Jun 23, 2008 4:29 pm US/Pacific
Call Kurtis: Faulty Floors
ANTELOPE (CBS13) ―
"It took us five years to complete the kitchen," says Barbara Swankie, Antelope resident.
Barbara and Joe Swankie have lived in their Antelope home for 27 years. They plan on living in this house for the rest of their lives.
They installed new windows, redesigned their kitchen and put in custom cabinets and porcelain floors.
Barbara tells us "we wanted a beautiful look; we strived very hard to make this home pretty."
Last September, they paid almost $12,000 to have Brazilian cherry wood floors installed in their family and living rooms. Just ten says later,
"I was watching TV and I looked down at the floor and went, oh my God, that cant be a crack," says Barbara.
They claim they saw more cracks everyday.
"Here's where the cracks are right here, there's one, two and three," says Joe Swankie.
The Swankies called their contractor, Joe Walker.
On November 1st, he came out and looked at the floors and said he would look into the matter. In late December, Joe came back out with an employee of Floor Supply Company, his distributor.
"He said he was surprised this floor was so beautiful, yet falling apart," says Barbara.
Barbara says they agreed it was a bad batch of wood and they would contact the manufacturer Stable Floor.
Months passed and still no word.
On April 17th, the distributor tells the Swankies they can't get an old of the manufacturer. We found out they went out of business more than a year ago.
"I was so upset I cannot tell you," says Barbara.
The distributor also revealed something about that Brazilian cherry wood.
Barbara was told "Well it was made in China, what do you expect."
Barbara contacted me. We talked to both the contractor and the distributor. They both insisted it was a manufacturing problem. But the Swankies later had an independent contractor check out their floors. He found the wood was installed before it was "acclimatized" and the contractor did not leave enough "expansion space."
The contractor offered to install new flooring for free and the distributor would sell it "at cost" but the Swankies would still have to pay for it.
Barbara said "No deal."
"You should listen to your inner voice and I did not listen to my inner voice," says Barbara.
Barbara has since made a claim against the contractor's insurance company, hoping to recover some of the $12,000 she paid.
We spoke to her a few days ago and the insurance company plans to make a preliminary offer this week. If you find yourself in a similar situation, you can file a claim with the contractor's state license board.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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