TL;DR Metro Flooring didn't complete the work they verbally agreed to, and are now intend to paint me as unreasonable because I didn't do more to combat their incompetency.
Apologies in advance, as this is going to be a bit of a longer review. I would like to preface by saying that I consider myself to be a reasonable person. However, Metro Flooring has shown themselves to be disingenuous and contrary whenever possible. Before they did the job for me they told me two things: We will level your entire floor before placing down the new planks, and we will ensure that water cannot come through.
The second point is important because we'd previously been getting flooding, but had a French drain installed to combat this. Still, we wanted to be careful, so we forewarned Metro that something would need to be done to prevent what remaining water still persisted getting through. Metro was made aware of this and we were told that they would place something down on the concrete before placing the floors to ensure this wouldn't be a problem.
Eventually, Metro came out to install the new floors, baseboards, etc. and at first look, everything looked fine, so I signed off and they went on their way. Now, this may the only part for which I'm at fault, but I didn't do an extremely thorough inspection before they left, mostly because they'd been in my house all day, and I wanted to relax. Still, if you'd like to fault me for that, feel free.
The issue, however, was that after leaving, it became immediately apparent that the floors were not leveled beforehand. There were several areas where you could feel gaps present beneath the boards and some where you could feel protrusions. In either case, one main aspect of the job was not properly completed.
So, I called them up and to their credit they sent someone out to fix it. However, upon arrival I was told that they actually couldn't level the floors completely. My floor has a slight slope to it, so leveling it entirely was outside the bounds of what they could do. Fine. Fair enough. As mentioned, I'm not unreasonable. They had agreed to level the entire floor, but I was willing to let it go and chalk it up to my own misunderstanding. I pointed out the places that might need touching up and they did some work here and there before leaving.
Once again, I inspected as best as I could, but the situation seemed mostly resolved and I didn't want to be too much of a burden, so I signed off and let them go. And everything was fine for a while. The floor still felt uneven in places, but I wasn't going to complain again by this point. I was simply content to cut my losses as things weren't so bad, and I didn't want to have to deal with it. Again feel free to fault me, if you like.
Then, a month or two ago the water appeared. In all the work Metro had done, I never considered the second point of our discussion. I hadn't seen any water, so I had no reason to believe they didn't live up to their word. I'd done some basic research, so I know there's solutions and other materials that flooring groups have access to that prevent extensive moisture from accumulating and/or repel water from penetrating, and I just assumed they'd used it. Once again, if you want to fault me for that, you may do so, but when water didn't appear for an extended period of time, I just believed they'd done what they'd agreed to.
When the water appeared, however, I called them again, thinking that, like the leveling issue, this might have been some sort of mistake. I'd already decided in my mind that I'd likely need to go a different direction for any other flooring work that needed done, but I was already in for a penny with Metro on this particular issue, so I called them. They seemed very apologetic and agreed to send someone out to inspect. I mentioned many times on the phone that issue was related to water, and they raised no issues or concerns with this. This is notable.
A man came out, inspected the floors, made note of the fact that water was coming in through the cracks and causing damage to the floors and told me someone would be in touch. Well, I just spoke with Metro and there's nothing they can do. They're not water proofers you see, and there's nothing in their scope of work that included any manner of water repellant. Never mind the conversation I had with the original team member who sold me the floors. Never mind the multiple conversations I'd had with support on the water that had appeared and what we could do about it. They don't handle waterproofing and nothing was written down related to it, so it's my problem. Not to mention, if I wanted the damaged floors replaced, I'd have to pay for that, too.
All of that said, if you're looking for good, competent work and for people to hold up their end of the bargain, I strongly recommend looking for someone else. read more