Precision Flooring

My experience with this contract was the worst experience I have ever had with a contractor or tradesman. So much so that I was forced to and did file a complaint against this contractor with the California Contractors State Contractor's Board and I was awarded a judgment by an independent arbitrator in April 2010. This contractor never paid that award and his license to install flooring has now been revoked. I am now forced to register this judgment with the California Superior Court. Who knows if I'll ever get my flooring fixed or receive recompense for the faulty materials and installation that he performed. When I originally contracted with Precision Flooring to do this job I was promised a quality, dependable installation job, good quality flooring and that the job would be done in approximately 3 days. What I got was something quite a bit less than was promised. The initial problem with this contractor is that he fails to respond to calls and on many occasions failed to adequately instruct his workman based on my communications with him on how I wanted something to look or be finished off. He would appear on the job and then suddenly disappear leaving what I thought were licensed workmen to work on my flooring (which I found out was not true). I requested "medium" but good quality flooring. What he provided was the lowest grade of flooring this certain manufacturer made which I was told is cost effective for owners of rental housing. Translated, that means to me that it was cheap flooring and this contractor got it at low dollar cost. My house took about 800 square feet of laminate so based on the total amount charged to me, that low dollar cost was not passed on to me. Even though I requested this information, I was never shown an invoice for the materials showing the source of materials or the cost. Next, he promised the job would take 3-4 days. In actually, it strung out for a period of 8-10 weeks. This contractor also layed tile in my two bathrooms. He led me to believe that he was licensed to install tile, but in fact he was not. He left the toilet in my guest bath "rocking" and refused to fix it. He had to return to reseat the toilet in the master bath because there was a large gap between the tile and the edge of the commode. Later I had to incur the cost of a plumber to come in and fix the guest bath commode. In some areas, the baseboard was not even nailed back down and in others, the baseboard was re-installed but not flush with the floor. Again, I was told to call him and he "come right back and fix it." He never did. I began to notice over time the I could see raised edges on the flooring boards. I'm not a flooring expert and I thought that's just how it was supposed to look. However, when a window blind dealer (a whole other complaint) dropped a drill on my kitchen floor and gouged a big hole in the floor, I called Precision Flooring to come make a repair. (One of the things he tauted in his selling speil was "just give me a call and I'll take care of whatever you need.") Well, he never responded and I finally called another licensed contractor in for an estimate of the repair. This contractor told me my floor was "peaking" and that I should get the original contractor in to fix it. After many attempts to get the contractor to address the situation, David Boudreau showed up and admitted to my face that the floor was peaking but adamantly stated it was product defect and that he stood behind his work. He told me to file a product defect complaint with the manufacturer and said he would be available to talk with the rep. The end of result was that he left me holding the bag. The manufacturer normally does not deal directly with the consumer but with the person purchasing the flooring. Again, he was unreachable. He refused to and never provided me with info on the source of the flooring. Thankfully, the manufacturer took pity on me and sent out an independent flooring inspector to view my flooring. This was on the same day that I was having new countertops installed and the furniture and area rugs had been removed so he was able to carefully and thoroughly examine all of the flooring, the molding, the door joins, etc. His inspection was that there was no material defect ... the problem was absolutely installation error. For example, the flooring is installed over a longer linear length than is acceptable for laminate flooring severely limiting the floor's ability to float. In many instances, the end of the boards are installed less than 8" apart, which is industry standard for laminate to give the floor stability. The joins between the tile and laminate flooring were put down with liquid nail preventing movement and the joins on the patio and front and garage doors were simply caulked (and badly I might add) instead of using those nice looking wooden joins. I could also see noticeable 1/4" or more gaps between the boards in my hallway. The inspector also told me that the boards had been pounded in so hard that when he stepped on the board he could hear clicking sounds which meant the tongue and groove construction of the boards had actually been broken no doubt causing the hallway board gaps. I made numerous calls to David Boudreau to inform him of this decision and to get him to redo is work. These efforts were to no avail. When he did pick up the phone, he was insulting and abusive. I finally sent him a certified letter demanding that he cure this situation or refund my money so I could have the floors redone. This was also to no avail. In frustration, I finally filed a complaint with the CSLB in 2009 and this complaint went to arbitration in February of 2010. In April 2010 I was awarded a judgment by the independent arbitrator. I was instructed that the process was to allow the contractor so many days to pay this award. If not paid, his license would be suspended and then revoked. To date this contractor has failed to comply with the arbitrator's award. I have received no money from this contractor and the CSLB has suspended and revoked his license. My only alternative at this point is, based upon instruction of the CSLB, to register the judgment with the California Superior Court and file the appropriate liens which I will do. My advice to anyone dealing with a contractor is: (1) deal only with licensed and bonded contractors and verify this information with the Contractor's State License Board, (2) do your homework on your repairs to know what the industry standards are and what you can reasonably expect the contractor to do, (3) be present during all of the repairs and don't hesitate to ask questions, (4) get everything in writing and ask for and check out references. I would advise never to pay for all of the services upfront. And, remember, this is a business arrangement. Liking a contractor of thinking they are a "nice guy" doesn't guarantee you anything. Since dealing with this contractor I have followed my own advice and my experiences have gone well. However, this sad adventure will remain in the back of my mind for a long long time, and probably won't be forgotten until I am finally able to have my flooring torn-out and new flooring re-installed by a reputable contractor.