*********** and unprofessional after 30 years in the business.

There are two versions of this review. To save you a long read the short version is this. Never use Hans. He is unprofessional, ***********, does not have all the necessary tools and does not know the limitations of his materials. You stand a very good chance of paying for a sub-standard quality installation. If you choose to use him… Good luck to you.

If you feel you stand to learn a thing or two on how to have your vinyl plank flooring done correctly here is the long version.

This was the second job that we called Hans to do. The first was an apartment we have where he did a reasonable job (By fluke as it turns out. I’ll explain how later). Because of this we felt that he was the right guy for a very small simple job we had at our house. The room is about 20m2 (about 6.5m x 3m), rectangular, has glass panels from ceiling to floor on 3 sides, receives sunlight all day (we actually call it our sunroom) and is elevated off the ground by a meter.

It was August 2021, Cape Town’s winter season. Hans was not able to supply us with the vinyl plank we wanted so we needed to buy the planks through another supplier. From this supplier we also bought a moisture barrier, designed to be painted underneath or on top of any screed layer. This stops any moisture permeating through the screed from below. Because Hans was not supplying us with the vinyl planks he increased his installation fee by an additional amount to compensate for the fact that he was now losing money on the markup he would’ve made from supplying us. A bit cheeky but no problem, that’s business. We still trusted Hans to do a good job. In the past we had rainwater seep underneath the sliding doors which had caused our solid oak floor to rot in the vicinity of the door. The solution… install vinyl plank flooring which cannot rot. At considerable expense we removed the wood flooring, chopped away at the cement and sealed the base of the sliding doors, which as it turns out was the source of the water ingress as it had never been properly sealed before. We bought our chosen vinyl plank, screeded the floor and painted the screed with the moisture barrier (please note a double layer) after our screed had dried. Using a moisture meter our screed had moisture content of <4%. An industry accepted standard. This was to be a solution forever. Hans would literally only need to put his thin screed down, wait for it to dry and lay the flooring. Job done.

A few days later Hans arrived, completed the job and left. Looking great! About 3 months later in November 2021 (Summer season – no rain) we started to notice vinyl planks lifting all over the room, not just near the sliding doors. Tapping on them we found hollow spots everywhere and even sections where the planks were ballooning. Concerned, we gave Hans a call and he arranged to come out to the house. After barely an hour on site, Hans had completed his repair job and was gone. At this point Hans no longer accepted our phone calls. We sent Hans multiple photos of planks that were lifting. Hans was not interested in responding. Throughout the rest of the summer season the situation worsened. Periodically I called in my regular contractor to assist. He would carefully use a heat gun to warm up the plank, loosen the glue and remove the planks without damaging them. Obviously we needed to reuse the same planks and so each one would be carefully removed, cleaned off and reglued. An interesting fact was that many of the planks were coming up with damp screed or far too little glue. Again Hans refused to communicate with us.

Fast forward to this year, July 2022, back in the Cape Town winter season. I returned to Cape Town and contacted Hans through a different cell no. Not realising it was me, Hans picked up and I wanted to know why he was avoiding us. The first reason was that he was no longer in the business and couldn’t help me. I found this really strange as his name is the only contact on the website and his telephone no is the only one provided. The website gives the impression that they are a premier vinyl plank installation company serving the entire Western Cape seemingly with offices all around Cape Town. In reality I believe it is just Hans and his one worker with little to no after sales service. When questioned why he hadn’t responded to the Whatsapp messages we sent him spanning back to November 2021 his reason was that his telephone was ****** and he had never seen those messages. All through the months the messages were sent through Whatsapp and all had read receipts so we knew he had received them (unless of course the supposed ***** also knew his phone’s pin code – an unlikely story). In any event Hans reluctantly agreed to come out one final time and in writing clearly indicated that he would never return to us after this. This was to be his last visit, no further customer service to be considered. Hoping for the best and obviously wanting a solution for that day, we agreed to his terms. I clearly explained to Hans that we needed to reuse the existing panels as A) they are expensive and B) they were no longer in stock and I wasn’t exactly prepared to redo the entire floor with a new plank design.

Hans arrived on time and set to it. Immediately planks were being literally ********** the floor and bent in a cold state almost completely back on themselves. The result is that many planks now have minute glass like shatter points. Some of them actually snapped in two. The planks were then piled up with wet screed and glue from the underside of one plank now sitting on top of the top side of another resulting in scuffs marks and unnecessary cleaning to be done. All of this demonstrating a total lack of care. Hans proceeded to rip up half of my flooring, re-screed that area, using exactly the same methods as the previous installation. He informed me that someone else will need to clean and relay the planks as it would not be him. Having created absolute carnage, Hans left vowing never to return.

All through the removal process the planks were coming up with wet screed (the screed that Hans laid on top of our moisture barrier). It was clear to see that his screed had never adhered to the screed below. He was desperately trying to convince us that we have an ongoing damp issue which is not his problem. To understand his argument better, an elevated room, that receives many times more sunlight than normal has an ongoing damp issue where the damp has somehow risen more than a meter from ground level bypassed a completely dry screed layer, permeating a double moisture barrier layer and has now soaked the thin screed layer that Hans laid. A very unlikely story and oh yes all of this happened in Summer. Hot daily temperatures with no rain. Absolute *******!

A far more likely version of events is that Hans rushed the job and laid the floor while his screed was still wet. I apologise. Hans gets vey offended if you say he rushes jobs! He works quickly. As explained to me by the vinyl plank suppliers we used (and others that I called) if you put a moisture barrier down which is an impermeable layer, lay screed and then lay vinyl flooring which is another impermeable layer all moisture that is present between will remain trapped until released. This could be days, months or years! With hot summer temperatures this moisture will expand and contract continuously eventually creating a bubble and hollow spots as it works the glued down plank off the screed. Once the plank has properly loosened the screed will eventually dry out… but your floor is destroyed!

Han’s reasoning for the fact that it could not be his fault is… A) he has been in the business for 30 years, which is basically his way of saying that he cannot be in the wrong and B) he uses a specific additive which he mixes in with his screed which supposedly dries the screed out very quickly. In essence he uses this as an excuse to take short cuts. When questioned which additive he used he indicated ‘Alcolin 101’. Well we obviously researched this and found that the datasheet regarding this additive indicates that after mixing it with your screed it is possible to walk on the screed after 2 hours and the screed may be able to accept flooring after 4 hours. This is by no means a hard and fast rule and there are some very important caveats. Firstly the ambient temperatures need to be above 20C (which we did not have when Hans installed) and the moisture content in the air needs to be low (which was also not the case being winter) otherwise you must wait longer… much longer. The recommendation for normal screed is a wait time of one month per 25mm. With a 1-2mm thick screed you require at least a full day or two if environmental conditions allow. The additive certainly helps but you must still adhere to the recommendations and you must most definitely use a moisture meter. That is a no brainer as you will instantly know whether your screed is dry enough! Hans does not even possess a moisture meter and if he does he certainly did not bring it on site!

In the case of Hans’ initial installation because of the size of the apartment it was a 2 day job and so almost by fluke that built in the required time for the screed to dry overnight and so the flooring that was laid has remained in place. Luckily for us. With this installation, because it’s in a security estate and Hans needed to sign in and out I was actually able to view the entry and exits timestamps registered against his vehicle. Hans’ vehicle was physically present on the estate for just over 4 hours 30 mins. This includes driving from and to the main gate, unpacking, preparation time, screeding, drying time, floor laying, post clean up and packing up. Logically speaking it was then impossible to satisfy the minimum screed drying period of 4 hours even if the environmental conditions were correct… which they weren’t! If I am to estimate, because I was there, the actual duration the screed was allowed to dry I would say that Hans gave it about 1 hour if we’re lucky.

To illustrate the point, the screed that Hans laid during his last disastrous visit, in exactly the same conditions as the August 2021 installation, has taken more than 4 days (not 4 hours even with the specific drying additive) to dry to a satisfactory point where we now have the opportunity to spend more money to reinstall the now scuffed and shattered planks. Thank you Hans.

I now have a standing joke with my contractors. To all of them I say, “I don’t want any ‘Hans’ jobs!”.

In summary, if you take a chance with Hans, be prepared to waste money, for sub-standard workmanship and for much frustration. Good luck.