I would think that whoever did the floor install would be responsible.

I may not be visualizing this correctly but the ''repair'' sounds minor - a swipe of some mud or patch compound, a quick sand when dried, ignore everything that will be covered by trim. It might take less time to do, than it will take to jawbone the flooring company. If it were me, I'd do it myself or have the painters do it as part of their prep.

Just being practical here, I guess in a perfect world the floor guy does it and does it right.

I agree with johnliu - easy to do yourself - it's even something I've done on occasion :-) or else the painters will do it.

Our drywall guy considers it part of his service to come back and fix up such things, which are a given in a building project. They're used to it and can deal with it so easily and quickly. Unless it was some sort of blatant negligence/carelessness on the part of the flooring installers, I'd consider it just part of the unavoidable 'stuff,' and possibly, cost, of building.

Frustrating I know! It would probably depend on how bad it is. If you feel it is bad then diffently call the store. Sometimes it is just not worth the hassel or course I think alot of time that is just what they bank on. We are hashing over 2 pieces of siding on our garage that a delivery trucking company that Menards hired & damaged on our garage. Done July 1, we just get the run around about it. Normaly I would let it go, but matching the siding is a bird.

I would NOT want my dry wall fixed by hardwood installers. You want the specialists to their job.

These maybe minor things that can be repaired by the painters. (painters are expected to make minor repairs before painting, in my experience) Are you done with taping and mudding phase of the dry wall? Are they supposed to come back one more time? if yes then don't worry about it.

If you insists on things that are outside of the industry norm, you will get a "sloppy" job just to get you out of their hair. You don't want this either.

There is a huge unexpected/expected cost to building. We had our dry wall people come back again and again for various minor things. Yes it cost money but it was what it was....

Maybe they would give you a small discount on the floor
job since they made errors. My drywall has never been
damaged from my floor guys. I will say they did get some
stain on my base board but over all they were fantastic.
Ask, it can't hurt to ask.

Breezy- our drywall and painting team (one company) did all of the repairs from damage done between the first painting and the final painting. We never even discussed it. they took care of it (mostly) although it won't ever be perfect unfortunately :(

I thought that painting was usually finished before floor install. Ours will be.

Do I recall correctly that you don't have a GC? If you have a GC, it is up to the GC to arrange the work in an order that reduces the likelihood that later work will damage earlier work and to see that it is fixed when damage occurs.

For example, the low voltage wiring installer on our job stepped through a florescent light box in one of our bathrooms when he was in the attic damaging the drywall top of the box and the light diffuser. Our GC is taking care of repairing them (and kindly also putting a piece of plywood over the top so this doesn't happen again).

If there is no GC, I guess it's up to you to talk to the drywall/paint company and the flooring company and work out how the repair is paid for.

Drywall plastering requires some skill - more or less depending on the type of wall finish. Unless you have some skill there, I think it's best to have the dry wallers fix it.

Thank you everyone. I'll make a general reply to everyone.

The damaged areas have all been drywalled, taped, textured and primed, but I'm still struggling with paint colors in that area so we've been painting bedrooms instead. (whole house reno.). Basically, all the drywall was done and over.

Some of the damaged areas were on walls with a flat texture (i.e. no texture) and some on walls with a sprayed orange peel. I wouldn't feel comfortable patching either kinds of texture myself. If you patch an orange peel area, how do you get the texture back on the flat patch you just did?

Our painting company is called Breezy DH, Inc. We're DIYing where we can, and wall and ceiling paint is certainly doable. No painters fixing holes. :( We did decide to have our trim and doors professionally caulked, sanded, and sprayed as it would take DH many months to do that painstaking, detailed work with his schedule.

I am the GC so it does fall to me to take care of this.

I finally heard back from the flooring company. My rep will be stopping by in the morning to take a look at the walls. He did give me some slight bs about damage below the trim, but agreed that there shouldn't be damage above. Accidents happen, but I know they were moving very fast and didn't seem that careful when I watched them several times during the first two days.

I will not have the floor installers do the repairs. Didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday. :)

On fixing the orange peel wall damage: We just finished fixing lots and lots of drywall. We had big patches and little patches that had been cut out to update our electrical wiring in the kitchen/dining, and we needed to repair some bits that were damaged when we removed the 20+ year old wallpaper and scrubbed the old paste off the wall. Except for the electrical, we're totally DIY, and even then, my husband was the assistant who got to crawl around the attic. It was his job to make the repaired patches (most of which were my job) match the rest of the walls. He says:

Buy a spray can of Homax Wall Texture at HD. It comes both water-base and oil-base. Buy the water-based version. Make sure to shake the can for one full minute. Adjust the spray setting to fine (there's a twist knob), and stand back about 2 feet. It shoots wide so protect adjoining areas. Spray on and somewhat around the repaired area. When it first goes on it looks weird, but as it dries it flattens. Now you can't tell the difference between the patch and the adjoining areas.

I agree. The sprayed patches just melted into the rest of the wall.

Suzanne--I remember seeing someone do just that now that you mention it. I'm hoping it won't come to that, but it's good to have such detailed instructions from you and DH just in case! Thanks!

In general, small smudges, scratches, and gouges are to be expected as part of the process of machine finishing a floor. Every flooring contractor that I've worked with has had that wording in their contract with the statement that finish wall prep and painting should occur after the installation of the floors due to that fact. Larger gouges at taller heights should not have occurred, but if they aren't holes, and there aren't a lot of them, point them out to the company, but be willing to let it go.

I agree with GreenDesigns. Check out your contract. Even if it doesn't mention when the walls should be finished they usually have something stating that things happen and they wont be fixing it. Bogus I know, it's the same way with most counter top guys as well.

Breezy,
get a piece of practice board, sheetrock or even the wall in your garage for a practice attempt.

I forgot to come back and update this thread. The flooring rep came the next day to look at the damage. By the time he arrived it was too late. My drywallers fortuitously showed up early that day to fix a big mistake that my trim carpenter made at one end of the house. They saw all the dozens of gouges I had labelled with blue tape and fixed them without charge! The flooring rep didn't have much to see or say other than he'd "make sure he mentioned it in the next meeting with his guys to be more careful." Whatever. Problem solved.

Sanding and staining start tomorrow! DH is out of town next week so I'll have to pick the stain Tuesday morning all by my lonesome! :) I can't wait to see the finished floor.