Originally Posted by hayaku

last year in june i had my old carpet removed and replaced with brazilian engineered wood plank floors. the entire first floor was done. it was gorgeous. dr kewl can tell you how good they looked.

the installer worked as a subcontractor for a different company. the invoices were from the contractor company.

then the torrential rains hit socal in jan/feb and the floors started to lift, 2 bubbles. i called the installer and he came out to fix it on his dime. a few weeks after that, more rain and new spots began to lift. since then i have a total of 9 spots that have lifted with some bubbles as high as 5 inches tall, 18 inches wide and 15 feet long.

I have pictures of everything from installation to current state.

conversations with the installer persued and eventually he never returned any of my calls and went mia.

i then called the contractor who's license was on the line for the installation. he came out with a floor expert. their expert opinion: migratory water problems with the slab. the slab would soak in way too much water and discharge up towards the wood floor. they advised me that this is a home owners insurance claim and not an installation problem.

i filed a claim with my home owners insurance. they send out their experts and do their review. one month later, their expert opinion: installation problem. either the installer did not do a moisture test on the slab or did not use a moisture sealant or used the wrong sealant. claim denied based on faulty installation. they advised i go back to the contractor. the official report has a paragraph stating that the installer may be liable for up to four years after the installation of the floor.

the contractor called up the manufacturer of all the flooring goods and they claimed they will not warrant any product that has a discharge rate of 12 lbs per day. evidently my slab discharges more then 12 lbs of water a day, hence the sealant not being able to stick to the slab.

for a while, the contractor was playing the same no answer the phone game with me like the installer did. until i called him and notified the contractor that if we were to go to court and he loses, he will be responsible for:
- cost of all receipts
- cost of replacement of the floor back to carpet (original state)
- cost of my lawyer fees
- cost of court fees
- will have negative repercusions with BBB
- will have negative repurcsuions on his contractor license
- possibly increase in his liability insurance for his work

now the contractor is claiming this is an "act of god" and there is nothing he can do. he claims he is a small time company and doesn't have the money to repay me. he claims his liability insurance will not cover this claim either. he claims that his peers in the industry said that he is not liable for my floor.

i am not having to pull the damaged floor out of my house and put down new carpet out of my own pocket (paying for flooring twice).

do i have a case to take the contractor to court? if we go to court, it will be long and messy i'm afraid.

thanks for patience in reading through this. (that little voice in the back of my head is saying: "nitwit you should've finished law school!")