Flooring travels on a pallet, with a specialist carrier. Delivery goes well in the vast majority of cases, but the five minutes at reception are the most important of the whole order: that is when — and only when — you can claim for transport damage.
How it arrives
The flooring is wrapped and strapped onto a pallet, carried by a palletised freight lorry. We ship in 2 to 10 days depending on the reference and the source stock.
A few realities to anticipate:
- The carrier delivers at the tailgate, on the public road or at the property boundary. He is not obliged to carry packs into the home, nor to get through a narrow gate.
- A pallet of flooring commonly weighs 400 to 900 kg. It moves on a pallet truck over hard, flat ground — not over gravel and not up stairs.
- The carrier books a slot by phone: the number you leave with the order must be reachable.
To prepare before the day
- Lorry access. An articulated lorry is 16 m long. If your street is narrow or a dead end, say so when ordering: the carrier will send a smaller rigid vehicle.
- Two people available. Packs are carried by two, and unloading a full pallet takes a good half hour.
- A dry place to store, indoors, flat. Not an unheated garage or a terrace under a tarpaulin: acclimatisation starts at delivery, and it happens in the destination room.
The check, in order
Before signing anything:
- Are the wrap and straps intact? Torn or re-taped film indicates handling.
- Count the packs. The number is on the delivery note. Count properly, including the packs underneath.
- Look at the corners and edges of the packs, particularly at the bottom and the pallet corners. Those are the ones that suffer on the pallet truck.
- Check the reference printed on the labels: décor, format, thickness.
- Photograph the pallet before unloading, then any suspect pack. That is your evidence.
The critical point: reservations
If something is wrong, write precise reservations on the delivery note before signing, and keep a copy.
A vague phrase such as “subject to unpacking” carries no legal weight and will not be upheld. It has to be concrete:
“Pack no. 7: corner crushed over 20 cm, boards visibly damaged. Pack no. 12: edge split along its whole length. Pallet delivered with the wrap torn on the right-hand side.”
If damage is significant, you can refuse all or part of the delivery. Tell us immediately, with photographs, and we take it up with the carrier.
After unloading
- Open one pack and check tone and grade against the sample you received.
- Check that all packs carry the same batch number where the label states it. That is what guarantees consistency of tone.
- Store flat, raised a few centimetres, never standing against a wall.
- Do not open all the packs of an engineered floor: the packaging protects during acclimatisation.
And if you change your mind?
You have fourteen days from receipt to exercise your right of withdrawal, under European consumer law. Products must be returned in their original packaging, unlaid; return costs are yours. Flooring cut, machined or made to measure at your request is excluded from this right, as the law expressly provides.
A question before delivery?
Awkward access, a date to arrange, a doubt about the number of packs: write to us in advance rather than on the day. We adjust with the carrier for as long as the order has not left.
Sources
- Your Europe — fourteen-day statutory withdrawal period, exceptions for customised goods.
- Our terms and conditions of sale — delivery, reservations and returns.