HOME DECORATING CENTER

The flooring provider seemed very professional during the sales process, but he wrote up the work order for the wood flooring for the steps in an ambiguous fashion. We have steps that include landings between floors. We clearly stated that the estimate was for wood flooring on both flights of steps (up and down), and we interpreted the estimate (2 flights of steps) to mean the steps going up and down. The flooring provider estimated the job would be started 1 month after we signed the contract. The job started at the estimated date. We should have asked when the job would finish, because 10 weeks after the job started, they still had not finished. They were very bad about communicating when they were coming, if they were coming back after lunch, and when they were coming back again. They ran short of parts on the upstairs steps and left us with partially floored steps leading upstairs for about a month. Months after signing the contract, the flooring provider disputed that the contract included putting wood flooring on the steps leading downstairs. The flooring provider now read the contract to mean that 2 flights of stairs meant the steps leading upstairs (stairs, mid-floor landing, stairs), but not the downstairs steps. After a heated debate, the flooring provider found a diagram on both sets of steps in his original work notes and conceded that the estimate should have included both sets of steps. We still believe that the estimate had to have been for both sets of stairs. If it really costs $6000 to put hardwood on 1 set of steps, we would have abandoned the whole idea. After months of delays, numerous no-shows (sometimes they called and said they were not coming, but usually they surprised us), and really bad communication about why the delays were occurring, we canceled the remainder of the contract. This experience left us very wary of ever contracting out another home improvement contract again.