carpet job gone bad

16 years ago

I hired a gut to put carpeting in my basement. He works for a company that does capeting and he did it after hours. The job didnt turn out so well. 3 days after he left I vacuumed the carpet and the 16 foot seam he put in looked terrible. The seam had gaps in it and when he was done he took his tracter tool the mixes up the fibers and the seam looked ok so I didnt know there was a gap. I also found one corner that he didnt cut around the door way and a 4 foot seam he put in looked bunched up. I called the installer about this and he blamed the carpet for the bad seam. He said the backing wasnt good on the carpet and if he reseamed the carpet it would look worse. I deceided I did not want this guy back to ruin my carpet.After making other phone calls to other friends and installers I got a good repair guy to come out and fix it. The original guy did not cut a fresh edge on the carpet when he seamed it. We also found a spot where the carpet wasnt attached to the tape. The carpet guy said the iron didnt melt the glue. The other seam the carpet was almost overlaid on top each other. Also some of the corners looked funny so I had the new guy check it out. The carpet strips were coming up and needed to be refastened. The new guy also pointed out a small chip in my granite tile flooring. The new guy was at my house for 4 hours and did a great job. It cost me $175. I want the original guy to refund me some cash. What would you do?

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Comments (9)

live_wire_oak
16 years ago
I'd write off that $175 as a hard lesson learned to hire the right pros in the first place.
glennsfc
16 years ago
I agree.
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floorguy
16 years ago
I'll third that!!
blue_fastback
Original Author
16 years ago
How do you know if the guy is a real pro or not? This guy was recommmend by a buddy of mine who does maintenace for an office building. The guy that installed it works for a flooring company and I was told his work at the office building has looked fine.
floorguy
16 years ago
The guy that recommended him to you may think your job looks fine, also.
boxers
16 years ago
in most cities there are CRI (Carpet and rug institute) certified installers. They will charge more but as you have learned there is a difference in installers.
floorguy
16 years ago
Boxer, that is Certified Floorcovering Installers Association(CFI) Certified installers, and not every place has them.

CRI is the Carpet & Rug Institute, but all they do is set the standards for carpet construction, installation and maintanence
floorman67
16 years ago
blue_fastback,

you learned a valuable lesson about penny pinching.

I suggest hire only reputable flooring establishments where you will have a company with a brick and mortar presance to go to lodge complaints. Most have a reputation to protect, and be prepared to pay for this level of quality and service, especially those with in-house EMPLOYED crews instead of subcontractors. Theirs are generally much more quality control on average, rather than subcontractors who have little to no oversight.. I am not talking about the discount carpet stores either.

I will agree that getting CFI-Certified isntallers at Master Level Residential-II or Master-2 Certification, but that isnt always going to guarantee you will get a good job. Some people skate in to get a certification jsut to say theya re certified, never get any further education or certifications, and its still not guarantee they wont cut corners to get off early on a side job.

Before i get flamed here, you can also find good independent installers, but reputation goes a long way, so its hit and miss many times. Even for us flooring retailers, it is hit an miss with new independent installers.

Get at least 3 references and check them out.

As to gettting your money back, file a claim at the local district jsutioces office if he wont reimburse you, but it might be hard to prove without an independent flooring inspection report, so you would probably have to call in the otehr floor man as a witness. Did you take pictures ?

to me all that bull isnt worth $175.00.

call him and tell him you want reimbursed and hope for the best.

Here is a link that might be useful: Flooring Inspectors
cearab
16 years ago
Having been a commercial carpet manufacturers rep for over 10 years, I cannot tell you how often I have heard this same story. I would cringe when an architect, designer or client would want to purchase some carpet direct and tell me they have someone who 'could install the carpet cheaply'. Like all things in life, cheapest is not always the way to go. You did learn a valuable lesson here. Call it your $175 mistake, and thank God you were able to find someone to repair it for you.
Next time, do yourself a favor. Suck it up, and pay the price the retailer wants. That way, if the installation is bad, you have someone to go back to.

carpet job gone bad

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live_wire_oak

glennsfc

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carpet job gone bad

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