Flooring question

Hi All, hoping for some advice.

While building a new home we selected a hybrid floor to go into our hall and open plan kitchen, dining and lounge (about 75square metres).

Prior to installation we noticed the skirting boards were installed and queried with the builder about this who said not to worry and everything would look fine. When the floor was installed, they left very noticeable and uneven expansion gaps and filled them with silicone. I spoke with the builder and pointed out that this was not great. They wanted to add scotia around the walls, which I did not think would match and found in the contract where it stated that the skirting had to go on last. We agreed that it would need to be done again.

Just before moving in. We noted that there was a lump in the hallway. Photos during construction show that this likely caused by a lump of plaster not removed. They agreed it would need to be fixed.

After moving in
- we found more lumps in the floor
- the floor popped out around door ways and there was no covering.
- the floor was installed around kitchen benches with big uneven gaps with no covering/ scotia. I have popped rubber weather strip over the top to stop food from getting into the gaps and damage to the boards.
- it has taken 9 months but they have agreed to redo the whole floor and admitted that the sub floor was not prepared properly.

However my issue now is that they are telling me the floor requires expansion joints which will be metal and run through the middle of my dining. The floor is wood look. This will spoil the aesthetic and likely lower resale value. At no point in time were expansion joints discussed with us during the prior two installs. We were not approached to waive install of such joints or pick where they should go. If they had done we never would have chosen this floor.

The builder is telling me that they will cover dismantling the floor, levelling and re-install (which technically we already paid for most of that) and if we chose to go with vinyl glued instead (which would prevent them needing to re take off the skirting boards) then we need to pay for supply.

I told him I don’t agree with this, as the product was not represented to us correctly and this is the third install. I said that we should only have to pay any gaps in price if a different product is more expensive or for example if I decided to do something that may require more specialised install then what we paid for.

The builder and I spoke to another floorer who stated they just leave bigger expansion gaps and do not install expansion joints and have not had an issue. I suggested that this could be an option as long as the floor company is willing to accept liability in writing for any future issues (not directly cause by us).

Has anyone had a similar situation? Or advice?