dealing with a tradesman after levelling failure

please read below to get a better understanding of the job, if not.. what do you do when a tradesmen messes a job up and you have already paid him as the issue came shortly afterwards?

we have just had parts of our living room floor levelled using mapei product in preparation for floating floorboards.

the levelling was done by the floorboard layer, he used to be a carpenter. the floorer is also a contracter for a major flooring supplier. however, upon quoting, he offered to do it cheaper through him (cash)

the materials are expensive, the job was charged at "$125 per bag" from what i can see the materials cost about $65 for the cement and latex and the rest was his labour charge.

he did no preparation whatsoever to the existing floorboards that the pour was going on to so we had about a litre of itseeping through the cracks in the floor and under the house, it actually made quite a visible mess as our driveway runs under the house. as far as i am aware you should prime the floor and fill all cracks, that never happened.

so all up it came to $1125

theres only a crack issue with one area, but this area took 6 or 7 of the 9 bags

he came for the money two days later, the floor took longer than expected to dry but seemed ok.

at the time of laying i questioned the first pour as it was extremely light on the top, my worry was that the latex didnt mix properly and i was worried about it cracking.

4 days later, we woke up to 5 large cracks, over the last few days the "crackling" noise has gotten slightly worse.

he actually seems like a decent bloke and not a cowboy type.

his argument could be that my floor moved / heat / cold / expansion etc..

so my question is.. how do i go about this,

If the floor moved/expanded and caused the damage, you should ask him why he didn't explain that this could be a possibility before starting the job.

Get an opinion from other people in the same trade, then come to the conclusion if this problem could be forseen e.g could it have been avoided if extra time was spent.

Depending on what the case is, you can ask him to come and fix it.

If you had of done this work through a reputable company they would have given you a quote on a letterhead with their licence no., date, guarantee, terms and conditions etc. You opted to pay someone cash to get it cheaper with probably none of the above and are now wondering why it has all turned to tears. I think there is a lesson to be learned here. How to fix it ? It probably all has to come up and be re-done.

Stewie

Interesting case, but can you clarify the exact situation here. It looks like he used a levelling product on existing timber (full timber?? engineered?? other??) floor, and then he was supposed to install new engineered floor on top of that levelled out area (and all on top of the old timber floor).
Is my understanding of your writing correct?

+1

thanks guys and you are absolutely right.. lesson learned re. not getting it properly quoted etc.. we are usually vigilant but this one just slipped by.

the levelling compound was poured straight onto cypress tongue and groove flooring (90mm) to level out areas that had dipped, undulated etc.. when this sets, we are installing floating floor.

[quote=
the levelling compound was poured straight onto cypress tongue and groove flooring (90mm) to level out areas that had dipped, undulated etc.. when this sets, we are installing floating floor.[/quote]

Im not a building expert but I think that is your problem right there. Im assuming the floor guy has used a floor leveller compound that from my personal experience only ever seen used on concrete floors. Never seen it used on tongue and groove floors. The compound material is like a very wet cement mixture, only meant to fill in and level upto 5mm? Anything larger, you would look at sand +cement screeding I would think.

I would also think for levelling tongue and groove flooring, one would use thicker underlay? or ifs its really bad redo the floor boards again?

Just my 2cents, Im not a builder but I work in the industry.

Seems a sorry state but there is no law against against giving a discount for cash (there are costs associated with CC/eftpos plus the inconvenience of cashing chqs etc). Whether this guy chooses to declare cash payments to the ATO is his business.

Speak to him, let him know your concerns, get an independent inspection and/or information from the manufacturer on the installation process and follow it through a tribunal if he won't come to the party.

The other alternative of course is just to tell him that you'll mention it to the ATO plus the flooring place that sent him out on the first instance to quote.

thanks again guys, all great input, hes coming over tomorrow to assess.

Just for your info BrandonZoe, there are latex based self-levelling compounds and additives that are flexible for exactly this purpose that can be from 3 to 30mm thick.
I'd say this guy has used the wrong stuff.

rothwell do you have any of the bags left over that the guy used so you can tell us exactly what he has spread over your floor ?

Stewie