We have just had new carpet laid in our two storey house. We have box ceilings downstairs, where the floor joists and underside of the particle board floor form the ceiling, with no cavity. The carpet layers used nails which were too long to secure the straightedge across the upstairs doorways, resulting in 5mm or so of the nails sticking through and visible from below, where we had just had repainting done. This has now been rectified, except for the filling and repainting required. The carpet layers are denying responsibility, as they say they have never struck such a thin floor! The floor is 20mm, which I believe is standard for domestic flooring. It amazes me that after a job costing thousands of dollars, they won't front up and accept responsibility for remedial work costing maybe a hundred bucks. Any comments?
happychappy50,
Apr 4, 8:33pm
If they are professional they would own it & rectify @ their cost,would'nt be hard to work that out,dos'nt matter if the flooring was thin,part of their scope of works,sounds as though they are trying to deny responsibility,see it more & more these days with staff who have little experiance in their elected field & don't think outside the square.If you hav'nt paid them DON'T till they or the job is completed to your satisfaction.
Find it hard to believe that they have used securings that long,most flooring is 18-20mill & nails on smooth edge are not that long,maybe the screws/ nails used to secure the flooring have "popped" & consequently come through the gib in the ceiling.
tweake,
Apr 4, 11:26pm
its probably a case of your downstairs ceiling setup is unusual. most would have it bare and wouldn't worry about nails etc poking through. those who want it looking good would put up a proper ceiling (and more than likely insulate it to). in which case you would never see nails poking through the floor.
zak410,
Apr 5, 1:43am
Yes, they should fix, or pay someone else to fix the damage they've done, at their own cost, and it doesn??
rpvr,
Apr 5, 2:19am
I have now fixed it, and will pursue reimbursement on principle, rather than the cost involved. The painters had left some paint so that wasn't an issue. It's just the attitude I don't like, and think they are rather short sighted from a business point of view because I will certainly not recommend them to others. Will also be looking very closely for anything that I might need to call them back for. A large high profile carpet company too, with TV advertising etc.
trade4us2,
Apr 5, 9:14am
I've not heard of such a thin floor. Surely it would be noisy? For noise reduction it's normal to not attach the floor joists to the ceiling below.
budgel,
Apr 5, 9:53pm
There is no ceiling below, just the underside of the floor above.
ebygum1,
Apr 5, 10:20pm
Then you haven't heard very much. 20mm is the standard floor thickness for timber,particle board,ply and strandboard floors.
trade4us2,
Apr 6, 4:54am
It is most unusual to have the bottom of 20mm flooring visible as the ceiling below it. I am surprised it is legal. In fact it's probably illegal.
ebygum1,
Apr 6, 6:16am
Not if it is a Garage,it was normal.
nick2707,
Apr 6, 8:27am
Cowboy carpet layers. Should have checked first, first thing you do. Did you know that they can buy different length nails ? I'd do 'em for what you can and name them - gives tradies who really care a bad rap.
rpvr,
Apr 7, 7:58pm
It may well be now for all I know, as the house is about 28 years old. It is a Maddren design, I think it was called a settler cottage. The painters said they have seen it before,called it a 'box ceiling', as the joists have pieces in between which divides the ceiling area into a series of squares.
rpvr,
Apr 7, 8:04pm
Not only should have checked first, it was pointed out at the time the quote was done, because we discussed the need for a good quality underlay upstairs to minimise the sound when someone is walking around up there. He obviously didn't discuss with his subbies who laid the carpet. Oh, and it's Harrison's Carpet One. Big TV advertising campaign, and a glossy brochure outlining how much they look after the customer. Yeah right.
sooby,
Apr 8, 2:50am
Sounds interesting, could you post a photo from the underside?
And my 2c: flooring is only 20mm thick, it was up to them to make sure it all worked!
survivalkiwi,
Apr 8, 4:54am
Im a builder of 30 years experience. 20mm flooring is standard. Not having a ceiling under it is not unusual for houses built in the late 70s. Carpet and vinyl layers would be some of the worse trades to deal with. I do not know why but when I look back it is flooring tradies who have caused the most problems over the years. Particularly the ones who work for larger firms. They seem to be muppets.
Photo taken at night so lighting is not the best. but you get the idea.
sooby,
Apr 8, 11:26pm
^ wow, cheers rpvr!
That looks cool! Was the blocking done as a remodel or original? I've never seen anything like it before - quite striking.
rpvr,
Apr 9, 10:02am
It is the original design (1970s). There are drawbacks, it's fine for my partner and I who are retired, but you wouldn't want kids rampaging around upstairs while you were trying to have some peace and quiet - not very soundproof.
natnewts1,
Apr 13, 10:09pm
Just my 2C! I have building knowledge so this is my view-Sounds to me that it is just bad luck that the bar join didnt fall on a ceiling joist( hard to estimate and obviously you want the join bar in a specific place) and then you would have never seen the nails! possibly being harsh on the carpet sales folks to make them take the blame. i would have thought the carpet contractor would have come back and fixed the issue as his work that is being questioned not a carpet store sales person- always best to leave these weird install quirks to the experts! think chalk it up to having an unusual ceiling and move on! life tough enough without stressing on something thats fixed already- stunning ceiling tho, but bet it is noisy
janbodean,
Apr 13, 11:06pm
All of which is neither relevant nor helpful in light of the discussion. What people should have (in your opinion) and do have are two different things. If I was in the same position having paid for a professional job I would expect a professional job and nails sticking out visibly is hardly that.
lissie,
Apr 14, 3:21am
The downstairs ceiling looks exactly like the one we have in our garage which is part of the house and under a bedroom. Built 1985 - original I think
tweake,
Apr 14, 6:13am
its easy to say all that AFTER they put the pics up of the situation. your a little late to be jumping in. certainly in that situation they should have looked first and after making a mistake, fixed it quickly.
rpvr,
Apr 14, 9:19am
I've fixed it and moved on, but still think it's reasonable to express my displeasure. I can understand how it happened and that doesn't particularly concern me. What does bug me is being fed BS (not our fault, floor not thick enough, etc) instead of sorry, our mistake, we'll fix it. I can't see why you say it's hard to estimate where the joists are. All of the carpet was up and the location of the joists was clearly visible from the original nail lines. I put some screws in the floor to remedy squeaking and had no trouble locating where the joists are.
sooby,
Feb 4, 3:13pm
hey rpvr, have you contacted their branch manager to voice concerns? Sounds like you have been very reasonable in this situation that is clearly caused by them, and them alone.
If no luck there I'd be going to nationwide head office, surely it's in their best interests to keep you happy: a happy customer recommends them to one or two other people, a dissatisfied tells the world!
Good luck & keep us posted!
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