Vinyl Flooring in Basement?

We had water in our basement this winter and took some steps to resolve the problem. It's been relatively dry since then, so we'll see if it all worked or not tomorrow when we are supposed to have really heavy rain.

At any rate, we had indoor-outdoor carpet down there previously, but had it removed after it got soaked during some leakage last winter. After doing a lot of work on the basement, we wanted to cover the floor again. So we went to a flooing company in our area and told them about our previous problems, explained that we weren't 100% sure they were resolved and asked if there is anything we could put down that would not grow mold. We were told vinyl flooing was the way to go, and they would install it so we could roll it up and let things air out if needed.

So after the heavy rain the other day, I pulled up one corner of the floor where water used to come in to see how things were--the floor was dry, but guees what is on the bottom of the flooring? Mold!!! We pull up more and wow, mold, mold, mold, throughout the basement, even in areas that were dry before. Since there hasn't been water on the floor I'm guessing it's moisture getting trapped underneath? At any rate, we call the place twice to complain, and they explained the mold is probably growing on the cement and we should have treated the floor with some anti-microbial product before laying the floor. Uhm, why are they telling us this now? Totally would have done it, but it was never suggested. They claim they cannot help our water issues and basically wash their hands of the mess. But they sold us this flooring claiming mold would not grow on it, but now we have mold flourishing in spots that were dry before.

So here's my question--is there anythign we can do other than tell everyone we know to avoid this company? We need to get someone in to clean the mold off the concrete now and remove the new (less than 1 year old) flooring). There is way too much to clean up. Has anyone gone to small claims and is this something that's even worth pursuing?

I guess I want a reality check here--obviously this flooring was not a good choice and I feel we were ripped off.

Re: Vinyl Flooring in Basement?

You can go to small claims but I would DEF contact and file a report with the BBB first..

Re: Vinyl Flooring in Basement?

Posted by bicosi

You can go to small claims but I would DEF contact and file a report with the BBB first..

Re: Vinyl Flooring in Basement?

Did they lay the vinyl right on the cement or put some kind of moisture barrier down first?

Re: Vinyl Flooring in Basement?

Right on the cement, and now they tell us we should have put down something to prevent mold, but nothing was said about this at the get go.

Maybe we should have known this ourselves, but this is the first time we ever bought flooring, and never for a basement (we've both been in apts. for years). So I do think the store bears some responsibility here.