Flooring issues with 3yr old property
We purchased our new build home in Nov 22 in Rotherham, England and paid for the ground floor to have LVT flooring installed through the majority of the floor. Just after 2 years of ownership (10 days after the 2-year warranty period to be exact!) we noticed that gaps had started to appear in a number of the edge joints. We notified the builder, a national company, and they replied…
“Gapping to laminates, ceramic tiles or LVT products is quite common and is normally as a result of thermal movement of the product and or concrete floor underneath.”
They then pointed me in the direction of a product that fills the gaps. I thought at the time that this wasn’t a fix I wanted and resigned myself to the fact that the flooring would have these gaps.
As time has passed, the gaps have now gotten worse and more widespread with gaps ranging from a couple of mm to lass than a mm in approximately 30% of the joints. Furthermore, the flooring has started to lift in sporadic locations around the edges of some rooms. Due to this, I contacted the builder again explaining that the issue had gotten worse and that this was a latent defect as it had not presented itself during the warranty period. It has taken them over two weeks to reply and they are again saying that this is not an install or product issue but that have offered to send a contractor round as a ‘good will gesture’ to fill the gaps and stick down the planks that have started to lift.
Does anyone have any experience of this type of issue and could anyone offer some advice on the below please?
• Is this normal? Should I not be worried with these gaps?
• Will accepting the builders offer of the ‘filling’ fix affect me should I want to take this further?
• Is it worth me obtaining an independent inspection and taking this further should the inspection find that the issue is down to install/product issues?