Cover Works

Seven years previous I had to rip out two layers of vinyl flooring and the particle board substrate in the kitchen and laundry rooms of my home due to infusion with mold, leaving me down to the tongue and groove subfloor, which I cleaned, colored and waxed to seal. I stuffed every blessed groove between the boards with sisal (glued in with wood glue), waxed those in also, and eventually used nearly a pound of deck screws to tighten the boards to the floor joists removing all squeaks. Last spring I began to replace the floor. Theresa at Cover Works troubleshot the project for me, helping me select a flooring which was green, no VOC's, would withstand kitty hijinks, be easy to clean, and look great. She was wonderfully patient. I lined up another contractor to install the vapor barrier and A/C fir plywood substrate, as he was to also cut and fit the base but not install it, so I could primer and paint it before the floating flooring was installed, then follow along and install it against the walls. This turned out to be a bad choice as that contractor did a terrible job with the substrate and didn't do the base at all. Cover Works were very good to tell me how the substrate would need to be fixed before the flooring could be installed: considerable work on my part and theirs. This necessitated a change of contract form for scheduling and increased costs. They were extremely busy that time of year, but pulled rabbits out of hats to make this all work. Kyle, their installer, did a fantastic job of bringing a disastrous substrate job up to the point we could make it work with the vinyl tile flooring I'd chosen if we also installed an underlayment pad beneath, which they'd said would be necessary to help since floating the floor with the concrete mix to smooth out the terrible substrate -- the bad contractor used C/D full of blows, checks, knots and cracks -- was impossible to completely smooth. Kyle installed the tiles perfectly. I've seen this type of installation suggested as DIY: ha. He used pry bars and mallets to fit every seam absolutely tightly. Every seam is perfect. They are actually more water tight than tiles set in adhesive would be. The floor is now smooth, quiet, solid and beautiful. If anyone is interested, the flooring is Moduleo vinyl tile with a 30 year warranty. It comes in a wide variety of styles. I could not be more pleased. Everyone was patient, kind, professional -- and after final payment they sent me a thank-you note!