BURLINGTON — Terry-Lynn Parker and her husband had planned a move to their new condominium last year with care: including a renovation that would see the installation of $8,000 in new hardwood flooring. But a within days of the installation, she says it was clear something was wrong.
“In the beginning they tried to say it was humidity,” said Parker, pointing to large gaps between the bamboo strip hardwood installed throughout the couple’s seventh-floor condominium unit. Walking through the apartment, floorboards squeak and buckle under foot.
“It’s horrible, extremely horrible,” says a dejected Parker, who bought the flooring and installation services from Lumber Liquidators, a Virginia-based flooring company with more than 300 locations throughout North America.
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After initially denying liability, Parker says a contractor working with Lumber Liquidators eventually admitted the original installers had done their job improperly.
Global News has heard from consumers with similar complaints about Lumber Liquidators-arranged hardwood installations in Oakville and Windsor, Ontario.
But almost a year after first complaining about poor workmanship and buckling floors, Parker says Lumber Liquidators has still not removed and replaced the wood. Parker says anxiety over the issue is a risk to her health.
“I have Lupus and Crohn’s disease, I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic and stress is the worst thing for my disease…it’s just too much,” she said, wiping away tears as she explained the ordeal.
Lumber Liquidators is the focus of a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission fraud investigation after CBS News, 60 Minutes and Global News’ 16×9 reported extensively on allegations about toxic chemicals added to certain laminate flooring and questionable sourcing of wood materials in Russia and China. The commission has not issued any findings yet, although the company’s share price has fallen about 80 per cent since January.
Reached by Global News, a media representative for Lumber Liquidators said the company will make good on repairs to Parker’s botched installation.
“Lumber Liquidators is taking responsibility for the issue by removing the installed flooring and installing a new floor with a trusted contractor,” said the written statement.
But Parker has heard commitments like that before: in June, she says a contractor for the company promised the floors would be re-done. Even if Lumber Liquidators follows through, she says it will come at a cost: she and her husband will likely have to pay to have their furniture moved out of the apartment, as well as pay to stay somewhere while the work is being done.
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