RICK BENT FLOORING

Our house has a concrete slab so before installation they tested the moisture content and told us the concrete was fine and did not need sealing before installing the wood. They had to level the slab in a few places and the leveling compound they mixed on site was so watery that it ran into the electric outlet in the floor which then had to be cleaned and repaired. Within a few hours of pouring the leveling compound they began installing the wood planks. We asked if the wood should be acclimated before installation and they told us it was not necessary. We asked if the leveling compound needed to dry/cure for longer than an hour or two and they said it was fine and installed the floor in our living room and hallway. When the floor was done it looked beautiful and we were happy. We put down an area rug in the living room over the area where the concrete was leveled so it took until the floor actually buckled til we noticed there was a problem. We called Rick Bent out to help us identify the problem. He tested the flooring and determined it had much too high a moisture content. First he blamed it on our air conditioning unit, which was brand new. He claimed the relative humidity in our house was 79% and that was why the flooring came up. Our thermostat said the humidity was 53%. He advised us to have our A/C checked/fixed. He said the floor couldn't be fixed until winter when the floor would go down due to the heat running in the house. We had our A/C checked at our expense and it was operating correctly and the readings were correct on it. Over the winter the floor continue to buckle until it was a tripping hazard. We called Rick Bent back out and he again said the floor was too wet and that the humidity in our house had caused the problem. He took pictures of his meter readings vs. our thermostat and left claiming no responsibility. We contacted the flooring manufacturer as well as several other flooring companies and all referred us to the same certified flooring inspector. We contracted with the flooring inspector to help us diagnose our problem. He too said our floor was "wet" but he said the water was coming through the slab and that all concrete slabs wick moisture and that ours should have been sealed before the flooring was installed. He also said the adhesive had an alligatoring pattern which indicated it had been put down when the leveling compound was still wet. He identified that the wrong trowel size had been used and also that no expansion joints had been left around the perimeter as the manufacturer's instructions directed. He also said that at the time of installation there should have been no greater than a 4% difference between the moisture content of the wood and the environment. Once we had this report, we again contacted Rick Bent who said he was not going to fix our floor and if we thought differently we should "read the fine print on the back of his contract". DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS FIRM!