We decided to have our Kahrs put down by a "pro" that was recomended by and contracted thru the store we bought the wood from. In several places the underlayment is visible between the sides of the planks and many-most of the butt joints were not pulled tight. There is also a hole at the back door trim that is about 1/4 inch in diameter caused by the fact that the guy was too lazy to go back out and cut a new piece of wood when he laid the cut out wrong. What to do now? The VP/general manager came out today and told me it could all be FIXED! I have a hard time buying into that but he told me he had "all kinds of tricks" I have not paid the bill yet and would feel like an idiot if I paid the $2,000 I "owe". Also the overlap at many of the seams is much less than spec which is five inches would that affect Kahrs warrenty down the road? What are the chances the floor can be made right w/o pulling the entire thing up? Thanks. Dan

Yikes!!!

Which Kahrs floor did you have installed?

It is 5 inch Doussie Dakar in the 14MM thickness. Dan

How was the floor installed? Floating, right? If possible, post some photos of the problems you are refering to. You can also post photos on various photo sites and post the link here so we can see them. It "sounds" as if you "may" have some serious problems but without seeing them, very hard to say.

Gary, Yes it is floating and I thank you for your reply. I will try to post some pictures but barring that is there any "fix" you know of for pulling floating planks together after the glue is dried. If it's possible I would be open to letting them try. If there is no acceptable method of doing it then I don't want them to make it worse. Dan

Quite frankly, no.

I didn't think so. The rep is supposed to come out in the next few days and take a look. I don't think that will change my mind about any potential FIX either. I guess I'll be looking for an inspector to look at it. Thanks and I'll try to get some photos up. Dan

Kahrs publishes their installation instructions on the web for everyone to view. No excuse for an installer not to know what they are and not to follow them. Kahrs is a pretty easy floor to install because the milling is so good. Were the packages opened PRIOR to the installation? If so, that's a problem right there. Also, was the correct glue used? It sounds as if the installer really bungled the job with end butts not tight and gapes along the sides, not to mention not spacing the end butts according to Kahrs instructions, which state 8" minimum spacing is prefered and 5" spacing is the minimum acceptable. Closer than that, you could have structural issues with a floating floor. I don't think you need a independant inspector at this time. They're expensive. Just download Kahrs instructions and point out how the flooring instructions were not follwed and that the flooring could fail because of that. If a glued-up floater's joints are not pretty tight, it loses structural integrity. That's a fact no one can argue. Good luck.

Thanks Gary, I guess I'll wait till the techrep looks it over.Also, almost every package of planks was torn at least a little. I talked with support and was told it was okay to use as long as it went together w/o too much force. Dan

Here are a few shots. It's my first time with photo bucket and I'm having some problems but I think you get the idea of the high quality of work that was done. Dan
PS the green in the one picture is of course under layment. There are three places that are showing underlayment in 540 square feet.

1st photo is too blurry to make much of it. A very small gap.
2cd photo shows a poor cut around the jamb. It could be filled/puttied with a matching filler. Installer should at least erase their pencil lines. Looks like the casing was cut a little high and ragged. What is that to the right of the jamb? What's the black stuff on top of the baseshoe?
3rd photo shows small gap. IMO, these are not the BIG gaps you gave us the impression they were. I cannot see the underlayment. To be able to see the underlayment would require the boards to be gapped greater than the width of the tongue, which they aren't. Don't know what your seeing but it's not underlayment. Those gaps are pretty small and could be filled. Not big enough to be a structural problem IMO.

I think mostly you are unhappy with the overall quality of the installation. Some sloppy work here and there. Quite common with installers who sub to shops because the shop hammers on the installer on price. So the installer has to do the work real fast to make any money. And when a floor is installed real fast, things get overlooked. That's my take on what is going on.

It is my own personal opinion that no floating floor should have any gaps, especially Kahrs. The tight joinery is what gives a floating floor its integrity. I would like to know what the Kahrs rep has to say on this.

Gary, I have to admit that the underlayment in fact is NOT showing. I don't know what I was thinking and I feel like a dummy. The gaps are big enough to put a thick card into but not big enough to show the underlayment for sure. You are right that I'm steamed about sloppy work. There is a piece of trim that was knocked off in the kitchen that was left off when they finished and some SLOPPY fitting of the reducers in the kitchen. A small thing to be sure but for a total price of around $10,000 I would have liked some craftsmanship. Dan

I think that is the threshold for an exterior door and the black is the weather stripping.