I have been wanting to replace the flooring in my kitchen for years. The Mannington linoleum that was purchased when the kitchen was remodeled in 1997 was the best available at that time. It had a lifetime warranty, whatever that means... Unfortunately, the warranty was nullified because we had put down the subfloor rather than having the installers put it down. Perhaps they would have used stainless steel staples/nails because the ones we used rusted underneath onto the linoleum and left yellow/orange spots. It wasn't pretty any longer. Besides the rust spots, it had become impossible to clean.
Regardless of my desire for new flooring, I couldn't afford it, despite my saving for it. On several occasions I had accumulated the funds and thought I could go ahead, but alas, the funds had to be used to replace or fix something else: a new furnace that wasn't near old enough to die, the replacement of the PSV valve (which yes, was old enough) so that the water pressure wouldn't flood my house, subsequent clearing out of the sewer line and toilet replacement, car repairs which seem to be incessant, large debt to Elevations CU - now zero, trips to California in 2010, 2011, and 2013, missionary expenses and wedding expenses, and then there was the year I had to pay for an appraisal, a washing machine, and a motor for the air conditioner, and I guess I could have bought flooring instead of the flat screen TV, but we sure would have missed out on a lot of entertainment.
Looking back, those things were necessary, and now at this point, I thought I could go ahead with it, having saved up the money. I held my breath as my dishwasher fell apart (earlier than it should have, I might add) and then doggedly pushed on as my garage door had a minor issue and as I considered other options for the use of the money.
I found someone to do the work, picked out the tile which was difficult; I should have picked out the tile before I found the tiler, but I finally decided on the look, color and design I thought I would like on my floor. I also decided to tile an entry way at my front door and replace the flooring in my basement bathroom along with installing baseboards (bullnose) in the kitchen and bathroom.
It took a week to accomplish the whole job - I wasn't expecting that.
The first day we moved the fridge and oven, and he pulled up the old linoleum. Underneath was waferboard. He was going to pull that up as well, but seeing it was not particle board (I told him that, but he apparently didn't believe me), he decided to leave it and put the cement board on top of it.
The second day he finished putting down the cement board.
The third day he started laying the tile.
And then finished it on the fourth day.
It had to set for 24 hours, so the fifth day he spread on the grout and began laying the bullnose in the kitchen, the tile in the living room entry way and the basement bathroom as well as the bullnose there. We moved the fridge and the oven back at the end of that work day.
The sixth day he smoothed the grout over all of that, nailed a metal plate between the kitchen tile and hall carpet and cleaned up.
I wrote this during the first week after getting tile flooring. I admit I was trying to ignore the slabs of tile that seemed misplaced, but my children pointed them out to me. Since then I have cried over my tile. Yes, my floor is easier to clean, but each tile is placed without any thought to leveling. I called this guy back, asked him to look at some of the tiles. He came in the house with a bucket and a crowbar ready to break a few and replace them. I had marked the ones that I felt he needed to look at, but there were so many that he deemed the job as needing to be completely redone. He took the name of the tile to purchase, and I was expecting to see him in a couple of weeks to redo the job, but he never returned. I called him, texted him, but he wouldn't respond. This was during the time when I was busy getting Erin ready for her mission so I didn't have a lot of time to devote to it, but after she was on her way, I called the guy again, and still nothing.
Finally, I had a different tiler come in and look at it, and he said it was within industry standards, just as the main tiler had said, but he immediately could see that the floor was not level therefore rendering each tile to be unlevel. It feels very uncomfortable under my feet. He recommended tearing it all up and putting down mud to level the floor and then laying the tile on a level floor. I would love to do that, but I spent the money that I had saved and resaved many times on the poor job that exists.
A couple weeks ago I submitted a claim to BBB, and as of this date, June 15, 2016, I have heard nothing.
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