Page 4 - 2019-04-CFR Volume 127 - Im Not On the List - April 2019

may not know anything about the product you’re hav-
ing a problem with. This is certainly the case with lux-
ury vinyl plank and tile. Most of the people selling this
product know virtually nothing about it. And it doesn’t
always help to move up the food chain to get results
from the mill.

Having said this, it’s still best if you follow the manu-
facturer’s guidelines or the process will take longer.
As soon as you know you have a problem you must
immediately file the claim on line or by phone. This is
the manufacturers first date of reference. Wait 24
hours and call the claims department or your sales
representative to verify they received your claim. Al-
ways begin by putting the person there – pictures,
samples, documents and information. Unfortunately,
you must get through the weeds before you get to the
water – be tenacious. It is still true, “the squeaky
wheel gets the grease.” Be persistent, persuasive and
personable but firm. And make sure you have infor-
mation on every aspect of what the product is doing
on the floor. Your phone is invaluable in documenting
the history of the complaint in pictures as are all the
emails you have a trail of.

If you run into a problem on the jobsite you should im-
mediately contact the mill rep and document every-
thing. You can always use your phone to keep notes
and take pictures or video. Realizing that the mill can’t
do anything “right now” and sometimes you don’t have
a choice, you have to begin the installation. You must
get the sales representative involved and file your
concern on the manufacturer’s on line claims. You
may think you don’t want to file a claim yet but the on-
ly way to protect your decision to install is to file the
claim, the date matters. If possible, get someone on
the phone and if the analyst can’t give you advise
climb the food chain and speak with a supervisor.

Most manufacturers will say to inspect the product be-
fore installation. This is fairly easy with broadloom
carpet. But today, with modular carpet and modular
hard surface flooring, no one is going to open every
box to check the material. You can however take a
sampling of material randomly and inspect it or do a
small mock up of the product. In reality, the installa-
tion contractor should not be doing the inspection.
The manufacturer should do that before the product
ships to insure there are no visible or hidden/latent
defects in the material. The carpet industry had an
“Areas of Responsibility” years ago that stated what
everyone should do prior to installation. I helped write
some of that and we still have it but you won’t find it
anywhere today because no one wants you to know
about it.

4 Commercial Flooring Report April 2019