I have a warranty question/any suggestions on how to proceed with incorrect installation of a LVT (luxury vinyl tile) loose lay floor installed on July 2018. The product has a lifetime warranty based on it being installed correctly (among other exclusions). We had the product installed in two rooms. In the second room, gaps between the end of the boards started appearing (The boards appeared to be sliding) and there was a crackling/popping sounds when they were walked upon. In May 2019, had the flooring company come out and they ‘fixed it’. As one of the installers was leaving, they mentioned to a co-worked that ‘they would just have to be back again since there is asbestos tile under the floor’ – they did not know I could hear them. Note - the house was built in 1960 and the previous owner passed away in 2016. We bought the house in 2017 and there was no mention of asbestos in the house. The asbestos tiles were under a carpet that was installed in 1980 (the previous owner kept most of her records). We had no knowledge of these tiles under May 2019 when I heard the installers comment in passing. It’s now April 2020 and the same issues are occurring. After doing quite a bit of research, The installation company did follow the manufacturers installation instructions: · Didn’t use Karndean specific adhesive · Didn’t leave the materials in the house 48 hours to acclimate. · Didn’t prep the subfloor correctly. This is the biggest issue. Ideally, they should have stopped pulling the carpet up as soon as they saw the tiles in order to give us the option to either keep the carpet over the tiles OR hire an asbestos remediation company to remove the tiles. The manufacturer’s warranty is conditional based on the above occurring. I simply want what we paid for - a nice floor for a family room where we don’t have to deal with unsightly gaps and the loose lay tiles not popping up when we walk on them.
It’s a terrible system and unfortunately most companies and customers from my experience seem to think you can pull up a carpet and have a hardfloor installed without being able to inspect the subfloor. That is just not possible and your subfloor will 99% of the time not be suitable for a hardfloor. Those tiles can be tested for around £25 and if they have asbestos in it will be minimal. As you say you can then remove them by a asbestos company (that costs around £1000 for a small hallway) or leave them in situ and go over the top with something. You can actually remove them yourself if you following government guidelines as they are low risk asbestos but it will be expensive to get rid of them as I think it’s £250 minimum plus you have to buy the 2 different colour bags. I doubt it would of been installed to guidelines as you say so you could try and get a refund. At least it will be easy to uplift Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think airborne risk is something like 1% as merit has said, simple remove or correct prep over them and no issues would occur, to be honest the adhesive isn’t the issue, it’s the sub floor prep, not the tiles, not the Adhesive.
Take all the planks up and store them flat Then take the tiles up and double bag them. Take them your local tip and you might be able to get rid of them there with a fee. Then the floor will need grinding off the old adhesive off and a liquid dpm then a coat of smoothing compound at approx 3mm thickness. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
