Insurance claim - need to establish fitting costs of laminate flooring

CaptainCook

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Hi All,

A big stab in the dark, but I'm looking for a fitter of laminate to help me establish approximate costs of ripping up, then laying a new laminate flooring.

We've had a leak from one of the radiator valves in the hallway and it's blown the laminate. The insurance assessor has been around, agreed the claim but I have the following "issues":

1. I have no joins in the doorways. It's continuous throughout the entire ground floor.
2. Approximate size of the hall is 20sqm but it's a very irregular shape.
3. The skirtings etc have been fitted after the flooring was laid.
4. The joins in the laminate by the doorways don't fall "under" the door.

The accessor has been really good but the solution she offered was a bit of a hackjob as they said they would cut the laminate next to the skirtings, then re-lay with trim etc around the room. It would also require cuts to be made at each door in the hallway and a join inserted.

I understand their requirements to minimise their liability, but I wasn't happy with their suggested repair.

So, she has agreed to pay in cash the materials plus reasonable fitting costs, so I can repair to a standard that I am happy with.

Trouble is...what is reasonable? I can find costs on the net, but they tend to exclude hallways as I guess they are particularily difficult.

Please help!!! I need approximate costs to remove (including removing CAREFULLY the skirtings etc) then fitting costs bearing in mind the challenges with the door joins.

Many thanks

CaptainCook
 
Hi Captain,

Firstly if you haven't used Threshold bars at your doorways stick to your guns about the whole floor getting replaced, otherwise you will have to make sure you get supplied with the same make and decor of floor.

We charge between £10 and £15 m2 for fitting with removal and refitting of skirting in addition to this.

Adrenochrome.
 
Hi, Captain,

I'm not a floor fitter, but an ex-claims inspector (don't hate me), and will gladly offer advice.

1st off, with regards the floor running throughout the g/f of the house, I'm afraid you'll probably have to accept having only the damaged area replaced, although to be fair, by the sounds of it you have already. There's usually a 'matching items clause' in household insurance policies that state they will only pay for the damaged area. However, if you want to argue the toss, you could mention the Ombudsmans decision on matching items, that suggest insurance co's make a 50% contribution towards the undamaged area. This decision was actually made in relation to 3 piece suites (and as you can probably appreciate, a lot of insurers don't necessarily follow it), however, it can be used as a bargaining tool.

Sounds like your claims inspector is pretty open to negotiaions though, so it may be best to just follow what she's told you to do so far. No point in rocking the boat if things are going o.k at the moment.

The other thing i would say is, and Adrenochrome may agree, it is almost impossible to remove skirting without damaging the decorations to some extent. If you find a really good decorator, and have painted walls, you may be able to patch it up, but otherwise, if you're looking to have the flooring refitted as it is, you may be up for a large redec after. Sounds like a big hallway, and don't forget the stairs and landings too if your decor runs throughout, as well, as the painting of the skirtings themselves.
 
Adrenochrome / Lazymatt

Thank you both for your prompt responses.

It's the associated damage with tearing off the skirting that worries me the most. I've gripfilled them on, so you can bet your bottom dollar that the skimming is going to come away from the wall.

The assessor is being good, and I don't want to rock the boat, but conversely I need to extract as much as possible to subsidise the repairs. Sounds boring but all the downstairs rooms with the exception of our lounge have been painted the same. Thankfully, they still stock the colour!!

The matching items clause is one for the back pocket and very useful. Thank you.

Adrenochrome - What tools / how do you cut the flooring mid plank to introduce a threshold?

CaptainCook
 
Captain,

Accept a join at the threshold, please. Otherwise insurance will go through the roof :)
 
Hi Captain,

I would insist on getting the whole floor replaced as it is one floor.i.e not seperated into 3 or 4 different areas. I'm quite sure the insurance company wouldn't replace the middle seat of a 3 seater sofa if that was damaged;)

If you do accept to only have the hall floor replaced then you could use a circular saw to trim the boards at the doorways thus allowing you to install threshold bars, although i fear your biggest problem is going to be removing the gripfilled skirtings without causing too much damage.

P.S. the price quoted would not including lifting and disposing of the old flooring so expect to pay extra for this as well.

Adrenochrome.
 
If the damage is caused to the walls in the course of removing the skirtings to replace the floor, then it's covered by the policy. Just submit your quotes for all the works required to the insurance co (bet they'll want 2 quotes though). Ultimately you shouldn't be left to pay for any thing that is legitimately required as a direct result of having to replace the floor.
 
Regmarch - Second claim in 15 years so I think they are still up on the deal. ;)

Adrenochrome - I fear the worse too!! It's gonna get messy and that leads me onto my last point:

Lazymatt - She has specifically told me that any damage occurred whilst removing the skirtings is not covered. Hence why they wanted to trim the boards all the way around the hallway and refit using trim. How the hell they were going to do this without damaging the skirting anyway I don't know.

It's all smiles at the moment, but it's a tough call whether I push her further, only for her to dig her heels in.

CaptainCook
 
Tell her to Burger off Captain:mad:

You paid the extra money to get the flooring fitted properly i.e under the skirting and flowing all the way through the bottom floor so tell her you will accept nothing less than you have just now. Bluddy chancer:mad:
 
Tell her to Burger off Captain:mad:

You paid the extra money to get the flooring fitted properly i.e under the skirting and flowing all the way through the bottom floor so tell her you will accept nothing less than you have just now. Bluddy chancer:mad:

Damn tempting and secretly I'm livid, but I'm going to appeal to her better nature at this stage. If it turns sour, then she'll have both barrels.

Oh..... and Happy Birthday to you!! :)
 
Captain,

Unless there's some sort of clause or warrenty in the policy (which I can't imagine there is) any damage caused should be covered. Don't accept the consequential loss argument.

If they feel they are able to remove the skirting without damage to the walls then fine - let them get their own contractor in to do the works. When he damages the walls then they'll have to repair it.

Adrenochrome is right - you had the flooring fitted in a professional way, and the policy is designed to reistate you to the same positon you were before the loss.

The proximate cause of all the damage is the Escape of Water, for which you are covered under your policy.
 
Ideal time to get a nice carpet...laminate is so 5 years ago...
 
Ideal time to get a nice carpet...laminate is so 5 years ago...

Agreed!! You know it's passe when Jim from the "Royle Family" is laying it in their front room. Classic comedy though.

Trouble is, with three kids under seven it's the only practical and cost effective solution. Our intention was to replace it with real wood when the kids got a tad older. Just looks like I'll have to go through another round of laminate beforehand.

Sent a "quotation" to the assessor, in which I was going to be sensible with the figures, but ending up adding on 10% as a buffer in the knowledge that she wouldn't be doing her job if she didn't try to knock me down a bit.

Let's see what happens.

Thanks to those who have helped me so far.

CaptainCook
 
UPDATE:

The nice lady from the claims department has authorised the claim. :thumbsup:

After accounting for the excess etc it's given me a budget of around £10-£15 a square metre to redo the ground floor. I will need about 65m2 in total

I know I've bothered you guys a fair bit already, but with the plethora of laminate available, it would be good to get some feedback from those of you in the game to help me sort the wheat from the chaff.

Laminate need to be:

7mm (preferable single or twin plank)
Fade resistant as it's going into a conservatory as well.
Strong enough to cope with the traffic in a hallway.

Can you make any recommendations (Uniclic, clickstep?, etc) please? And are there any good on-line suppliers?

Thanks

Lee.
 

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