We recently had some flood damage to our house and had to have quite a bit of work done including replacing our kitchen/dining room floor. We used one of the companies that the insurance company advised and after discussing our needs with the project manager who was managing the works, (we wanted a darker style wooden floor), he advised us to go with a coloured wax over a varnish as we have cats and he said that it would last longer. The flooring company who came out to put down the finish on the new pine floors used a product called Rubio Monocoat. It was a coloured wax I believe. However after only two months the wax floor finish started peeling away from the wood and after 4 months there are now large areas of bare wood visible where the wax has just peeled off. A rep from the Rubio Monocoat company came out to view the problem along with the flooring company. They said that they had never seen the product do this before and that they would take a sample of the flooring that was put down away and test it to see what the issue was. We never heard anything back for about another 4 weeks. Fast forward and now the manufacturer of the product say that they could find nothing wrong with the product while both the flooring company and the project manager are saying that the peeling has been caused by me walking on the floor while wearing soft soled slippers. Can this be the case? Is it reasonable to expect a customer not to walk on their wooden kitchen floor wearing nothing but socks? For me that is a slip hazard not to mention for any elderly customers that they may have and to be clear I do NOT wear anything with heels on it. My slippers are all soft soled. I feel like I am going mad and I'm concerned that as all three are saying this is my fault for not treating the product properly, that it is now going to be difficult to get them to do much about it. Any help and advice much appreciated.
I am going to assume they used the Monocoat hardwax oil which I believe, and I could be wrong, needs to penetrate/key to the wood surface which I don't believe it will be able to do through a varnish finish. I would find out exactly which product they used and do some research yourself about the product and what Rubio say can, and can't be done with it. Then you could/should contact Rubio directly where you can ask some penetrating questions of them. Is it their expectation that you will be unable to walk in slippers on a wood floor finished in their cured hard wax oil without it rubbing it off in such a short space of time. I suspect they will say that it isn't reasonable as it would invalidate their product and prove it not to be fit for purpose: Roeselaarsestraat 535, 8870 Izegem, Belgium Phone: +32 51 30 80 54 You say, "The manufacturer of the product say that they could find nothing wrong with the product." This may well be true, but if this is true then the product is either not fit for purpose or the perfectly good product was inappropriately used over a sealed varnish covering. You say, "While both the flooring company and the project manager are saying that the peeling has been caused by me walking on the floor while wearing soft soled slippers." This is probably true. Your walking on it in slippers did cause it to rub off, but it shouldn't have. To suggest that you can't wear soft soled indoor slippers is unreasonable and they need to provide you an "indoor floor" with a surface fit for "indoor footwear" In short, I suggest that these representatives may not be being entirely candid and are hoping you will swallow what in my opinion is an unreasonable and incomplete explanation about why and what has happened to your floor, and that you will go away? DON'T. Remember, being a representative of a business does not make them experts by default. It means they work for the the company and they will want to protect their products/business. That they do generally get by default! As for being an expert, a friend of mine once said to me "if I'm one page further through the book than them, then I'm the expert" What to do? Well I would ask for it to be redone, properly this time using appropriate products in the way they were intended to be used, or take them to court. I would imagine that a judge would view the inability to walk over the floor in slippers without rubbing off the cured Hardwax Oil finish as unreasonable and that alone should win you the case without any further expert opinion. The floor is clearly not fit for purpose. I.E. walking on! I would call the Rubio Monocoat Head Office first and present the facts and your reasoning to them, follow up with an email and an expected time for them to respond. I can't believe they would want to go to court, let alone to lose a case like this as the reputational damage could be significant, especially if it were to hit the trade press. Please bear in mind that I am not an expert or a lawyer, and I am not giving you, or anyone else, technical or legal advice, just an opinion on what could be. PS: Rubio Monocoat produce very good products, and they perform very well when used correctly. I have a French Oak floor in my bedroom finished with their Vanilla Hard Wax Oil directly onto the "raw oak", and it still looks as good today as it did on the day it was done over 14 years ago. This, despite my wife and me walking on it in soft slippers, bare feet and other regular outdoor shoes on a daily basis. I would happily endorse their products. I'm sure that his can be amicably be resolved. Good luck
Did you mean using hardwax oil instead of varnish? Also might be worth asking what grit of sandpaper they finished with and what grit rubio recommend,too fine could possibly close the grain too much and not allow the finish to penetrate, i could be wrong, but worth asking the question
