Yerrell Flooring Ltd

In April 2007 Yerrell Flooring installed a 'Karndean' floor to the entire ground floor area of my open plan house. After removing the old flooring back to the original floorboards they stapled 4'x2' lengths of 6mm plywood all over the floor,smoothed the joints,screeded the entire floor with latex and then laid the karndean tiles.The job took 4 days. Some weeks later we noticed there were a lot of ridges, dips & high spots all over the entire area. Over the next few months they became more noticeable. Matthew Yerrell came to my house to inspect the floor which by now was looking a complete mess.He blamed house movement, dampness, loose floorboards and/or moving joists as reasons for the poor flooring. He insisted that his companies work was faultless.I pointed out that to me and other people who had examined the floor the obvious cause was the poor preparation and fixing of the plywood sub-floor. I asked him to explain why we had 5 distinct ridges that were all 4 feet apart which coincided exactly with the joints of the 4ft lengths of plywood that were used as a sub-floor.He blamed the wet summer as the cause and suggested I get a surveyor to examine my house for movement. As I was getting nowhere with Yerrel's I contacted Karndean Ltd, the makers of the tiles who advised me to contact The Contract Flooring Association stating that most reputable flooring companies were members of this association. I did this and found that Yerrell Flooring was not a member. I contacted an approved independant flooring expert, he attended my house and did a detailed, thorough examination of the floor.He stated that there was absolutely no dampness or house movement & that the sole cause of the mess was the lack of attention in laying the plywood sub-floor and failing to ensure that the surface was level, he also stated that the many bumps that were now visible all over the floor were caused by the fixing staples rising up. He stated that the floor had been fitted incompentantly & needed taking up and replaced in its entirety. After months of letters passing to and fro with Yerrell's they advised us they would attend my house on the 28th August 2008 to remedy the defects. Matthew Yerrell with 2 of his employees turned up on that day, stripped all of the tiling from the kitchen floor and a large amount from the living area floor. He took photographs of the flooring and still insisted that his work was not at fault and they could do nothing as the cause was either failed fixings of the floorboards, failed joists, dampness or house movement. He insisted that the work that his company had done was of the highest order and executed to the relevant British standard and even stated that a qualified surveyor or engineer lift the flooring back to the joists and even examine the air-bricks to the house to find the cause of the 'movement'. He then walked out leaving my house in a complete mess with all furniture and white goods stored in the front room and all over the house, it was obvious that he had no intention of fitting a new floor but had come solely to get evidence that would support his silly claims and discredit the report of the flooring expert. We again called in this expert who once again examined the floor and did more extensive tests for dampness and house movement, he categorically stated that the only movement in the floor was in the plywood which had been fixed in many places with far too few staples, he found another area which had been secured with 27 screws in order to try to flatten out a ridge. All over the floor were many raised staples which had caused the bumps in the finish. He was astonished at the terrible state that Yerrell Flooring had left my house in and recommended another company who were far more experienced and would do a far more competent job than them. I now have had the entire floor stripped out and replaced by another Karndean floor.I used a company in Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire. When their fitter first saw the floor that Yerrell Flooring had installed he was amazed at their shoddy workmanship. He finished laying my new floor a week ago and we are delighted with the result, it's so much better than the original floor. After being threatened with legal action Yerrell Flooring gave me a full refund of my original purchase price (over £5,000) + part of the costs of my flooring expert. My wife & I are both pensioners, Yerrell Flooring & in particular Matthew Yerrell have treated us in an appalling manner, they have caused us a lot of unnecessary stress, expense, inconvenience and frustration. I personally would advise anyone thinking of employing them to shop around as there are far better flooring companies in the area than Yerrell's.

10

Larry G.