LVT Karndean flooring job problems, please help!

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I had a guy booked to do Karndean LVT flooring in my bathroom and kitchen (50 5 star reviews on google), he came to do the quote I asked 'is the floor ok, is it flat enough'. He said yeah its fine, 6mm ply will cover up all the unevenness. I even said 'is 6mm ply enough, seems very thin' and he said yeah.

So he did the 6mm ply and fitted the floor, but there was a noticeable lump in one area that spanned three tiles. Its noticeable to the eye, but very much so to touch or under the feet. I used a level today and in this area is an 8mm gap under the level, over a short span. I looked on the Karndean website and it says get the floor within national standards of max 3mm gaps over 2m. Substantially less.

I told the guy, and he just said that's old floors for you, you'd need 18mm ply to cover it all up. I told him I asked if it was flat enough and he said yes. He's making me feel a bit bad as he's doing it cheap he says. He said if I want to rip up the tiles and sort out the sub floor I can. But thats a lot of extra work for me! I thought that was his job

Surely if you own a flooring company, one of the main tasks is to sort the sub floor before laying the tiles? Its not really my responsibility to do that. I did a lot of work on the floor and asked him if it was ok.

He also used latex self levelling in my kitchen, and I've found gaps with a level of between 4mm and 8mm again. But he was planning to lay right on top of this.

Now I don't know what to do, I don't want to get in a conflict and he's meant to be doing my kitchen very soon.

What are your thoughts? I feel like we will only get in to conflict if I try and make him sort the sub floor and do another latex levelling of the kitchen. Can I just cancel it now? If so, what should I pay him for? He did do some work, but its kind of useless to me, apart from the first layer of latex.

Any help would be really appreciated. I've got so much on and this is turning in to a bit of a nightmare

Thanks
 
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Pay him for the work he has done and sack him

Chalk this one up to experience and don't believe any reviews on websites they are generally rigged to give more than favourable reviews

Good tradesman don't need reviews or to advertise on sites like check a trade as they have a full book from word of mouth alone

Ask around for some recommendations
 
Pay him for the work he has done and sack him

Chalk this one up to experience and don't believe any reviews on websites they are generally rigged to give more than favourable reviews

Good tradesman don't need reviews or to advertise on sites like check a trade as they have a full book from word of mouth alone

Ask around for some recommendations

Thanks, he's been nicer about it today, but when I asked him wasn't it half his job to prep the floor, he said he doesnt do that, and really just lays the tile. And laying the LVT tiles is incredibly simple! You put some adhesive down and put the tiles on!

He's been nice about it and said if I'm not happy I can rip it up and sort the floor more, then he will re lay. But I spent the last few hours ripping it up, and I'll sort the floor and find an alternative solution. To be honest, I thought the LVT planks for the kitchen in wood effect were very good, but the ceramic effect ones in the bathroom look very fake, so maybe its a blessing in disguise.

I just have to choose what flooring to go with in the bathroom now! I think maybe ceramic tiles are the nicest
 
What kind of Floorlayer is he? He’s being nice about it? He’s messed up your floor!!!

a LVT Floorlayer is all about the prep. You get the prep done to SR1 ( 3mm over 2m ) then Lay the floor.

can you post some pictures up on here or the flooring forum ?
 
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What kind of Floorlayer is he? He’s being nice about it? He’s messed up your floor!!!

a LVT Floorlayer is all about the prep. You get the prep done to SR1 ( 3mm over 2m ) then Lay the floor.

can you post some pictures up on here or the flooring forum ?

Yeah I know, thats what I thought. And as you say 3mm over 2m is what Karndean say, although I think even a bit worse than that is still acceptable in an old victorian house. But not 8mm over 50cm!!

There's nothing much to see from the photos, I will post one in a second from my phone
 
6mm plywood won’t level your sub floor. It will just raise it 6mm. You have to use fibre smoothing compounds once it’s been screeded.
 
What kind of Floorlayer is he? He’s being nice about it? He’s messed up your floor!!!

a LVT Floorlayer is all about the prep. You get the prep done to SR1 ( 3mm over 2m ) then Lay the floor.

can you post some pictures up on here or the flooring forum ?

Can you guess where the lump is?

20200616_175859.jpg
20200617_133135.jpg
 
6mm plywood won’t level your sub floor. It will just raise it 6mm. You have to use fibre smoothing compounds once it’s been screeded.
This is all the stuff I thought someone laying the floor would do!

I've ripped up what he did now, so I'm back to floorboards. I'm going to replace a few and try and get it flatter, and then use 15mm play maybe, and hope that does a pretty good job. Would that be ok to lay ceramic tiles on, or do you still need self levelling stuff? I've decided ceramic will be much nicer
 
LVT is amazing mate but it’s all in the prep.
12mm ply screwed down will be ok for ceramic yeah.
 
LVT is amazing mate but it’s all in the prep.
12mm ply screwed down will be ok for ceramic yeah.

I really like the Kardnean Opus Primo wood effect I ordered for the kitchen, but I really didn't like any of the Opus tile effect samples, they just look so much faker.

So you don't need to get a floor perfectly level and flat for ceramic? Not to the same degree as when using LVT tiles?
 

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