Fox Valley Carpets

Tom and Sally Bunker contracted Scott Zigler of Fox Valley Carpet to install living room and dinning room wood laminate and tile in the kitchen and bathroom. Fox Valley Carpet sub-contracted Randy Schmidt of Randy Schmidt, Flooring Gallery Inc. to put in our floor. The floor is glue free laminate flooring by Arlington. The warning on the installation instructions reads "..this product is primarily wood and needs room to expand and contract. At no point should you attach the floor to any surface". The floor was installed incorrectly. The edge of each board is a tongue and groove construction which 'locks' each piece to the next. In this way, when the floor shrinks in the winter, the pieces stay together and no cracks form. The wood flooring edges are meant to pull away from edge of the wall. Our made two mistakes; first he forced each piece together instead of bringing them together at a 30 degree angle and engaging the locking portion of the tongue and groove. This forcing broke down the locking edge (see picture 1) on each piece. This cannot be repaired. The second mistake was the gluing (liquid nails) of all the edges where the floor was to butt up against another floor, like the bathroom or bedroom (picture 2). There is hardware included, which was not used, to allow this edge to move when the floor expands and contracts. The result was evident the following winter. Many edges separated as much as 1/4 inch (picture 3). We called Fox Valley Carpet many times, Scott Zigler eventually sent out an inspector, Gene, of Gene Flooring Covering. Scott also had ordered, and delivered, three boxes of new laminate which Gene was to use to 'repair' our floor. Gene tore up about six feet by 15 feet of flooring and inspected it. Gene told us and Scott the entire floor would have to be replaced, that he could not repair it. We contacted Scott Zigler of Fox Valley Carpet asked what he was going to do. He indicated that he would have the original installer do the replacing. We told Scott that we would not allow Randy Schmidt back into our house. Scott stated that he needed that request in a letter so that he could sue Randy for the installation money. We sent Scott the letter on March 25, 2011 and summarized our position. Scott Zigler never sent out anyone again. We called Gene, but he refused to come fearing he would not be paid. After several months of living in a torn up living room, I used the new laminate and laid it in myself (16 hours labor). I also have chipped out 29 linear feed of the Liquid Nails glue at the edges to repair all those seams (14 hours labor see picture 4). There is another issue we still have not dealt with. To save cost, I agreed to remove the old flooring, which I did. I also removed the covers of the hot water base heaters (37 linear feet). This was not good enough for Randy Schmidt. He INSISTED that I also remove the back plate and support for the hot water heating pipe. I did not know how to do this so he removed the pieces of the first ones in the bathroom to show me. I could tell that pieces were being permanently damaged and told him I did not think it necessary to remove the back plate, doing so only gave him another half inch to work with. But he again insisted I move ahead and remove them all, which I did. All this hardware was junk and had to be disposed of. To this day, the heating elements are bare. The first estimate, to replace the heating covers, we got over the internet, about $4000 the next time we checked, probably a different WEB site, we got a number of $1500. We have not gotten an estimate from a professional installer yet. Randy Schmidt made yet another blunder by when he installed tile flooring in the bathroom and kitchen. In the bathroom where there are two hot water registers, he ran the tile grouting right up to the hot water pipes. This is in violation of code and results in leaks when the pipes expand and contract. I repaired this myself prior winter (4 hours labor). We are suing Fox Valley Carpet and Scott Zigler for the following amounts. New laminate and installation: $4368.72 Padding for laminate: $340 Under-lament and labor under laminate, 19 sheets: $912 Subtotal: $5620.72 My labor fixing mistakes: 34 hr X $50/hr = $1700 New heating registers covers, installed: about $2000..need quote Subtotal : $3700 Total: $9320.72 Tom and Sally Bunker