This is, by far, the worst experience that I have ever had with a contractor. J & D Tile & Hardware Installers, LLC was recommended to me by my next door neighbors Cheryl and Linda. I had actually met David Parker next door and asked for one of his business cards. On Wednesday 2/4/05 at 2:16 PM I called and left a message requesting a quotation. On Friday 2/6/15 at 3:49 PM I followed up with an e-mail identifying myself and, once again, requested a quotation. On Monday afternoon 2/9/15 Wayne Lambert arrived and surveyed the water damaged flooring in my office. At the time, I identified the flooring as a C5010 Bruce Natural Reflections prefinished oak hardwood flooring. The flooring was originally installed by Lowe?s in May of 2005. Water from the sprinkler system had entered through weathered/failed caulking and grout around the window sill a couple of years ago. We had not addressed the repairs at the time because I was working and living in St. Louis and the repair was very low on our priority list. The window sill repairs were effected immediately and we suffered no more water leakage or damage. On Thursday 2/12/15 I sent an e-mail following up on the quotation and on Tuesday 2/17/05 I received a quotation from Shannon in the amount of $800.40. On Tuesday 3/10/15 at 1:47 PM I sent an e-mail addressed to Shannon accepting the terms of the quotation and asked to make arrangements for scheduling a date and time. On Tuesday 3/17/05 at 11:44 PM I sent a second e-mail requesting this same information. Wayne contacted me at 6:29 PM that dame day and advised that the flooring would arrive sometime the following week. He advised that the damaged flooring would first be removed and that the concrete would be checked for moisture and allowed to air out prior to the installation of the new flooring. Based upon this conversation, I assumed the job would take (2) days. I received a call from Wayne on Wednesday morning 3/25/15 at 8:31 AM advising that the installation crew would arrive at my home at 10:00 AM. Without any sort of advanced or reasonable warning, I had to rush to empty the office and then to cover and protect what remained. The crew arrived at approximately 10:30 AM and began working. Once the damaged flooring was removed, it was loaded into garbage bags and the area was swept. Absolutely no preparation of the subflooring, concrete slab, was performed. There was no attempt to remove the adhesive from the previous installation. Additionally, there was no moisture testing of the concrete, although there were no visible signs of moisture. The Armstrong/Bruce flooring was unloaded directly from the van and brought into the office once the old flooring had been removed. The flooring was not staged in the house prior to installation. According to the Armstrong website: ?To acclimate hardwood flooring, move the packaged boards into the room where they will be installed and let them sit for several days, with the cartons open and raised off the ground. This allows the moisture content of the wood to adjust to the conditions in the room. Armstrong recommends acclimation for all their solid hardwood flooring products.? In general, recommended acclimation periods are anywhere from three days to several weeks. Lowe?s recommended and delivered the flooring for the initial installation, back in 2005, one week in advance. At no time were any of the flooring planks tested for moisture by J & B. The flooring was removed in a staggered fashion so that there was no discernable pattern. It was clear from the beginning that the old and new wood planks were not compatible. As the new tongue and groove planks were inserted between the old planks it required two men to beat the new plank with rubber mallets. One would beat the end using the mallet and in some cases hammer a refuge board, used as a buffer, so as not to damage the plank being installed. The other would beat the leading end, from the top down, to keep the board in the groove and provide enough of an impact to keep the board moving forward. Depending on the length of the board, the number of strikes required for each new plank were in the double digits. These particular boards were buttered with adhesive so I?m quite certain that a majority of the adhesive was removed as it was repeatedly beaten and scraped across the concrete slab during installation. The adhesive was troweled on in the open areas of the slab. One commonality throughout the installation was the fact that the installers were constantly removing trash by hand. The crew finished the installation in approximately (5) hours and I issued them a check in the amount of $800.40. On Wednesday evening 3/25/015 at approximately 10:30 PM I inspected the flooring and noticed cupping in two separate locations. At 8:20 AM on Thursday 2/26/15, I called Wayne and notified him of problem. By this time the cupping had actually resulted in the planks actually popping up and free from the floor. Wayne advised that his installers would return on Friday morning. The crew arrived at approximately 8:30 AM on Friday morning 3/26/015. They removed a section equal to about ¾ of the width of the window, which is significantly less than what was originally removed and replaced. The Supervisor immediately blamed moisture in the concrete as the reason for the cupping. This is difficult to believe given the fact that Lowe?s had absolutely no problems with the initial installation over (10) years ago and the fact that there has been no moisture intrusion since the leak several years ago. Unfortunately, we do not know because the moisture levels in the slab were never tested. According to the Supervisor, Wayne was going return to test the concrete slab moisture levels on Monday 3/30/15. Moisture in the slab and/or the hardwood flooring may or may not be a factor in this failure. It is my belief that the failure was caused by a couple of things. The first is the force with which the new planks were installed between the old planks, which caused excessive lateral loads or horizontal forces that caused the cupping. The second is the incompatibility of the old and new flooring, which was caused by the fact that the flooring was not allowed to acclimate to its? environment. Obviously, as the flooring warmed, it expanded. As stated earlier, moisture might be a contributing factor but at this time there is no way of knowing. Adhesive levels and subfloor preparation may have also contributed. Clearly, industry standards and practices were not followed and/or simply ignored. Amazingly, Wayne Lambert never showed up on Monday and I have not heard a word from anyone employed by J & D Hardwood Flooring Specialists for (8) days now. The lack of professionalism throughout this entire ordeal is absolutely astonishing. Clearly Customer service and Customer satisfaction are not a part of the vernacular of J & D Hardwood Flooring Specialists. I have office furniture strewn about my living room and I have a hole in my office flooring, so neither room is usable. Money was never an issue, I simply wanted my floor repaired. In the future, I will not simply rely on the recommendation of a neighbor. I will conduct my own due diligence in the hopes of finding a reliable, reputable and honest contractor. Incidentally, I have encountered multiple enterprise listings since I began researching this business. The BBB website identifies the business as J & D Hardwood Installers. The card furnished to me by Wayne Lambert identifies the company as J & D Hardwood Flooring Specialists. The website and Angie?s List identify the company as J & D Remodel. Home Advisor identifies the company as J & D, Inc. In any event, all of them are tied together by personnel, phone numbers, fax numbers, e-mail addresses or the street addresses.