Using floors direct North was a big big mistake. Attached are photos of some of problems that we are faced with.
We hired Floors Direct North to install our floors on February of this year and their sales person was very convincing about their company and installation quality and warranty so we went along and installed hardwood floors which has one year written warranty on installation.
Almost two month ago we called them and emailed below pictures with the request to come and take care of these problems and floor noise.
Problem # 1 noisy floor (which wasn't there before installation)
Problem # 2 pictures 1 and 2 installed short piece of hardwood floor under the bathroom door
Problem # 3 Pictures 3 and 4 where installer while removing a original oak wooden dowel damaged the stair railing and filled it with wood filler.
Problem # 4 pictures 5 and 6 a two feet long chipped wood is installed in our hallway
Pictures number 7, 8 and 9 are damages done by installer on his second visit hammering our floors and hammering a long screw driver at the edge of walls.
Problem 1) Our biggest problem is the master bedroom floor where installer for an extra money on the written contract installed a half piece of plywood before installing hardwood floor as the original plywood got damaged during the removal of glued parquet. Now exactly in that area we can hear clicking noise, and very laud click noise on the main floor when someone is walking upstairs. Two weeks after we reported the problem and emailed the pictures their installer came with an unbelievable attitude and blamed first, walls for the noise then he blamed the duct system and finally pot-lights from down stairs which non checked out to be true. after another two weeks he came for second time with two large hammers and a large screw driver and hammered hardwood floors for 45 minutes with such a force that pot-lights came loose from the ceiling on our main floor and he broke and chipped corner of our floors and drywall ( see pictures 7, 8 and 9 ) he was doing all this with an unpleasant temper and manner. Finally the installer recommended removing of hardwood floor in order to solve the problem but we have to pay for the cost as he or his company will not.
I complained again by email to the company and the owner Ben (Javad). After another two weeks of waiting third visit was from the owner and two of his installers which basically were there to confirm what ever their boss was saying . Ben said that regarding stair railing damage, chipped floor and bathroom entrance short wood those are normal problems in their business and as he said “ NO ONE IS PERFECT “ and I shouldn't expect a “ PERFECT JOB “.
As per his opinion about the noise he blamed the builder and whole building. ( our house was build in 2005 by one of the highly rated, award winner and reputable builder in the GTA area ) we have no noise problem in any other area of our house. Ben argued that because this is a builder house and not a custom made house that is why this kind of noise is normal.
Finally after many laud arguments for a long time with the owner his solution was to bring someone from the manufacture of the hardwood floor which I rejected because we are happy with the hardwood floor material that we selected but our problem is the unprofessional installation by Floors direct north. Then he suggested to bring someone from their NWFA association as his inspector but I have to pay $300 for the inspection if it is in his favour. In other words once I pay for the hardwood floor and installation with warranty and then I have to pay for their inspector coming from their association which probably made many other inspections for them in the past.
I don't understand how this company and the way they talk can be so different before and after they got the money from us. How they can be so ignorant when it comes to honouring the written contract with warranty and not to blame everything else other than their workmanship.It seems that warranty means nothing for this company and all they wanted was my initial money and first sale. in my opinion the installation is very unprofessional and very basic job that you can find on the market.
It is very easy for this company to blame houses as being a builder house ( which %99.9 of homes are) for any after installation noise rather than taking responsibility and honouring their warranty.
The owner of the Floors Direct North said that he can send installers to take care of other stuff other than noise problem but I have to wait for another month or so and for the noise they claim no responsibility since it requires removing a section of the floor and fixing it which will cost money. we are not accepting any partial repair because our biggest problem is the floor noise.
At this time we are reviewing our other options but lesson learned and next time we will be very very careful about who we are hiring and will not fall for customer service false statements and promises. I would avoid this company at all costs.
- Approximate cost of services:
- $5,700.00
- Company Response
Hi Esmaeil, thank you very much for the recent review. Whilst we can totally understand and appreciate your frustrations, there are always two sides to every story.
We do not want to get into the minutia, but we do want to address your comments and concerns. First of all, we are very sorry you felt it was a mistake going with us. For the majority of people we do a great job and enjoy a wonderful working relationship with our customers so we are sad this is not the case for you. We are not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but we are decent people who try very hard to get it right.
You did mentioned by the way that we did your installation back in February but the first we heard of any problems was when you got in touch a few weeks ago.
The items you mention, are not uncommon during an installation. It is hard to make an omelette without breaking eggs and most of these things are relatively minor and can be put right very easily. The handrail unfortunately was damaged when a dowel had to be removed to take the rail out for installation. We agree this fill was not acceptable but this too can be rectified.
I believe that we offered to address these issues on more than one occasion and we are still willing to do this. We have come back each time you’ve contacted us and you have to remember that the installers are busy and not always able to drop everything but they do get back to you. Ben also had a family issue the day he was supposed to come and apologized for that but he did keep his next appointment.
What Ben did say about no job being 100% perfect though, was correct and he was in no way trying to being disrespectful. Regarding the builders, he was trying to explain that newer homes - even though built by reputable builders - can be prone to structural issues as we’ve seen many times on TV programmes such as Holmes Makes it Right.
Regarding the click in your floor which we know is your main concern. We do realize that the installer did some banging whilst trying to investigate, but he had to rule out possible causes for the noise as was explained to you. Even with full screw down, squeaks and noises cannot always be eliminated 100% and it is a process of elimination. With this in mind, it was necessary for him to test the floor against the walls to see if the problem was there and yes, he did damage the drywall at the base of the wall where it meets the floor but I can assure you, that he was happy to put that right too. Regarding your pot light. They can often work loose and are not too secure at the best of times. This also would have taken no time at all to fix.
What was unfortunate in all of this, was that there seemed to be a clash between yourself and the installer. As we had mentioned in previous emails, he is an outstanding workman who has done thousands of installations in his 28 year career and he is an installer who continues to get rave reviews about his work and his calming influence. It was a shame as we do try to match people up with the right installer but sometimes it doesn’t work out.
At this stage Esmaeil, all we can surmise, is that the noise could be structural having ruled out everything else, and it is possible that the noise may have only come to light after things were disturbed. It could also be the case that as you were new to the house and it was a noise that may have already existed, but which had gone un-noticed during your short occupancy of your new home. If it does turn out to be a structural fault, then we are not to blame and cannot be held responsible as I’m sure you can appreciate.
Regarding the rep and inspector that you did not want us to get in. We only offered to get the hardwood rep involved to see if he knew what the problem might be. We also offered to bring an inspector at our cost initially and if he investigated and found it to be a structural issue, Ben mentioned that you would then be responsible for his fee. If he found it to be our problem, then we would take care of the fee and the problem. We think that was a very fair offer. Both the rep and inspectors are very experienced people in their fields and have not been used many times by us as you suggest. In fact, this would be the first time for us using an inspector. If you are worried that this might be the case though, we are happy for you to hire an independent inspector yourself and we would be delighted to give you details of how to do that.
Summing up, we feel we did, and continue to, honor our contract. At the end of the day all we did was install a floor. We are still more than happy to put those issues right for you but you have to be willing to let us. We can also get an inspector in to investigate the click but it has to be done in a timely manner as none of these processes can be rushed. With respect, you’d lived with most of the issues for a few months before contacting us, so hopefully a few more weeks won't make a huge difference and a satisfactory outcome will be the result.
As I mentioned earlier, our customers are important to us and 80% of our business comes from word of mouth which in itself is a great recommendation. In this business there is an accepted standard and we constantly fall well within that accepted level or above, and our aim is to continue in that vain. We never run away from our mistakes (and we do make some – we’re not perfect) but we pride ourselves on leaving the customer happy as the majority of our reviews will testify.
If you would like to move ahead - with a different installer and an inspector, we will be delighted to arrange everything. Please let us know.