For the flooring of my house, I opted to go with MNP Flooring – I had been talking to a different firm earlier in the year about doing engineered wood, and when I reached out to Alex N. at that company, he said they didn’t do laminate or carpet, but that he could arrange that for me.
They were contracted to install Canadia Turin Oak laminate in 5 rooms, supply and fit. I supplied skirting and architrave, pre-finished Agnew product, for them to fit.
These photos don’t show everything, because it’s hard to show the squeak of a board where it’s been cut too long and is butting against the wood riser of a landing, or the flex of a floor (that has a flat oriented strand board under the underlay), or the proud join of two ends of laminate, when all the ones around it are flush.
As you’ll see in the photos, the floor looks pretty good from a high level; it’s only when you get down and look hard at it that you can see the proud joins, the glue residue from the mitre joins being sprayed over brand new laminate etc.
The contractor offered to fix the issues, but there’s no way I could trust them to do a good job on the remediation, given they couldn’t do a good job on the original works.
Skirting not even pinned, not returned either 
Left-hand board done with 45/45 mitre, not scribed to wall. Poorly done butt join at the end 
Another butt join, and a proud outside corner 
Tearout in the finished, primed wood 
The kitchen wall skirting. Apparently an issue with the pin nailer, so not completed. 
Another 45/45 mitre on a non-90 corner 
A spill on the floor, with dust dried in to it 
Underlay not even run the whole way, and a different underlay (thickness) from the right side of the porch 
Jigsaw to cut the board? T-bar can hide this, but it’s an aspect of the attention to detail and quality 
The porch boards do not line up with the run of the living room boards 
The living room boards are cut unevenly, and butt hard against the riser for the landing 
Another measure/cut to the jig, not to the wall
PASSAGEWAY
- Not even done
PORCH
- Gaps at the door
- Flex at the door
- Uneven cuts at riser
- Change in underlay causing ramping/sloping
- Unsupported cutout around pipes
- Lack of cleaning of surface by pillar, will cause board to be proud
LIVING ROOM
- Skirting cut down to fit under radiator, not routed as discussed. Poorly cut down at that.
- Mess on flooring – liquid and sawdust
- Glue spot by gas pipe
- Rubbing at lower landing boundary
- Skirting runout by under-stairs storage (1.5 inches off of the wall by end of runout)
- Rough cut mitre joins with tearout
- Multiple 45/45 mitres when walls are not 90
- Several soft sections, more than would be explained by underlay
- Radiator hole cuts that don’t hold down
- Proud click-fit joins
KITCHEN
- Pinning of architrave – shaking/rocking. A bit actually fell off, pinned perfectly in the gap between the frame and the wall.
- Gap at window end
- Butt join with plenty of pins in the middle of the run, pins/nails proud of surface.
- Foil coming through under skirting and showing in living space
BED 3
- Laminate to tile join; no bar installed. Debate about whether that was in the work spec, but not informed that it would need sorting
- No undercut on door frame, laminate laid up to, not under frame
BED 2
- Architrave not firm to wall; gaps big enough for screwdriver
- Skirting at entrance not fixed in
- Curved cut in board at door; T-bars hide a multitude of sins, but come on
- Architrave on inside protrudes into path of door
BED 1
- Left fitted wardrobe, piece not clicked. Whole board proud and resting against wardrobe hard; scribe line in wrong place.
- Flex near flue that looks like tenting, no similar flex anywhere else in that room
- Not vacuumed / cleaned up despite being classed as “done”
OVERALL
- Dust not vacuumed, just in piles
- Nails/screws loose on floor
- Inconsistent use of butt vs mitre joins in corners
- Some skirting measured too long, kerf on wrong side, so poor fit at corners.
- Glue sprayed over new laminate when doing mitre joins