I have talked to the contractor and he says he will do nothing about it. He says if the floor wasn't level I should have fixed it myself before asking them to come and put down laminate floor. He said that the customer is responsible for making sure the floor is level and they only do the installation. However, that is why I hired professionals. If I knew the floor had to be level and I could do the installation myself, I wouldn't have hired them. I didn't even know about the importance of the floor being level until AFTER the installation. When we started to have problems, I started researching and found out that this is usually caused by an unlevel floor. I called three other installation companies and none of them said I would have had to make sure the floor was level. Two of them said that is one of the most important aspects of installing laminate and they would have checked the floor and used some type of levelling compound BEFORE the installation if the floor wasn't level. I can't believe my contractor thinks I should have known this and fixed it for him before he started. I am beginning to think I may have to hire someone else to fix this and go to court with the original contractor. I'm not going to pay for a mistake he made or did not even tell me could be an issue. It's not like he said your floor might not be level and I told him to go ahead and put the floor down. He claims that I should rip the floor up myself, level the floor and then have them come back to fix it. I'm noticing more problems with their work and I don't feel I can trust them to fix the job when they did such a bad job in the first place. Plus, the contractor isn't treating me too well now. I guess after I've paid him, he doesn't want to be worried about it anymore. It seemed to be a problem in just one area, but as we are looking at the floor more closely, there are a few areas that when you step on it, you can actually see that the laminate depresses down a bit (only slightly) but enough that it is a concern. On another board, they told me to make sure there was a 1/4" around the wall. I don't know if I should rip up the sides of the wall in one area to make sure they left space or not. Now I'm afraid the whole floor might start to buckle if the depression is because there is not enough space around the edges. I have also learned that they are supposed to let the laminate sit in our house 48 hours before installation to acclimate or there could be problems. They brought the laminate in and started installing it right out of the box, so it hadn't sat in our house for anytime at all. I'm getting more and more concerned about this problem. Thank you for your response. I've found several good people on the internet but unfortunately I'm in Alberta and most aren't located near me.

In legal terms the person doing the installation accepts the condition of the subfloor. As he is the person with superior knowledge he is more liable than the consumer. Its not up to you to determine the suitablility of the subfloor, that the installers function. If it wasn't right they shouldn't have started the job. You can sue them but they should make it right.

It is very disturbing to me when I read something like this. All flooring contractors are duty bound to follow the flooring manufactures written instructions. If you will get a copy of that and read it you will find that your contractor was negligent and broke just about every rule.

Very sorry, but I would nail him/her to the wall. You may have seek out a certified hard surface flooring inspector to get all this in a written report.

Your hired "HACK" accepted the substrate and installed over it. He is the professional, and any judge will tell him that. I'd send him a registered signature required letter of intent. Basically a letter stating what you agreed to, what you got, and what they need to do to correct it, or further legal action will be taken. If they have already filed bankruptcy in the past that has not been satisfied, good luck and get in line in that case. It could be years before it goes to court.

All your suggestions have been appreciated. I have mailed the contractor a certified letter and will give him until the end of the week to contact me and try to come to some arrangement to fix the situation. If not, I will have to hire someone else and go through the process of going to court to fix the situation. I had someone else come out to our apartment to look at the floor yesterday. He says that there was space left around the wall so expansion is not the problem. Apparently the floor is likely not levelled in that area that is bouncy. He thinks they can pull up the floor in certain areas and fix the floor and reinstall the floor after levelling. So, hopefully the original installer will do this and get it fixed up.