LVT floor cracking and lifting after 18 months, what next?

[LightUpLavender]

Had the floor in our kitchen replaced in October 2024 with LVT by Tapi and several of the tiles are already cracked and peeling away from the floor.

Complained to Tapi earlier in the year and they said they were going to process a claim via their insurance. This has been a wheel-spinning process essentially. We had an assessor come out who stood in our kitchen, scratched his head, and claimed he'd never seen anything like this before. Then went away produced a report which we never saw. We were then asked to send in some panoramic photos of the kitchen. Then silence for six weeks or so, during which time I chase for a follow up.

Today they've come back to say that they conclude it is some kind of water damage and they won't do anything further but I'm 'welcome to commission my own independent assessment'.

I'd be interested to hear from wise mumsnetters about what you'd do next? It feels really rubbish that we spent over £800 flooring to get less than two years before the floor is damaged and Tapi just shrug their shoulders and don't offer to replace and repair the tiles. Or am I being unreasonable and just need to suck it up, perhaps try and claim on contents or home insurance? Maybe try and purchase a couple of additional tiles and get an independent fitter to replace them?

I'm just about to come off mat leave so we don't really have the cash flow right now for expensive fixes. There isn't a damp problem in our kitchen and we don't do anything particularly excessive in there - just the regular use of a busy family. The image will give you an idea, its lifting more now.

We put that down in our bathroom, we knew it was a risk due to our floors but it was cheaper and easier than laying ceramic tiles as it's an old house with concrete floor which the heating system pipes were laid under. So if anything went wrong with the heating or plumbing, digging would be required.

It also started to crack and separate at the joints within a couple of years, once one went others followed. You could literally hear it cracking underfoot when you stood on a joint. Once the joints had broken the corners lifted and broke off too.

We were talking about it to the local independent flooring business who we usually get our flooring from and they said they don't recommend it as the click joints are really narrow, just a couple of mm if I recall, and this often happens.

I don't think it's as uncommon as Tapi are trying to suggest so it might be worth continuing to pursue it with them or see how expensive an independent assessment will be.