The Hardwood Flooring Stores

The hardwood was purchased at the Victoria Park store, which also arranged for the installation. The job involved only about 200 square feet whereby the old floor needed removing prior to installing the hardwood.

Problems include:

- several installed strips had cracks.

- they cut out a space and installed a 4" X 12" vent cover, even though the previous vent opening was 4" X 10". The deflector on the new vent cover would not even open properly.

- they somehow managed to dislodge the baseboard from my plaster wall and it will no longer go back in place due to debris falling behind the baseboard -- they had been instructed to leave it alone because of concerns for the plaster wall.

- the floor now squeaks although it did not squeak before. They were instructed to screw down the sub-floor prior to installing the new wood. They had already installed a section of the floor, when I discovered that they had not screwed down the sub-floor. The installer insisted that putting in screws was not on his list! What? I had discussed this previously with the salesman on more than one occasion. After I called the store, the installer's crew did start work on screwing down the floor from the other side of the room, but they also concurrently continued installing the floor.

- They did not cleanup the huge mess left in the basement, underneath where the floor was installed.

Remedies provided to date:

- the installers came back and resized the vent opening by replacing some strips of wood.

- they replaced some of the cracked boards. There are still 2 or 3 cracked boards which they refused to replace because they insist they are mars in the finish. No way -- these are real cracks, albeit they are smaller than the ones on the boards they replaced. Also, during the replacement of the boards, they managed to get glue stains on top of the wood. I cannot get these stains off even with nail polish remover.

- they put caulking in the gap along the baseboard. The baseboard is still out of position and not flush against the wall and the caulking job was extremely poor, still leaving a gap and not flush with the top of the baseboard. The baseboard (which is original to the old house) will likely need to be removed and replaced (thanks to these guys).

- No remedy was provided for the squeaking. The installer insisted that the cause of the squeaking was a damaged floor board. I'm thinking that the installer damaged the board during the removal of the old floor - they were not gentle -- since the floor did not squeak before. When I purchased the hardwood, after explaining the condition of the floor to the salesman, he told me that they would repair any damaged floor boards as they go along. They did not do this. Moreover, as professionals, I'd expect them to raise the issue of the damaged floor board and offer a solution prior to installing the hardwood. They did not do this.

I have been dealing with the store manager about my complaints. At first, he seemed quite genuinely interested in fixing the issues. But after talking with him the last time, which was still prior to having the installer come back and fix the problems, he said that it was only 200 square feet of floor, and that I got the wood at a reduced price ($4.49/sq.ft) so I shouldn't be overly concerned with it and perhaps I would need to alter my expectations. (At no time prior did they inform me that because of the price that I should expect less than a perfect installation.) Well, dear reader, perhaps you should alter your expectations of the Hardwood Flooring Store too!

I will still need to deal with the manager on the outstanding issues but really, who needs these headaches?