Unhappy with my oak flooring fitter

[WoodYouLike]

The supplier will lie through his teeth now but I have the power in that I haven't paid a penny yet.

In your opinion, is it second grade?

Many thanks for your help.

Good on you! Call him in and don't accept anything else then complete refund (and try to get costs for removing this rubbish out of him). Plus he recommended the fitter to you, so if he tries to put the blame on him tackle your supplier on that too.

Second Grade? Fire-wood!

 

[sxtrail]

Second Grade? Fire-wood!

Blimey, that bad? I think you are probably right though. I guess the only way to fix what is there is to sand it all back and re oil, but then the rough grain would be lost and its an effort that shouldn't be necessary.

How exactly should the flooring be laid in terms of pattern?

What is quite upsetting is that the supplier is a client of mine. I've always looked after them and they've always said that I've been great with them. So i guess I've been taken for a ride

 

[sxtrail]

Quick question for those who have experience of it.... How much of a job is it going to be to remove the adhesive from the concrete floor? And can you recommend a tool/solution for doing it?

Many thanks

 

[WoodYouLike]

How exactly should the flooring be laid in terms of pattern?

Randomly staggered where the minimum distance between joins should be 30 cm.
I did notice you have many many very short lengths. With these solid 'offers' it is very hard not to create a pattern like that and when the boards are bevelled at all 4 sides (pronouncing the joins) it will in my personal opinion look 'odd' and chaotic. But that's me - used to long lengths

 

[sxtrail]

Hi. I went to have a look at my friends flooring last night and his is far far better in quality and fit and a) it was cheaper b) he fitted it himself with no prior experience.

His came in long lengths (over 2 metres I think). So is this a clear indication that what I have isn't European oak? Would you normally expect good European oak to be supplied bevelled on all four sides?

Many thanks

 

[WoodYouLike]

I've printed out your pictures to have a better look. Europe is very large nowadays and your problem has IMHO more to do with the grading, production and installation than with where the Oak has come from.

Depending on how it was sold to you I still think it's the worst quality I've ever seen. Finish is awful and so is the installation. Grade is definitely Extra Rustic: open knots, large knots, sap wood and many colour differences.

 

[sxtrail]

Many thanks for your time. It was sold to me as a high quality european product that would be fitted perfectly and look fantastic. It came in boxes that were little more than 1 metre in length. I'm now led to believe that a proper European product would come in lengths of over 2 metres. I'll remind you that their price on the ticket for this product is £70sqm fitted. They claim that their 'experienced and professional' fitter charges £20sqm to fit, which would mean they are charging £50sqm for the product including glue and door bars.

We have been charged £54sqm for supply and fit, so even though it is a lot less than their ticket price it is still far more than the product and fitting is worth!

 

[WoodYouLike]

sxtrail

I would like your permission to use your pictures in a new information article on one of our websites to demonstrate quality, professionalism and what to look for when buying proper wood flooring.
Lengths of floorboards can vary. At the moment there are many solid 'offers' about which states lengths between 300 and 1200mm. What they don't tell you - or is mentioned on the packs - is that one pack contains many short lengths - upto 50% shorter than 500mm and only 1 or 2 boards the full length of 1200mm

Our own products can also come in random length, but always the majority of the boards are long (upto 2400mm) and only 10 - 15% short lengths - never shorter than 400mm

 

[sxtrail]

Sure, go ahead But please download the images and host yourself as they'll be deleted at some point.

What are your thoughts on a floating floor installation using the black sticky back foam to fix the boards down? I'm unsure of the technical name of the foam but I've seen it used before on a concrete floor and is apparantly easy to do.

Thanks again

 

[WoodYouLike]

The short lengths you have (if you want to re-use that floor) asks indeed for glueing down. this can be done with the Elastilon self-adhesive underlayment, creating a sound-insulation at the same time (if that is what you mean?)

will download the pictures today, thanks for that

 

[sxtrail]

Hi. No way will that floor be reused. It will come and I'll have the horrible task of removing the glue from the floor. So I need a new method for laying a new floor and so I was wondering what you thought of the Elastilon instead of laying ply and nailing the boards down. My friend is happy with the result from using Elastilon but wondered what the general consensus is.

Thanks.

 

[WoodYouLike]

If your concrete floor comes out rather level then a normal combi-underlayment and glueing the T&G's would be another (simpler) solution as long as your boards are wider than 100mm.