I have a camp in the Adirondacks. It is difficult to find independent contractors that will travel there; I needed to replace the flooring in the house, so I decided to try Home Depot in Amsterdam which is a 45 minute drive. I visited the store to view wood flooring samples and made a selection. My order was made over the phone. Home Depot uses an outside company for the installation process. After I made my wood selection, they set up an appointment for someone to come out and measure the rooms. This is required so that they know how much to order, and so that they can anticipate if there are any problems with the site beforehand. I needed new flooring in three bedrooms, a hallway and family room. The guy who measured was seemingly thorough and was there for 2 1/2 hours. (Even measuring closets). Before he left,he told me that the floor underneath was in good shape, flat, no damage, and the installation should go smoothly.
The store gave me an installation date - they said it would take three days. The team of three installers should up on time and got to work. (BTW, when they arrived they told me the install would be 2 days.)
The first day was uneventful, thought their nail gun died around lunch time. They had to drive 45 min to Home Depot for a new one. On the second day, things got "interesting". Late morning, the lead installer told me that they were finding quite a few planks with problems: inconsistent coloring, poor finish, strange random marks, etc. He didn't think he would have enough wood to finish the job and said they would just order more. This was a problem, as I had some travel coming up, and the wood needs to be "acclimated" to the space for several days prior to the install. I had other work planned after that, so that would be held up too. We agreed tonopen all of the boxes and examine all of the wood to see how much was defective. (BTW, this was solid Oak flooring by Bruce.). Let's just say that Bruce has a quality control problem. Some of the boxes had as little as 20% acceptable planks. Others were 75% OK. We went through every box and separated out the "good" planks. They got back to work.
An hour later, the lead was back: they had finished the master bedroom and were continuing into the hallway. The planks must be aligned - you don't put the flooring in haphazardly. New problem - there was no "Stair Nose", a transition for the top of the stairs. That is a piece that is part flat and part curved and fits over the top step, so that the first step is completely level. If you don't have a stair nose, you can't continue on beyond the stairs. We called the installer's supervisor. He got on the phone with Home Depot. Guess what? Home Depot doesn't have ANY stair nose material in the store. They suggested that we could try going to Lowes. Or another flooring store. Or we could wait a week and have a stair nose sent to me, and then the installers could come back several weeks after that. Meaning that the house would be "under construction" for several weeks, as we waited to get new materials and a new install date.
After arguing with the Amsterdam store guy, and having a long talk with the Installer, they realized that they had some hardwood Stair Nose material in their warehouse in Albany, 2 hours away. What about the defective wood? I said that I could not wait several more weeks to finish this job and so they would need to install the wood that was in the house, even if some of it was not up to snuff. So, they did as much as they could and then had to leave. Nothing left to do. They would be back on day three.
Day three, they come back, with some very nice Stair Nose. Not a perfect match, but pretty close and it looks good. They get back to work. Mid afternoon, the Lead is back. Another problem: no transitions for the doorways. Basically, you need a little strip of wood to go over the "transition" between the room and the hallway. They can install all of the flooring, but they won't be able to finish the job after all. We'll have to wait for Home Depot to ship transitions.
It turns out that when the installers looked at the order, the Estimator never ordered transitions or stair noses. We didn't get them because he forgot to order them.
I have stopped payment on my credit card, and I have called home depot - they refer you to the person in the store, which in this case is the guy that told me to try Lowes. Solid hardwood flooring is expensive and Home Depot's lack of quality control and oversight is really pathetic.
The guys left. And I have quite a few long boxes of defective wood laying around the house. What am I supposed to do with them?
Beware. I thought this would be a streamlined way to deal with a thorny problem. It is anything but. read more