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OT - Recommendations for a lawyer for home insurance claim
The situation....
A friend in the GTA had a flood in their high-end condo in downtown Toronto. The insurance company had a restoration company manage the work. The friend was out of the condo for a couple weeks when the work was completed. They returned to see the new floor, which appears to have dark, cloudy stains all over it underneath the finish.
The restoration company, flooring company, and the Insurance rep are all maintaining that the cloudy dark marks on the maple flooring are by design. The marks were not apparent on the small sample that was viewed. The friend is completely dissatisfied with the flooring, and wants it all replaced with new flooring of their choice.
The insurance rep wants to meet at the apartment with the restoration company and the flooring rep to examine the work. Due to the overall negative responses from all three reps so far, my friend would like to have a lawyer involved in any future meetings and communications.
Any recommendations for a Lawyer in the GTA that specializes in this type of thing? Any other advice?
Not a laywer - but sadly, maple does have the streaking and colour variation between various planks. The cloudiness doesn't look right - but you could probably replace a few planks. In my house, we chose brazilian cherry flooring and most of the boards are consistent - but the wood varies. Some boards were really dark, which wasn't to my taste - but it was easy to swap.
The dark grey blotches are throughout the entire batch of flooring, so replacing a few boards will unfortunately not resolve the issue.
That being said, I found a company online that seems to deal with this type of situations (Sobel Adjustings,) so I'm going to have a consultation booked with them.
Maple doesn't take a stain well. Birch would have been a better choice. That floor isn't defective. It is a lower grade of maple though thats showing lots of mineral content. You can get clear white maple flooring but it would be very blond and just a clear finish on it.
As a woodworker by trade - and given the caveat that it is hard to give an accurate opinion via photo...
It is true that maple is prone to blotching. Has to do with grain structure and absorbency. One of the hardest woods to get a consistent color on.
The grey-ish blotches on these pieces indicate water-staining. Normally, when maple is stained (and this has nothing to do with the "grade" of maple - grade has to do with the prevalence of knots or figure), areas that blotch take on more of the applied stain than other areas. More of the stain color, in other words. Unless that stain was grey (which it was not in this case), the blotches won't be grey; the blotches will be areas of concentrated stain color. Grey on maple indicates it was in contact with water - specifically the impurities in water (could be minerals, could be other things).
This looks like the maple was not stained, but simply top coated with a water-based product. (Hard to tell, but that water-based product may have been tinted with a slight amber color to emulate a traditional oil-based finish). The direct application of the water-based product - the water carrier, specifically - caused the grey blotching.
There's nothing inherently wrong with a water-based top coat; modern chemistry works wonders in delivering finish depth and longevity. But knowledge of the underlying substrate is important. Maple and water are a bad combination. A proper approach would be to seal the maple with a non-water-based product first (lacquer, oil, shellac, etc. Literally anything but water-based.) and then use a water-based top coat.
Your friend is right on n challenging the insurer. If his flooring was replaced, this was a poorly done product. If his flooring was simply refinished after the leak, the refinisher didn't do a good job. They either didn't sand out the original water damage before refinishing, or they failed to seal the flooring with an appropriate product after sanding and before top coating.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Lots of great info there.
Iguana, thanks for taking the time to provide the details in your post. My initial thought when I saw the floor, was that the Restoration company had taken a water damaged floor from another job they had worked on, sanded it down and refinished it (poorly.) So, its very interesting to hear your comments that the grey blotches are likely the result of a some interaction with water or a water based product being improperly applied.
The installers left a box with half a dozen pieces of flooring under a couch. I asked my friend to take pics of the rear of them to see if they all came from the same batch. They all had different numbers stamped on them.
The funny thing is that the wood on the backside of the boards looks way more consistent that the finished side. It is engineered flooring, btw.
As a woodworker by trade - and given the caveat that it is hard to give an accurate opinion via photo...
It is true that maple is prone to blotching. Has to do with grain structure and absorbency. One of the hardest woods to get a consistent color on.
The grey-ish blotches on these pieces indicate water-staining. Normally, when maple is stained (and this has nothing to do with the "grade" of maple - grade has to do with the prevalence of knots or figure), areas that blotch take on more of the applied stain than other areas. More of the stain color, in other words. Unless that stain was grey (which it was not in this case), the blotches won't be grey; the blotches will be areas of concentrated stain color. Grey on maple indicates it was in contact with water - specifically the impurities in water (could be minerals, could be other things).
This looks like the maple was not stained, but simply top coated with a water-based product. (Hard to tell, but that water-based product may have been tinted with a slight amber color to emulate a traditional oil-based finish). The direct application of the water-based product - the water carrier, specifically - caused the grey blotching.
There's nothing inherently wrong with a water-based top coat; modern chemistry works wonders in delivering finish depth and longevity. But knowledge of the underlying substrate is important. Maple and water are a bad combination. A proper approach would be to seal the maple with a non-water-based product first (lacquer, oil, shellac, etc. Literally anything but water-based.) and then use a water-based top coat.
Your friend is right on n challenging the insurer. If his flooring was replaced, this was a poorly done product. If his flooring was simply refinished after the leak, the refinisher didn't do a good job. They either didn't sand out the original water damage before refinishing, or they failed to seal the flooring with an appropriate product after sanding and before top coating.
wow . now that is an informed post, id have this guy at your discussions before any lawyer.
12-30-2022, 03:13 PM
OT - Recommendations for a lawyer for home insurance claim
