Amber Floors Inc

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 Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  Al was the inspector of the subfloor after the incident and he said, "the sub floor is perfect."  Since he is the flooring "EXPERT", he should have been able to tell us as well as the insurance company that the joice spacing is going to be a problem for this type of flooring.  Then the insurance company and I could have picked a different type of floor to put in the house.  There is no excuse for a flooring expert to tell you the sub floor is perfect and then blame the sub floor when there is squeaking throughout the house.  Every inspector has stated that there is no guarantee that the sub floor is the culprit, without taking out the floor to see what is going on underneath.  This is the model home, the flooring that went in was the same flooring that was replaced.  Had there been an issue with the sub floor and the wood that was put into the home, I doubt the builder would have sold many homes.  Every person in my neighborhood has been through my house and can state that there was NO squeaking prior to Amber floors replacing it.  This issue is caused by Amber floors and they should honor their initial agreement to come out and take care of the squeaking.  The reports state that it could be accomplished with Glue and clamps, and therefore, he should use glue and clamps to fix his mistake.  He was paid for his expertise and ability to put my home back the way it was before the water incident and he should be help liable for not doing the job he was paid to do. 
Regards,
[redacted]

Here is my response to [redacted]. [redacted] claims that that there was no issue with squeaking of the floor previously and since the water loss and subsequently when we replaced the floor, there is now creaking throughout.  It was initially thought this was a normal situation where there...

can be some squeaking until the floor fully acclimates through a few changes in seasons.  After further investigation, it has been found that this is a preexisting structural issue that has become more pronounced by environmental factors.  There have been three inspections done on the floor by independent inspectors and all of them have brought to light the structural issue of the joist spacing being 24 inches on center (24” O.C.) and the subfloor being inadequate to support that spacing (see National Wood Flooring Association minimum standards sited in [redacted] report). The [redacted]s project did not involve replacing and joists or subfloor, only replacing the hardwood on top.  [redacted]s worked in conjunction with the customer’s insurance who owed to replace the floors to pre-loss condition, so there was never a question of replacing any subfloor or reinforcing the joists underneath.  All of the inspectors also confirmed that our nail schedule was sufficient (we used proper spacing and number of staples to secure the floor to the subfloor).  Additionally, one report sites that there may have been “wood fiber pull-out” when the old floor was removed that was left between the subfloor and the new floor.  However, we inspected the subfloor and cleaned it of debris and applied proper vapor barrier underneath it prior to install.  If one or two wood fibers were missed during clean up, you might expect to find a few localized creaks in the floor, but not the creaking throughout the floor.  I find it very hard to believe that we would have missed many pieces of wood fiber or debris during the clean-up phase, because Amber Floors installs many wood floors each year and has done work for [redacted]s many years without any of these types of issues occurring.  When laying floor you have to lay the vapor barrier first and it is obvious to see if any debris was missed in the clean-up phase because there will be bumps in the surface of the sheet vapor barrier.  Also, the installers meticulously lay down each board, piece by piece, before nailing them in place, so they would be able to observe any inconsistences as they go.   The [redacted] inspector was hired directly by the customer ([redacted]’ paid their fee), and the other report from [redacted] was provided by an inspector that we hired directly.  The third inspection was done by a structural engineer from [redacted] Inspections that the customer hired and the customer rejected their report because they did not like what it said.  The customer would not provide [redacted]’s report to us, but we were able to acquire it from them directly.  [redacted]’s engineer was very upset with how rude [redacted] was to him when he demanded a refund, and he went so far as to say he wanted no more dealings with him.  The customer stated that [redacted] provided a structural inspector instead of a flooring inspector and that he demanded a refund after he saw the report.  He also stated that they took the only copy of the report back when they gave a refund.  The environmental factor in the situation is that above average force is being applied to the floor.  When an above average force is applied to a inadequate subfloor you can expect deflection which results in staple/fastener pull-out which in this case may be irreversible and is what we believe is causing the creaking.   On a typical water loss such as this, it is unreasonable to expect a contractor to involve a structural engineer to determine if there were preexisting structural defects prior to replacing a hardwood floor.  There were no permits required and insurance typically does not cover subfloor reinforcement or addressing any pre-existing issues, so the scope of our project was limited to hardwood replacement and water-damage related repairs.  We examined the subfloor visually and it appeared to be sound, and we believed that if the homeowner was happy with its performance previously then it would be sufficient to re-lay hardwood over it again.  [redacted] and Amber Floors have met on-site many times with the insured and has tried explaining the problem to them, but they are not willing to accept it and are continuing to fight it.   While we sympathize with the dilemma, due to the very substantial cost of fixing this pre-existing issue and because we feel there is much more evidence to support our position than theirs, we have to this point, been unwilling to replace the hardwood again for free as they are requesting. Especially since replacing the hardwood alone would not fix the issue.  The subfloor needs to be reinforced in some way to support the larger than normal joist spacing, insufficient subfloor thickness, and the larger than normal forces being applied.  Thank youHave a great day Albert A[redacted]Amber Floors Inc.14700-J Flint Lee Rd.Chantilly, VA 20151Office: ###-###-####Cell: ###-###-####Fax: ###-###-####Amber Floors Logo