In the first part of Richard Renouf’s guide to flooring inspections, we look at how independent inspections reveal complex disputes, hidden causes and the fine line between complaint and genuine defect
WORKING as an independent flooring consultant can be interesting. On the one hand, you get to see some remarkable flooring projects and to investigate how and why a flooring failure has occurred.
On the other hand, it is inevitable that you’ll upset at least one of the parties involved when you identify the cause of the problems. Often they will take it on the chin, but it can result in some confrontations, and in some personal ‘feedback’ either directly or to third parties.
In my experience the issues are usually quite simple and would be within the knowledge of any reasonably competent flooring contractor. Often someone on site knows what the problem is, and third parties have been consulted but are only willing to exonerate their company’s products or workmanship and not to shed light on the actual cause or causes of the problems, usually because there is a conflict of interest – a manufacturer dare not sour the relationship with a flooring contractor as they might lose that contractor’s business.
Inspection work is not, however, just the realm of the few accredited consultants listed in the CFA Directory. Everyone reading this article – and everyone else, inspects things many times a day.
We examine a pen when we pick one up to ensure it’s the right way up for writing, we examine goods in a shop before we buy them, and as we work we are checking constantly. Anyone who works in flooring knows the curse of being able to spot flooring issues the moment they walk into a room.
Inspection skills can be used to identify issues and resolve them before they become a problem, to assess the quality of work as a project progresses, and to identify any issues that might be of concern to an end-user and which might affect your company’s reputation.
So, welcome to the first of a series of articles in which I will look at various aspects of flooring inspection work. We’ll look at the role of an independent inspector and consider why inspections are needed, the techniques used to discover what’s happened, and the thought processes that lead to identifying actual or potential issues and how they can be resolved.
It’s a journey that will take us many months, but the result will be a guide to flooring inspections that will, I hope, be a useful resource for all. Where possible I will record videos that can be accessed by QR code to demonstrate the content. For this month’s article I’ve recorded a video of some recent inspection photographs to give you a flavour of the kind of problems that I see, and I give you some insight into how these were investigated.
Before we launch into the inspection process, however, we need to understand what makes a complaint valid. Even the best products and workmanship might not please somebody, but when does a complaint have merit? If we understand this we’re equipped to answer the most basic question: Is this a matter which should be taken further or not? I was surprised to learn there’s no legal definition of what constitutes a defect. In consumer law, which doesn’t apply to a commercial contract, there are references to ‘satisfactory quality’ and ‘free from minor defects’, but these are descriptions which make money for lawyers rather than helping to bring understanding. A third, which does apply to commercial contracts, is that goods must correspond to the sample, but how does that apply to work done rather than to the product itself?
Over the past two years I have been working on a definition of a defect. I’ve discussed this with legal and advisory bodies and tweaked it several times. It’s not endorsed by anyone, but I have found it useful, especially when, as so often happens, I have to advise an enquirer that they’re being unreasonable:
A defect is something inherent in a finished product that adversely affects the appearance, suitability or performance of that product now or during its reasonable lifespan and which is not due to misuse or normal wear and tear. Visual defects are assessed from a normal standing or usage position without the use of special lighting, magnification or other enhancements.
Defects may be caused by manufacturing faults, damage (including transportation and handling) and/or incorrect installation.
Next month we’ll start to look more deeply into the world of inspections but do check out this month’s video for additional content.
www.richard-renouf.com
Richard Renouf is an independent flooring consultant
