I hired a relatively large company, locally owned, to screen and re coat my hardwoods.  They made a choice,  not my choice to use water base on top of an oil based not sure if that matters, but the coating didn't adhere and the floors are now, 1.5 months later, potentially ruined. They are going to call another pro, but I need to know my recompense and options. Anyone deal with a similar issue?

They are engineered hardwoods so not sure they can be sanded down. Plus they are an exotic wood, not stained in the first place.  We still are withholding about 10k from the job, but need to know what to do with them if they can't fix. Does their insurance cover replacement? Can we ask for money to replace the floors? I really wouldn't be happy with paying them the rest, less the amount they charged us for the screen and coat and the have to figure this out myself.

We bought a home that had the hardwoods redone before purchase. The contractors never wiped off the excess stain and didn't wait for it to cure before applying the sealant. It was a rush job and resulted in the finish cracking and flaking off. It looked awful.

We did some research, found the contractors, and called them up. They re-sanded and stained our floors for free, even though we weren't the original clients. 

If you still owe them $ I would refuse to pay until they fix the floors. They should stand by their work. If nothing else contact the BBB maybe.

They oughta redo them for you for free. It doesnt take that long if they're pros...

Good luck man.

sager wrote on 05/15/14 at 9:37am:


I would take to a lawyer about that. If its a stand-up company and they have a license I would think they'd stand by their work. 

If you can talk to the owner of the company, or at least someone pretty high in their coroporation they may be able to help you. I would resort to legal action as a last resort. 

Are they refusing to fix the problem? 

are they claiming ignorance?

We got several opinions from several different floor companies before contacting the original contractors on our floors. This way we had in writing, and expert opinions on what went wrong. This way if we did end up "lawyering up" we had some ground to stand on.

Thats why they don't have you pay up front, so you have some ground to stand on if the end product is unacceptable.   You must have a huge house if you paid 10k to have the floors refinished.  Or do you owe that to a GC who owes it to the flooring subcontactor?  If thats the case then both the GC and the Sub should work together to get it resolved.

Yellowduck wrote on 05/15/14 at 1:36pm:



yep i'd look for that.  if they file a lien and have to take a bunch of &^&^ to court they will pay more money for lawyer fees than they would to solve the problem.  the way i understand it neither one of you can recoup any lawyer fees (in nc) in court if you have to go that far- so they will probably try and reach an agreement with you before that.

imo their only out is if you specified the material they are using - which it sounds like you did not

I would contact the BBB and have them try and resolve it first, most large companies like to keep a good accreditation with them and will resolve the issues to keep that high rating. I would also join Angie's List which is the only place I hire any trade workers from at this point after being burned by kitchen contractor. He did terrible work and threatened to put a Mechanics Lien on my house when I didn't pay, he had his lawyer send me a letter threatening the lien and to sue me, I went and saw a lawyer and paid $350 to have him write a letter threatening a counter-suit for the 50% we paid up front along with 17 pages of pictures of his work. Never heard from the guy again, luckily the remaining 50% was enough to finish the job and fix his work, with reputable Angie's List people. I would recommend documenting with as many pictures as you can...there is never too many and keep a log of all communication in case you need it for legal actions...hopefully this is all resolved before then. Good Luck!