Floor Begone

I am sure I have never addressed this before now...which is odd because it's been a thorn in my side for the last year. This post is sure to border on a rant, so please bear with me.

Our home is 2300 sq ft. 2300 sq ft of finished living space. 2300 sq ft of flooring…every square inch of which must be ripped out and replaced! Night. Mare.

We made our flooring selections early on in the construction process but, when our builder came to us with a new product,we instantly fell in love. Our flooring budget was promptly *doubled* and we decided to go with Arteca for all of the hard flooring in the house; a vinyl product that met all of our desires for environmental responsibility, durability, and looks. While we were at it, we upgraded the carpet to a soft backed wool/poly blend.

**Boring Technicalities Ahead** Just so you understand how Arteca works, I need to explain its installation. Arteca comes in planks or tiles (depending on the flooring finish you select). Our wood-look floors came in 6” x 48” planks, while our kitchen and bath flooring came in 12” x 12” tiles. Over the OSB subfloor, installers lay a 48” x 48” ¾” thick plywood subfloor that is stapled every 2” around each edge. The seams are then patched with a flexible concrete patch and sanded to a smooth finish. The Arteca is glued down on top. The stuff, I was told, was nearly indestructible.

About a month after we moved in we started to notice marks on the floor. At first we thought they were just shadows, but we quickly realized that what we seeing were the lines of the subfloor. Then we started to notice what looked like nail pops. Within a few months, we could literally trace the lines of the subfloor as they started to leave imprints on the underside of the flooring.

I wish I could take photos that actually showed the damage to the Arteca...but, darn it, it's super hard to photograph!

Right about this same time, I was upstairs and tripped while walking into my bonus room. “Man, am I a klutz”, I thought. Until I tripped again the next day, in the exact same spot. Down on all fours I went, and realized that the carpet had a small bubble in it that had risen just enough for me to trip on it. Within a few weeks, the carpet had stretched so much that it was bubbling up at all the edges of furniture and walls! Seriously, my upstairs flooring looked like it was friggin’ mountain ranges and became a total hazard! I guarantee that you have never seen anything like it.

Here it is snaking its way around a closet organizer

The door between the closet and master bedroom

Even on the stairs! That's safe...not!

 

The master bedroom closet. It's even bubbling up around the floor register.

The bonus room. It's hard to see in this photo but there are actually three large ridges that run through this space, in addition to the bubbling around the edges of the room.

We called the flooring company who sent a couple of long time installers to check it out. They were so concerned when they saw what was happening that they called the owners and waited for them to arrive to look for themselves. To the credit of the flooring company, they took immediate action. Attempting twice to re-stretch the carpet only to have it stretch again, took samples of the Arteca and the carpet to be sent away for testing, and did extensive testing of all of the flooring trusses and even took air samples!

Well, 5 long months later, I am told that results of the carpet testing was that there was a defect in the soft backing that allowed it to stretch so dramatically. The manufacturer has agreed to pay for new carpet, and all labour to remove and replace it. They start this week, and it should take 4 days. Which means that Mr. Mel and I spent the entire weekend moving furniture and removing closet organizers. Yuck! I know I could have had the flooring company do this but, in the spirit of co-operation,. I volunteered to take care of it for them. Big mistake. T.V.s in the laundry room...clothes in the dining room...*everything* else in the living room and kitchen...someone please put me outta my misery!

 

 

Now comes a decision regarding the main floor and bathrooms. The flooring company no longer sells Arteca (for a variety of reasons that I won’t bore you with here). If we want them to, they have agreed to replace the flooring with more Arteca and a new subfloor. But, being that I believe the issues with the flooring were a result of mistakes during installation of the original subfloor, I am not keen on this idea. Plus, it would mean ripping up all of the flooring and subfloor and replacing it…a two week job! In the end, this product wasn’t what it was touted to be so I am happy to see it go.

Another option is to remove all of the flooring and start new, with hardwood (we are leaning towards bamboo). The main problem with this is that, even with removal of the existing floor, it would raise the floor about ¼” which will mean that all of the casings and doors will have to be removed and cut down, and the baseboards will have to be reinstalled higher on the wall.

The third, and most attractive option, is to lay new flooring directly over the Arteca. We’re leaning towards Armstrong Luxe. It’s a vinyl product, guaranteed not to show indentations from the underside (praise jeebus), is fully recyclable, has limited off-gassing, doesn’t use any glue, and is only 1/8” thick. It doesn’t have the same temperature regulating properties as the Arteca but that’s ok because the Arteca would still be underneath and would help to insulate the floor from temperature variations (something I will give kudos to Arteca for doing quite well). This is the finish we’re leaning towards:

This whole thing has been an absolute disaster. I cannot wait til it's all over!