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Thank you for choosing America’s Floor Source

We strive to meet all of our customers’ expectations. In order to make sure we meet yours, here is a list of facts you need to know about your new flooring and its installation.

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Decorative & Polished Concrete

Important Stuff You Need To Know About Flooring

HVAC

It is important to maintain a consistent interior environment throughout the year. As a general rule, appropriate interior conditions include temperatures between 60° and 80° Fahrenheit and relative humidity between 30% and 50%. Use a humidifier throughout the winter or dry months and/or a dehumidifier in the summer or humid months to help keep floors from gaining or losing moisture. These same conditions should be maintained prior to, during, and after flooring installation.

Moisture & Humidity

The moisture and humidity levels of your home or building, if not controlled, can have an adverse impact on your flooring, underlayment, and subflooring. These factors can cause expansion and contraction, which can lead to your floor cupping, gapping, bubbling, and swelling. When cleaning floors, be careful with water use and always follow manufacturers’ cleaning and maintenance guidelines. Certain sources of moisture may not be detectable (i.e. a lack of or damage to the vapor barrier beneath a concrete slab) and may impact the performance of your flooring. If excessive moisture is detected prior to installation, AFS may recommend a moisture mitigation system. AFS is not responsible for performance issues related to unmitigated or unknown moisture issues.

Protecting Your Floor

Regularly vacuum and sweep to remove loose particles including dirt, dust, and debris. This will help prevent scratching and damage. Using floor protectors under furniture legs will also help to limit damage to new floors. Floor protectors should be replaced every three to six months. No flooring is scratch proof, so you should be sure to keep pets’ claws trimmed and in good repair. New installations may require that you not access or clean the floors for 24 to 48 hours while adhesives, grouts, and other setting materials cure. Please consult the manufacturer’s care and maintenance recommendations to properly maintain your floors and avoid violating any associated warranties. Warranties, both material and labor, will be voided due to improper maintenance.

Surface Temperature and Window Treatments

Hard surface floors can experience thermal expansion from high surface temperatures caused by direct sunlight. This heat and light can distort and damage your hard surface flooring. Controlling the surface temperature to remain within your manufacturer’s guidelines is a must. Window treatments to control direct sunlight are highly recommended.

Color Changes and Shading

Many of today’s materials display a light or dark shade variation, depending on the direction the flooring is laid in the room. Blinds and draperies also affect the amount of natural light that hits the materials in different areas, which will also cause shade variation. As with any material, slight color variations may also occur from dye lot to dye lot. Wood flooring color change is a natural occurrence and should be expected; some woods darken with age and some woods lighten with age. In general, wood flooring covered with rugs or furniture will be exposed to less direct light and may change color at a slower rate than areas exposed to more light. Our sales professionals have discussed this with you. However, if you have additional questions, please ask them now.

Online Product Depictions and Samples

Product manufacturers and AFS make every reasonable effort to accurately depict colors, textures, and details of products online and in samples. AFS provides no guarantee that a product’s depiction online (whether on AFS’ site or a manufacturer’s or distributer’s site) or on a sample board will match the Floor Coverings received or installed. Variances in color, texture, and other details may occur due to, but not limited to, number of pieces shown or displayed, device display or monitor settings, product photography, the age or exposure of a sample, lighting, etc. Floor Coverings that do not match an online product depiction or a sample are not considered to be defective or misleading.

Accessories, Trims & Moldings

These products are manufactured to coordinate with flooring materials. Exact matches are coincidental. Non-matching accessories, trims, and moldings are not considered defective products.

Pattern Matching

Due to the nature of the manufacturing process, most print and multi-tone floor coverings are impossible to match exactly. Many of these styles will require additional material to achieve the closet possible match.

Seams

In order to properly install your new floor coverings, cutting and seaming will probably be required and is common practice in the industry. The seams are not invisible. However, our installers take great pride in making these seams as inconspicuous as possible. There is no such thing as an invisible seam, and some floor covering types seam together better than others. In order to cover rooms wider and/or longer than the actual width and/or length of the floor covering you have selected, seams are necessary. America’s Floor Source reserves the right to seam floor coverings as we determine necessary for proper installation, unless otherwise specified on the sales order and agreed to in writing by both you and America’s Floor Source.

Clicking Noises

These noises are the result of movement among the joists, subfloor, and flooring. Sometimes, it is not possible to completely eliminate them.

Rolling Furniture & Wheelchairs

The use of rolling furniture (including rolling desk chairs), wheelchairs and other mobile objects on floating hardsurface floors is not recommended. If you plan on using this type of furniture or equipment on hardsurface floors, AFS recommends the installation include adhesive and/or fasteners to secure the Floor Coverings to the subfloor.

Padding & Underlayment

The amount of underlayment or padding to be used for your installation is determined by America’s Floor Source. We determine this by considering the measurements of the floor coverings you have selected. In some instances, the amount of padding or underlayment supplied may be less. We have taken this variation into full account when establishing our price.

Underlayment Lines & Telegraphing

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Manufacturer Backings & Variances

Manufacturers are permitted to change backings on their floor coverings, and America’s Floor Source cannot control such changes. In addition, manufacturers are permitted a 2% variance in carpet widths, since it is considered to be within acceptable mill tolerances.

Material Waste

Every installation has material waste, and this is normal in flooring installations. It is generally caused by irregular room shapes, stairs, pattern matches, and other variations present at the installation site or in the floor covering itself. By taking detailed measurements, we attempt to minimize the amount of material waste. However, material waste cannot be completely avoided, and refunds cannot be granted for such unused material. We recommend you keep extra materials for possible future repairs.

Unknown Floor Conditions

Sometimes, there are unforeseen problems with existing subfloors, especially if they are currently covered. As such, if we run into any unforeseen problems that require additional work in order to complete your installation, we will notify you. We’ll also notify you of any additional charges that may apply and/or any delays in installation that may result.

Under-Floor Wiring & Radiant Heat

You must notify the installer of all under-floor wiring and radiant heat floors in the installation area. Our installers will use caution to avoid damaging under-floor wiring (such as phones, speakers, alarm systems, and so on) and radiant heat floors, but America’s Floor Source is not responsible for damage to these items.

Doors, Fixtures, Moldings & Paint

We are not responsible for carpentry (including but not limited to the altering of doors, cabinets, or woodwork), plumbing, repairing subfloor coverings, or other labor of any nature, other than actually fitting and/or fastening the flooring you have purchased. Our installers will gladly remove hinged doors and replace them after installation. However, it may be necessary to have the bottom of your doors trimmed to accommodate possible changes in height. If this is the case, the installer will leave the doors off their hinges so that you can make arrangements to have them trimmed. Other fixtures such as commode flanges, plumbing connections, and similar may need to be adjusted due to the thickness or thinness of your new flooring. Upon request, AFS may recommend the proper professional to administer these services. Baseboard moldings, in most installations, can be left in place. Our installers will use reasonable care with the moldings but are not responsible for breakage and scratches that occur during normal installation or with moldings that have been removed and subsequently reinstalled. Scuffing of baseboards, wall paint, and wallpaper may occur during normal installation. Our installers will take reasonable precautions to prevent this, but scuffing may occur, and we are not responsible for any such scuffing. You are responsible for such repairs and touch-ups due to scuffing, as well as adjusting molding and/or baseboard height due to any increase or decrease in the floor’s height.