CHAMPION FOREST, Texas – A woman says she lost part of her life savings to a shady contractor she hired to replace her damaged floors.
At first, Angie Honerkamp says she wasn’t worried, because it appeared he completed the job. Later, she discovered he skipped an important step in the process.
Honerkamp says she was hoping to sell her home, but now that dream is on hold because of the condition that contractor left her home in. She says the floors are not only an eye sore, but they’re also dangerous.
“We’ve even tripped over this,” Honerkamp said.
Honerkamp has lived in her Champions Point Village home for 27 years. About two years ago, her washing machine malfunctioned causing the major problem that ruined her floors.
“It overflowed, and caused the water to seep in through the walls and got the floors all wet,” she said.
She ended up going with a contractor that was recommended by the company she used to take care of the water damage.
“I had heard very good reviews on that contractor, met with him, [I] felt very comfortable with him, thought he would do an awesome job for me and hired him to come out,” she said.
We’re not naming the contractor yet for legal purposes, but Honerkamp says less than a year after shelling out two payments—totaling nearly $14k—for the work, she started noticing problems with the job.
“You can kind of start to feel where it’s wanting to lift and then also in my bedroom, the master bedroom, and leading into one of the spare bedrooms,” she said.
After the contractor replaced several planks, she says things got worse.
She decided to see if the issue was with the flooring itself. She says she called the manufacturer which sent out an inspector, who dropped a bombshell.
“The inspector came in and said, ‘Oh, you don’t have a moisture barrier down on these floors,’” she said.
Back in 2021, new regulations required contractors put down what’s called a “functioning vapor retarder” under flooring.
“The floors were installed in 2022, so they knew that the moisture barrier had to be put down,” she said.
After confronting the contractor about the findings, she says he disappeared.
Honerkamp has sent a certified letter to the contractor asking for him to fix the issue, as well as complaints to the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Better Business Bureau, but she tells us that since February, she hasn’t heard from him.
“And what’s really sad, is he did not have to track me down one time to ask for payment,” she said.
We got in touch with the contractor, who at first denied knowing Honerkamp at all, and then, when we told him we had documents of proof, he hung up.
Honerkamp warns homeowners to ensure contractors put moisture barriers down before the flooring. She says she doesn’t have the money to have the floors redone so if anyone out there would like to help her out, you can contact Deven Clarke at Dclarke@kprc.com