Bates Flooring

We bought a house in September 2009; hardwood floors and ceramic tile throughout. we thought we would refinish all the hardwoods before moving in. We hired Bates Flooring. They were friendly and nice. Upon completion of the job we noticed that our hardwood floor in the living room had warped -- they used too much water with their sand in scrubbing the floors clean. When we called them back they denied having anything to do with the huge hump that we have in the living room. They also refusded to give us a quote to repair the hump!!! They left and we have not heard back from them since. We have tried to place a table over the hump so that no one will notice or hurt themselves as they walk through our living room. Bottom-line -- make sure you hire a licensed and bonded company in the future -- Bates does not stand behind their work.

This is the worst flooring job that's ever been done! It is awful and I'm really mad at myself for not demanding that it be removed and my money refunded. The floor is so uneven that my grandson almost fell after catcing his shoe under one of the the pieces that was raised above the other. After it had been down for a few weeks, it started to come up from being put down wrong over the cement foundation. I called and the owner did not come back, but sent his wife and a handy man to attempt to fix it. he left small nails showing where he attempted to make it stay. It looks terrible and I'm having to cover it now with a small rug after my grandson almost fell. I'm so dissappointed. Another company was installing carpet at my neighbors and she had them come over and look at it and they were astonished. NEVER, NEVER USE THESE PEOPLE.

Mr Bates came to the house and measured all the flooring to be refinished. We talked about options and timing. He gave me a price promptly and his price was lowest of the other two estimates I got, but not by much. He came when he said, and did what he said. I have had to have several floors refinished, and he has done one of the best jobs I have seen. Before the last coat, he put a small area of several stains for me to chose from. The finish was very good, and the detail was also good. The most impressive thing was that he wiped down the major areas of accumulation. Actually did a very good job of this. I will say, he did a very good job of refinishing the flooring, and I would use him again without hesitation. As we talked through several refinish options, it was clear he was knowleadgable about his profession.

I called him and we scheduled the appointment but he canceled. Then his number was no longer in service. I found his number on Angie's List. They finally agreed to come to my home and make the repairs. He seemed fine in the beginning. He was friendly and I spent a lot of money for the work. He claimed the problem was due to moisture. He was not helpful. He was not willing to make the repairs to our satisfaction. I was not confident with his work so I hired someone else for the repairs. It took a lot of extra work on our part. It was honestly, two or three days of extra work for us due to a mistake that he made. I found the fact his number was changed, was sketchy and very unprofessional. He did not own up to the responsibility of the repairs and his error. I even had a contract with him.

I had a hard time finding somebody to redo my hardwood floors. Bates Flooring did an awesome job and it was gorgeous. They did part of it last year and they finished my foyer in April of this year. The foyer was a different thing. It had glue on it and they had to do a lot more work on it. So, they have been out twice. The first job was about $1700 for 2000 square feet or more. It was a lot cheaper than I had gotten from anybody else. That was including the installation of the shoe mold and they didn’t charge me for installing the shoe mold at all. They were very careful when they topped it with polyurethane and they were very careful not to get anything on the baseboards. I was happy to find the floors in such good condition. When I got up there the next day, one of the older guys working with them to my surprise was on his knees with knee pads. He was laying the polyurethane by brush. Most companies don’t do it by hand anymore and they put it down with a mop. Bates Flooring did that for my whole house by brush on their knees. I was just ecstatic and I told them that it was beautiful. I was very impressed. Jerry Bates, the owner was very nice too. He came out to talk to me about it. He brought his daughter and it didn’t bother me at all. He was going around measuring and not talking to his daughter. He said sorry to me for bringing his daughter since he didn’t have anybody to take care of her and she got out of school early. So, I told him that wasn’t a problem. Later on, when he called me that night, he knocked the price down for me because it was the first time that somebody talked to his child and she was very excited. He said that most people ignore her. He told me that it made him feel so good and he said that I am a good person. That’s why he dropped the price a little more for me. He is a good man. He is a hardworking man and his crew is hard working. They do it in the old fashioned way and for a reasonable price. I would recommend him to anybody and I would use him again in a heartbeat.

When we started we chose a few of the top choices on Angie's List and in the end I chose Jerry because he was reviewed well, he could start immediately, and we felt like his heart was in his business. Also, his price was lower than his competitors and he didn't make us wait 3-4 days to get an estimate. Because the previous owners had pets with bladder issues the floors were ruined in some large areas and we had to stain the floors a little darker. Jerry used an antique stain on the wood and it looks really good, you can't even see where the spots used to be. Overall we are very happy with our floors and stairs and we would recommend Jerry to anyone.

Mae sure the job was finished correctly.

His finish was not compatible with the first finish, so the floor bubbled up all over. It was very unsatisfactory and we had to have that redone and we had to pay him twice on top of paying the company that did the first finishing of the floor. The second time he did the refinishing was still not satisfactory and he also missed some spots on our steps. If he was honest with us, he would have told us that we needed to call the first company we used to do the finishing. We don?t think that he cleaned up enough and there is a lot of trash still left on the floor. We spent $650 on that work. He came back immediately to redo the floors. I called him the second time and told him about the problem with the steps and told him to come back and finish it when he was doing another job close to me and it has been3 or 4 weeks ago and I haven?t heard from him since then. He never followed through.

Everything went very well overall. As soon as I needed them to start the work, they were available. They even came out the day before Thanksgiving at my request because I wanted the work to begin as soon as possible (I have tenants living there). They came out like they promised and worked diligently every day until the job was complete. Jody was excellent at making sure I was happy and that everything was completed to my satisfaction. unfortunately I had to ask Jerry to go back to the home twice - once to clean up sawdust he left behind, and another time to correct an issue with a small area of flooring. Not so bad because as soon as I voiced my concerns, they were responsive and quickly and happily corrected the issues. Their price was reasonable too. They also are available whenever you need them (day or night). I would definitely use Bates again and would recommend them.

We just purchased a 60 year old home and it had some "do it yourself" hardwood repairs in the dining room. We had the carpet pulled up in the bedrooms and the hardwoods were cupping from previous moisture problems. Overall the floors were pretty rough. I called Jerry to come out and take a look at what we had going on. He took a look at everything and said he could handle it all and quickly. Quickly was important because we wanted to move into our new house! He took his measurements and we had an estimate in hand within 24 hours. The project was started and completed timely and we could not be happier with the results. It looks like we had brand new floors put in, absolutely amazing. Jerry does what he says he is going to do, and he takes great pride in his work. They took great care in applying the stain and poly coats by hand (on hands and knees), and you can tell by the quality finish. I am recommending this company to all my friends/clients/ and neighbors. Jerry is deserving of as much business as he can handle.

Jerry Bates is a super guy, really easy to talk to and he's very proud of doing the work right. The floors were absolutely gorgeous when they were through. There was bad staining where the previous owner had dogs who urinated on the floors. There was no way to make the stains completely dissappear, but Jerry did a good job of making them less noticeable. His quote was less than the two or three others we got and I can't imagine anyone else would have done a better job. I can enthusiastically recommend him.

Very timely, just as Jerry said it would be. No problems. Cleaned up well after themselves. Surprisingly small amount of dust with the refinishing work in the kitchen. I could not believe the kitchen floor! It looked new (despite home being built 1942!) and matched the new flooring perfectly.

Jerry Bates arrived when he said that he would and was present for the entire job.

Jerry Bates did everything he promised to do. I particularly liked the detailed proposal he submitted when asked to bid on the job. He stood out in that area. I got five bids and not a one was as detailed as his was.

Bates Flooring completed a sanding, refinishing job of approx. 100 year old hardwood floors throughout our house. The owner showed up to come give an estimate and was on the job, himself, everyday. The price was a little less than competitors, but I was confident after talking to his wife, who gave me references to call, that Bates would do a great job. They left the house clean and replaced and matched the shoe molding to the color of the floor. Would highly recommend Bates to anyone in the Birmingham area.

Jerry was prompt to respond to calls and gave an estimate well under his competitors. He was there personally with his crew to work and supervise and ensure all work was done correctly every day. He finished before his estimated completion time as well.