Sunshine Coast first homeowners battle with flooring company

A Queensland couple has shared their nine-month struggle with a flooring company that has cast a shadow over their first home dreams.

Flooring laid by Choices Flooring Maroochydore

A couple of first-time homeowners have been plagued by a flooring nightmare that has left them “in limbo” for months.

Jordan Lawrence, 34, and Hannah Ho, 38, are the proud owners of their first house in Maroochydore, something they say is a significant achievement in the Sunshine Coast property market.

The support worker and social worker wanted to replace the carpet upstairs with vinyl floorboards.

They went to Choices Flooring Maroochydore and paid a $4280 deposit for the second level and stairs.

The job was meant to be finished by July last year before the couple moved in and arranged removalists accordingly.

Jordan Lawrence says the nine-month ordeal over the flooring has been taxing.

However, the work was not finished until a week later and that was just the beginning of Mr Lawrence’s worries.

Mr Lawrence said the floors laid by the contractor were done “horrifically, even from someone with no major DIY skills”.

The business has since stopped using that particular contractor.

Instead of cutting the floorboards to size, Mr Lawrence claimed holes and chunks were cut out of the stairwell and skirting boards to make the boards fit, damaging the plasterboard on the walls.

Flooring laid by Choices Flooring Maroochydore in Jordan Lawrence’s Maroochydore home.

Mr Lawrence said the walls and timber stairs had sustained significant damage and the the upstairs flooring had multiple gaps between the vinyl planks with an uneven surface.

“My partner has tripped and fallen twice due to the loose and unstable stair nosings attached,” he said.

“The walls are still stained by the glue the installer used, the edging is terrible, the nosings are loose, and the seams are very obvious.”

Mr Lawrence said they made an initial complaint to Choices Flooring Maroochydore but received no response.

After calling and sending multiple emails over the next few months, they finally received a response from Choices Flooring Maroochydore.

A shop spokesman said he was not aware of the initial attempts by the couple to communicate their complaints at the time.

The spokesman said Fair Trading had advised him that he had “gone above and beyond with Jordan Lawrence, everything has been settled with him and all costs paid for rectification”.

He offered to send over the original worker who installed the stairs, with Mr Lawrence insisting anyone else do the job as “he did such a poor job and we didn’t trust his workmanship”.

The shop spokesman said the contractor who did the work was no longer employed by the business.

When the new installer arrived, Mr Lawrence said he thought them that the “workmanship on our stairs is incredibly poor and absolutely not worth what we have already paid for it”.

Mr Lawrence asked for a different contractor from Choices Flooring Maroochydore.

Mr Lawrence and his partner has made reports to ACCC and the Office of Fair Trading and QCAT and also contacted the parent company of the franchise.

The ACCC could not help the couple and the Office of Fair Trading communicated the couple’s complaints to the business.

Jeremy Naug, the regional support manager for Newfurn Floor Coverings, the parent company of the Choices Flooring franchise told Mr Lawrence that he understood his frustrations but discussions must take place directly with the store.

“As Choices Flooring is a membership-based organisation, each store is independently owned,” he said.

After this, Mr Lawrence said it took several months before the next positive step was made, leaving them in limbo.

Almost a month ago, Choices Flooring Maroochydore offered to provide a full refund and provide replacement flooring stock to cover the repairs.

As of two weeks ago, Mr Lawrence said the shop had paid for a plasterer to fix the damaged walls, but they needed painting.

The second-storey floor needs to be ripped up and redone according to the assessment.

“This means we will have to take all of our stuff from upstairs and move it downstairs, which was something we wanted to avoid in such a tiny house and why we paid for this job to be done before we moved in in July 2024,” he said.

“(The spokesman) said he will replace the floorboards but we will have to pay out of the refund to get it fixed along with the rest of our stairs.”

The flooring in the Maroochydore home.

As of Monday this week, the refund had been paid, but the replacement floorboards had not yet arrived according to Mr Lawrence.

He said the couple now had to pay for storage and removalists to get their furniture out of upstairs to redo the floor, prolonging the now nine-month process.

They also have to start afresh paying someone to install the floors all over again.

“The stress and financial burden that they have caused us cannot be understated here,” said Mr Lawrence.

“We want people to be aware of these issues before they go looking for flooring installers around the coast.”

The shop spokesman said he was flabbergasted at the damage caused and had “taken full responsibility for the workmanship done by my sub contractor”.

“I have offered refund and replacement product for all affected areas,” the spokesman said.

When asked about the long timeframe and communication difficulties, the spokesman said he did not receive their messages.

“Jordan advised he sent a few emails, so I went searching for them but couldn’t find them,” he said.

“February was the first I had heard about the issues with stairs.”

A spokeswoman for the Office of Fair Trading said this situation did not leave them with many options to help.

“Under the Australian Consumer Law, services, including flooring, must be provided with due care and skill,” she said.

“If consumers have paid for services that do not meet this requirement they should raise the issue with the trader.”

“If they are unable to resolve the matter with the trader, they can lodge a complaint with the OFT online at www.qld.gov.au/fairtrading.”

Originally published as Sunshine Coast first homeowners battle with flooring company