Rippled Kardean install - what to do?!

Hi All,

Hoping for some thoughts / insights

After much research including this forum CV and a few local quotes we went for Kardean VG (Auckland oak) range as part of our kitchen revamp.

all quotes were from independent shops with fitters. All quotes relatively similar price , but but significantly more than anticipated…

Were recommended to use a liquid dpm, initially for one damp area (one floor of 3) however on the day, with sub-floor visible , low and behold were told we would need to dpm all 3 floors (plus the extra coat of latex) this added an extra £££ to the 30m2 job, taking the install to £110 m2 but was only guaranteed if we went for dpm across all floors.

sub floor is old quarry tiles. Reasonable condition, floor on floor with another layer of quarry tiles underneath and original Edwardian concrete sub floor under that. Sone damp but was never obvious with pre ious oak fliarung floor. Builders doing the kitchen work levelled all major variations on the quarry tiles, made good , removed skirts etc before flooring installer came. Builders were then told to level more etc adding delays to the job.

job was latex (ardex na) / liquid dpm (supposedly f-ball, but not sure it actually was) and another coat of latex. Due to delays with the flooring install the planks were actually left at our house for 2 weeks prior to install so were climatised.

Despite getting over the shock of the price I and extra cost for dpm, the original fit looked reasonable. However now 4 weeks later when looking in the daylight towards the natural light I can see what appear to be ripples / waves moving in one direction almost all through the floor across 3 rooms .

These aren’t noticed up close but certainly can be seen in daylight. Now is really starting to annoy me as cost a small fortune having this all installed, I think wood would have been a similar cost and kept my sub floor breathable.

Can this be rippling be easily explained ? is this likely from poor screeding, fitting or even the planks themselves? Could this be from poor / incomplete buffing / sanding ?

we had some unused planks (more than a box!) leftover and have put these on the floor and they block the wave effect, in that no ripples are seen with the loose laid planks.

There are also a few (not many) areas where planks are not quite fully level with next plank. Maybe one or 2 minor bumps in the floor.

Also a few that are not fully stuck down near the edges, but the response was these would be covered and pressed down by skirts.

will these minor issues get worse or should they be rectified now to avoid worsening over time?

Any thoughts or insights much appreciated as getting the guys back to discuss.

 

Photos would be helpful, but is there a particular shape to the ripples? Are they all similar? How far apart?

 

Get some pictures up and we'll have a look but by sounds of it it's pointing to poor screeding (most likely trowel lines)

 

Is it that you've not looked/noticed before?
Or are you saying these ripples have just started to appear?

 

If you tap the ripples and it’s solid its likely poor levelling works.


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Photos uploaded - hopefully can see in photos. Much clearer in real life. I’ve addd the gaps as well but this a v minor point in comparison.

if trowel work/ levelling is the problem area ? Is their responsibility to rectify ?
Bearing in mind there were 3 layers (screed/ dpm / screed ) applied by then and specifically paid for by us at their insistence ?

 

That looks like poor floor prep/trowel marks, installation company 100% liable for putting that right.

 

Did they use a buffing machine on it?

 

thanks crazyDaze

Is this a big job ie more work than the original job?

The original tile glue down installation was surprisingly quick…. 1 day for 30m2…..

Could the planks be be reused?

They were suplied by the business….

Should they have spent longer buffing maybe? didn’t spend long and there appear to be a few small lumps

 

Very briefly

 

They are solid. You can’t see imperfections up close

 

Definitely noticed some waves initially, hard to tell whether they have got more apparent or I am just now less forgiving than before.

Initially I thought it may have been how the light was reflected off the patterns on the plank with some kind of phenomenon!… However I got some unused planks (4 across) to test this out and had could not see the same effect with the loose planks

 

Looks like they may have possibly made the marks with the buffer, how long was the screed left to dry?

 

Can’t see pics


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Top layer was left for 48 hours. They were gong to only leave it for 24 hours (as they did before the dpm) but then didn’t bother coming bk the next day, came the following day instead.

 

The Buffing was my original thought. Could it be that not sanded in both directions or is it likely screed not left long enough?

I would have thought the latter being would be a rookie error….it was only one chap doing the fitting with lots of work on and a steady pipeline, so quite likely felt rushed

 

Ahhhh man that's crap, looks bloody awful...
That looks to me that they didn't spend long enough buffing their crap scredding.

No way I'd be settling for that.
Planks back out, get rid of the adhesive, a proper sand down then refit by a floorlayer that pays more attention to their work

 

Thanks for the comments so far , all much appreciated and useful insight / feedback

Obviously didn’t watch the chap, rather wanted to let professionals get on with trade. I’m not clear where the troweling comes into it as don’t know the full e2e best practice. Is that laying on the screed or the adhesive with the trowel ?

It got buffed (very quickly) post screed job and and on the morning of the glue down/days work for the plank installation.

Is there any likely defence or is this just plain shoddy profiteering work?

the contractor (hasn’t been back yet) is pointing to poor levelling before hand via email (fortunately a totally different area) but we actually rectified all the areas they pointed out at their request , before they would start and then they screeded twice

worth pointing out there was heavy margin at least 100% mark-up on all products used, for both coats , even after we were initially advised at quote 99.9 % we would not need to dpm all 3 floors (and then subsequently pay for another coat of screed on all 3 )

Is this a full rework or refund ? Can discrete areas be rectified piecemeal or should it all come up?