LESLIE: Steve in New York needs help with a flooring situation. Tell us what happened?
STEVE: Well, my sister-in-law had a laminate floor installed in her house; I guess it was about three months ago. And about three weeks ago it started to bubble up; not just a little bit but it was actually going about four inches above the floor.
TOM: Wow.
STEVE: What I was wondering – yeah, it’s pretty bad. Now the house is on a slab and what I was wondering – I’m sure it’s just an expansion from humidity transferring through the concrete. Is it advisable to put some kind of impermeable layer down before you do these floors and, as far as taking care of the bubbling, will just kind of trimming the edges to give it room to float take care of that or …?
TOM: Did she have this installed professionally?
STEVE: Yes.
TOM: Well, I think you’ve got a warranty claim here. I would contact the folks that you hired to do this installation. Did you buy the floor product and have the installation done by the same company?
STEVE: Yeah. Well, the thing is she’s already called them but they have like a six-month lead time before they’re willing to come back …
TOM: Well, that’s …
LESLIE: (chuckling) Because, clearly, they have this problem with other people.
TOM: Yeah, that’s a little ridiculous, you know, that they’re going to try to put you off like that.
STEVE: Right.
TOM: I think you’re going to have to ratchet this up; you know, I’m talking Better Business Bureau, possibly small claims court, get onto Angie’s List and tell people about the experience. If you bought this product and installed it from the same company, that’s good because at least they can’t blame each other.
STEVE: Right.
TOM: But somebody screwed up here, Steve. That should not be happening. And I’ve got to tell you, it’s very rare that we hear a problem with laminate floor buckling up because the stuff is very, very moisture-resistant and I think something …
LESLIE: Mm-hmm, that’s what it’s made for.
TOM: I think something else is going on here. I’m not quite sure what. But it’s incredibly unusual for it to buckle up four inches like that.
STEVE: OK.
TOM: Do you know what product it was and what manufacturer?
STEVE: I can’t remember the name of (inaudible at 0:18:06.1)?
TOM: Well, you might want to find that out and also call the manufacturer directly. All of these manufacturers have area reps and, generally, what they’ll do is send somebody by to look at the installation, look at the product and try to figure out what the heck is going on and that information can be very, very helpful; especially if this is a defect in the installation.
STEVE: OK. Well, thanks for the advice.
TOM: You’re welcome, Steve. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT, 888-666-3974.
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