will still be in keeping with the style of the house and much cheaper. I actually quite like the idea

The person who came to do the quote was the owner of the company, rather than just a sales person so I would have expected him to know.

I'm going to go back and tell him what the kitchen fitter has said and see what he says.

Given it was the owner of the company and he specifically said this re. the method of taking up tiles/no extra cost involved- I would be strongly disputing this cost with them as you had based your decision to go ahead with the project/with them based on this- to throw an extra £1k at you because he got it wrong is not acceptable.

It is very annoying I agree, a similar thing has just happened to me. We just invested £60 in a kangol hammer and got the tiles up ourselves, it was an afternoons work.