Contractor misrepresented expertise, ruined floors, bond company admits claim but only offering contract price — what would you do?
I’m dealing with a situation in California and could really use advice from anyone familiar with contractor disputes or bond claims.
I hired a licensed flooring contractor who specifically represented himself as an “oil floor specialist.” Based on that, I trusted him with refinishing my floors.
Instead, he:
- Did not properly sand the floors
- Used a non-conforming system (including wax over what was supposed to be an oil-based system)
- Failed to mask off baseboards and stained all of them during the process
- Delivered a result where the finish is now failing and transferring daily
The floors now need to be fully redone, and estimates are around $10k–$11k just for flooring and baseboards (not including additional property damage, moving/storage, etc.).
Here’s where it gets complicated:
- I filed a claim against his contractor’s license bond
- The bond company initially denied, then later accepted the claim after re-evaluation, after reporting to the DOI
- They are offering $2,600 (what I paid him) and refusing to go beyond that
Their position is basically:
"We refund the contract amount. We don’t cover property damage or anything beyond that.”
My concerns:
- The contractor clearly misrepresented his expertise (oil specialist vs. what was actually applied)
- The work shows basic failures in execution (including not protecting surrounding areas like baseboards)
- There are conflicting statements in the investigation, including about what products were used
- The bond company won’t answer detailed questions about how they evaluated the claim
- They just repeat “$2,600 is your financial injury”
They also sent a broad release that includes waiver of unknown claims, even though they describe it as limited to the bond claim.
Side note: I am actively working through the CSLB process and have been assigned a special investigator out of the West Covina office. However, I’ve been told they are dealing with a backlog of complaints, and this process has already been going on for several months with no clear timeline for resolution.
Complicating things further:
- Other people have sued this same contractor and won (from similar cases) but couldn’t collect
- He apparently claims he has no money and works across different states
So realistically, the bond company may be the only place I recover anything.
My questions:
- Has anyone successfully pushed a bond company to pay more than the contract amount in a case involving misrepresentation or improper methods?
- Is it normal for them to avoid answering detailed questions about their investigation?
- Does misrepresentation (like claiming specialization and using a completely different system) actually change anything in bond claims?
- Would you keep pushing or take the $2,600 in this situation?
Appreciate any insight—this has been going on for months and I’m trying to figure out the smartest next move.
