As per our blog post http://www.dht169.co.za/blog.html
How do you repair a previous contractors mistake?
We apply epoxy coatings to floors, from house to garages and factories/warehouses. We depend on a solid properly constructed floor surface to be able to give the client the best quality result possible. What to do if this is not the case?
Some options comes to mind:
1.Walk away from the job
2.Discuss with the client and let them arrange for the repair
3.Discuss with the client and offer to do the repair, but inform them we will be making use of an outside contractor
All these options is available, but if we really want to assist the client, option 3 is the better option.
To apply epoxy coating to a weak/crumbling surface is never a good option as the entire coating or parts thereof can come appart in the furture, resulting in more costs and the client feeling cheated.
But how to determine if the floor is "good". In some cases a visual inspection will be addaquate but sometimes it will onl become clear at a later stage. We recently had to remove tiles for a client and when we started removing the tiles, the entire 25 mm screed layer broke off with the tiles and tile adhesive. We did dicuss with the client as soon as we picked up the problem and they could see the poor workmanship from the floor contractor. We removed all the bad screed and replaced the floor with a good, strong and proper layer. This came at an additional cost which the client never bargained on.
We try to always to give the client the best quality work with the best results, but if the floor we work on is not up to scratch, it makes this difficult and sometimes impossible. A bad quality floor brings with it's own set of problems and can range from small (a few bubbles in epoxy coating) to large (floor crumbling after coating has been applied).
When a self levelling screed is applied to a very porous floor it creates large, deep holes that takes a lot of time, effort and material to repair. All slowing the job and frustrating the client. (We try and keep within our time estimates and try and push the job, but this in turn will lead to other problems arising).
So what to do?
Communication with the client is key. Explaining the problem, the consequences and a possible solution is critical. Sometimes the client will understand and we can come up with a solution, other times the client is more difficult...
At the end of the day we can only communicate with the client, do our best with what we have and when worse comes to worse...walk out.