Something is failing below the floor. I would have someone out there to evaluate this. Was any work done recently and something was removed? Or previous owners did something?

Good questions. It's hard to determine what you should have expected. Were/are you willing to pay the extra involved to remove the existing floor (including potential asbestos abatement) and for grinding and floating?

The contractor is generally correct in that solid vinyl flooring will conform to an uneven subfloor, where a tile floor would require a significantly more level surface to avoid having tile corners sticking up.

P.S I was looking at this on my phone... this is a basement, why the floor was installed before someone investigated what's going on and had the floor more or less leveled.

The basement slab would have had HEAVY costs added to it. I mean HEAVY costs. The $4/sf for the floor would be 1/3 the total costs of that floor.

Assuming you had asbestos tile on there (asbestos was sold in tile form up to the mid 1980's...yep...very recently...thank you Big Business...Thank you) the ABATEMENT costs = $1500 - $5000 (depends on total square footage) just to REMOVE the tile and clean the concrete.

Right. Now you are 'clean' concrete. A wonky floor like yours might also require moisture mitigation + new concrete. The moisture mitigation = $2-$3/sf. The new concrete = $3 - $5/sf.

If your contractor told you, at the time they started the flooring install (ahem...after you were in the middle of the reno and when money was getting tight) told you they needed another $7K - $10K just to fix the basement tile+concrete, how would you have reacted?

I know. It should have been brought up AT THE TIME you signed the contract...but...they may not have had the wherewithal to bid that part of the contract seperately. And they were probably AFRAID to tell you the extra costs (like triple the cost of the $4/sf floor) of that small part of the project. The amount of people who have walked away from a PROPER bid = 90% of homeowners (could be as low as 80%...depends on how wealthy your area).

I'm sorry you were left with this. It is what is happening today in today's 'DIY Pros' out there. People only feel they should pay for the materials...forgetting that human sweat is the most expensive part of the job.

If the contract did NOT specifically STATE the work to be done to DEAL with tile in basement (no mention of mitigation, prep, etc) then you probably didn't pay for it. At this point, you most likely have gotten what you paid for...which is not a nice concept after paying a whole bunch of money.

Thanks Worthy! It's always nice to know my 'gut instincts' are close to reality.

No contractor in his right mind would install floors that are not flat. Your contractor should have walked the project and told you that the floors would need to be leveled as part of the project. He should have included that work in his proposal to you and should have discussed options for leveling and which type of flooring would be best suited.

Just my $0.02 but if the appliances are not level that will increase wear and tear on the washer/dryer bearings. if you end up living with the un-level floors at least consider having a platform base made for your washer dryer to even them out.

Agree that the contractor should have discussed this with you prior.

That said... I'm confused how you weren't aware of this issue before the work started. Your picture shows some shocking sloped floors. But all your contractor did was lay LVP on the existing floor. Idea being, it would have been exactly the same before the work was done.

So if it was a "funhouse" before the work was done, and you're horrified with it now - you must have been alarmed before too. So wouldn't you have asked your contractor about it?