COMMON SENSE FLOORING

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I called Eric to see if he could clean or refinish my hardwood flooring. After answering a few of his questions, he recommended that I have the floor cleaned rather than refinished. Unfortunately, that is a service he could not provide, but is referring me to another company. I really appreciate his honesty and helpfulness. I hope I get a chance to give him some business in the future.

kk

I needed one room with a wood floor refinished quickly to get my house on the market. Eric was booked for weeks but kindly worked my project in to meet my timeline. The work was done on the days as scheduled and the floor and the steps look beautiful.

As a former general contractor I have dealt with many sub contractors and know what to look for in selecting one for work in my own home. I received reasonable bids from two other contractors but chose Eric because even on the phone he obviously knew what he was talking about when quizzed with specific technical questions on how he was going to tackle the project. I was not disappointed. Eric was fast and showed an excellent attention to details. The job site was kept clean and noise was kept to the minimum possible. Eric was prompt, honest and communicated easily. I would not hesitate to recommend Common Sense Flooring to anyone seeking top notch work at a fair price.

Everything went very well. I got 3 or 4 estimates for installing my flooring. I chose to go with Eric not for price, although his price was reasonable... I went with Eric because he said he was picky with his work, and I am picky too. It turns out I made a good choice. He did a wonderful job installing my floors. I feel like he did it as well as he would have his own floor. He also used a material that goes down over the whole floor to help with sound, as the main living area is upstairs and I didn't want the sound of anyone walking upstairs when people are sleeping below. I forget what the material was called but it works and I'm glad I had him do that. He also had to fabricate my bullnose on the stairs, so I could save some money and not buy the manufacturers bullnose (due to sizing of it) I was amazed, it looks perfect!! Eric also was very responsive. It was a long process because as he had to work around my other contractors, we were pretty much doing a complete remodel. He was very accommodating and always answered my texts/calls right away. Also one of the contractors doing work in the house after my floors were done, gave Eric a big compliment, saying the floors felt solid and he liked them/installed nicely. He stated he had been in many homes that the floors didn't feel solid like that and the installers just slapped them down and left and didn't care. I was even more grateful then that Eric did my floors, just as I'm sure he would have done his own, and didn't just slap them down. I t was a big investment and I'm glad I picked him, it was the best choice. I highly recommend Eric and Common Sense Flooring.

Prompt service, I only waited a week to start the job. Easliy reached by phone and both Dave and Eric return calls promptly. The floors look great! Thank you for the advice on how to care for them as well. Dave and his team were very neat protecting my walls and pictures.

Eric gave us an estimate when he initially met with us and noted that the job would take approximately two and possibly three days to complete. The job actually took 6 1/2 hours (less than 1 day). We were glad that this was the case until we saw the terrible mess that was left by Eric and his helper. *Clean -up! :( Every surface in our kitchen, family room, dining room was filled with layers of dust. This included wood floors, furniture, countertops, computer station, kitchen drawers, ceiling fans, etc. Eric failed to cover any of these areas. We even asked specifically if there would be a significant amount of dust and we would have been more than happy to cover items ourselves but Eric did not think it would be an issue. The clean-up was horrendous and took us days to deep clean the furniture, wood floors, computer area and countertops. They also broke a glass dispenser container of iced tea. This was not a problem, however there were huge tea stains in our newly fabricated custom solid surface sink. This also took a lot of time to clean, both the dust and the sink could have been easily prevented if Eric had taken the time to cover items and clean up afterwards. In fact, if Eric had been more professional in this area, we probably would have overlooked the other items, (materials and invoice); however customer service in this area was nonexistent and we felt taken advantage of and felt there was no respect given to our home. *Materials The new T molding that Eric told us to purchase was never used, we did not notice this until he had left and he never mentioned it. It took several emails to find out why it wasn't used. Eric claimed it was an inferior product; actually we had taken direction from the flooring distributor when we purchased the molding - it would have been a nice gesture if Eric had specified what to use. Our hunch was that it was easier to pull off the old molding and put it right back on, (no measuring/cutting, etc.). In addition, we asked if the floor could be laid diagonally; Eric immediately responded that we would need another carton of flooring. He did not take the time to measure; lo and behold we were left with a full carton of flooring when the job was complete. This is something that cannot be returned. In other words, we would have been able to have the floor laid diagonally if he had taken the time to fully check it out. *Invoice Although we felt the estimate was reasonable, we never did get the details explained about how the total and final invoice was calculated. Eric used figures for quantity x rate which equalled the total. He said his figures were based on the job and not the time. He scratched off the word estimate on the final bill and wrote final without explaining why he did not use the molding and without explanation of the significant difference in estimated time for the work to be completed. The bottom line is that even though we prefer to use local vendors, we would never be able to recommend Common Sense Flooring and would not anyone else to go through the experience that we did.

It was an excellent experience.

Common Sense is fast, friendly, and did thorough cleanup when completed.

GREAT! Eric was very professional. Eric showed up on time ready to work. Fixed my hardwood floors. You can't tell that anything was wrong with the floor. Looks brand new. I would recommend him very highly. I would definitely will use him again. Eric will be doing my flooring in my brand new home and my mother-in-law's new home. Very satisfied customer!

I can't attest to the quality of their workmanship only their professionalism.

Overall, we are very pleased with the results. The floors were a light oak color and Dave darkened them to a beautiful brown. They look absolutely gorgeous and we are so thrilled with the results. Dave was honest about managing our expectations of the results and he was spot on with his recommendation for us not to go darker. The wood grain is very visible and it's exactly the look we were going for. We got three estimates and the price quoted by Common Sense was the most competitive. We have requested another quote for replacing tiled areas with hardwood in other parts of our home.

We just bought a house that had original red oak (blond) wood flooring with considerable staining (most likely cat urine) throughout. So many boards were damaged that replacing them would've been so costly that Eric recommended we have them sanded and stained a darker color. We are very happy with the way they turned out- it looks beautiful and most of the stains are no longer visible- people compliment us on the floors all the time. It was a very good solution to be big problem. My only complaint was it seemed very expensive to us and there was not much wiggle room on the price. They were fast and worked with our tight timeline to get it done before we moved in.

He went out of his way to provide us with flooring styles and information. He left a diagram of the floor plan for me to use at no cost. We didn't use him because his price was higher than we could afford. Very professional. Highly recommend!

We are novice home-remodelers with no clue what we were doing -- we just knew we needed some new flooring. Eric and his assistant, Dan, were friendly, understanding, and gave knowledgeable suggestions and ideas. Eric installed engineered hardwood flooring in our hallway on the diagonal. He ground the concrete prior to installing the wood flooring, and used a dust extraction device to minimize the dust. Dan installed carpet with 8-pound padding in the other rooms. They were prompt, courteous, and worked cleanly. I was expecting more of a mess and more inconveniences, but they kept all that to a minimum. They completed the work in an excellent manner, and we ended up with a beautiful, high-quality, admirable flooring job. There were no surprises, and they were able to work around our budget. We are delighted with their work and highly recommend their services.

An excellent experience! Eric Bateman was extremely helpful throughout the process of estimation, product selection and installation. The house is in a remote area and the job required numerous visits that were all included in the very reasonable price.

I typically do not rate providers. Eric was a nice enough guy. He was personable, and I'd like to think he just had an off day. First, he was late which is one of my biggest pet peeves and I find inexcusable without a call letting me know you are going to be late. But here is the kicker, when he was measuring my flooring needs, he took a call. Again, I can completely understand this, UNTIL I hear him on his cell phone trying to make another sale on my time. I let this go on for about 7 minutes before I came out of my office and told Eric I had to go. I informed him of how I felt. He did apologize for being unprofessional, but pointed out to me he was only 20 minutes late, rather than the 50 minutes I had stated. I told him I could have been mistaken, but REALLY? Really, 20 minutes late is ok without a call? I do believe Erik probably had a bad day, but if you use him make sure your expectations are clear. Show up on time and don't answer non emergency calls.

It went longer than expected. We ran into some road bumps but it was okay. We've had a couple of issues with boards coming loose but they have come out and repaired the gaps. For the most part, it was okay. Eric was nice, he was the companies owner, but the process took too long. I don't know that I would recommend them unless it was a small job. We had a lot for him to do.

They were hardworking and knowledgeable. They cleaned up their work area and they were good people to work with. They were reasonably priced.

excellent. another installer had installed my wood floors last year, but failed to take proper precautions (in my opinion) or i just had bad luck. at any rate, some of the wood planks were buckled due to moisture. eric came in and did a marvelous and delicate job removing the damaged planks of wood and replaced them with new wood. the job couldn't have gone better. we'd been putting it off for a while and it's great to have it back to normal. Lessons from my first install last year: if you are thinking about installing wood, i have some of my own tips for you that i learned after the initial installer's mistakes. (eric does all these which is why i'd use him without hesitation.) 1) acclimate wood buy the wood WELL in advance of installing it and let it sit in your garage or your house to acclimate. the wood could be coming from a dry warehouse and you might be in a more humid environment, or vice versa most people say a few days is enough which i'm sure it is, but if i had to do it again, the longer the better. wood that is not properly acclimated can have problems later. 2) moisture readings any good installer will take moisture readings on the concrete slab and document the moisture readings and the moisture meter that was used and take readings in different parts of the slab and give you a copy of the readings for your file. 3) leak test make sure you do a proper leak test to ensure pipes in your slab and house aren't leaking. the quick method is to go to home depot and buy a pressure gauge. then at home, turn off the toilet and sink valves, then hook up the gauge to a hose bib, turn off the water at the street and watch the gauge for 15 - 20 min. if the water pressure goes down, you have a leak somewhere. water pressure should stay constant (i think 60-70 psi is average). if this doesn't make sense, ask the plumber at home depot or a handyman friend. you could have a plumber do it, but it will cost a bit more, but might be worth it. it takes about 20 minutes. if you live in a condo or town-home with shared walls, you must ALSO leak test your neighbors place. if they have a slab leak, that water will migrate to your slab and ruin your floor. 4) level slab if your slab is not level, pockets of air will sit under your floor and can collect moisture and potentially cause problems. (you can test to see if your floor is level by buying a long 2 x 4 piece of wood, then seeing if it lies flat on the concrete slab, or if there is space below it. make sure any low parts are filled in with a concrete like filler to make the slab level. 5) moisture barrier make sure whatever moisture barrier is being used is the best. an installer like eric knows what to use, but the first installer i had laid down vinyl, then proceeded to pop a hole in air bubbles that formed, thereby compromising the barrier. 6) sprinklers if you are installing the wood near a wall's where the outside is next to grass or other area with sprinklers, make absolutely sure those sprinklers are not saturating the area or facing the wrong way. if that area is too saturated, that can sometimes make its way in and cause the wood floor to buckle. also, make sure the soil level outside isn't too high. if it's too high, it will trap any moisture in the drywall. also, near sliding glass door, make sure there are no sprinklers, hoses, etc. sliding glass doors, as i found out, have a small hole on the static part of the door for drainage to the outside. but, water can also get in. 7) carpet if you are removing carpet to put in wood, it's key to be there the day the carpet is removed because you want to see what the concrete looks like the minute it's pulled up. if you notice ANY damp spots, that's generally not a good sign. that indicates there is some moisture coming up. carpet lets the concrete slab breathe, but as soon as you put in wood, the wood will trap the moisture. then, later, it might buckle, depending on how much moisture there was. if there's just a slight amount of moisture, the moisture barrier that is put in before the wood should keep the moisture away. anyhow, hope that's helpful to anyone who reads this. and thanks again Eric for a job well done. brian bkatzelnik@yahoo.com

It went excellent. This work was done in the past and I am still getting complements. The guys were very good at cleaning up. It was easy.

Eric and i meet at church about 8 years ago. He has done all the floors in our home. We did room by room. It has been a pleasure to work with Eric. I can't tell how much i love my floors. I will never use carpet again. I'll will use area rugs. If anyone has allergies, laminted floors are the best. I have top grade laminted floors. Eric is kind, friendly and honest. He cleans up after himself.

While the cost of the project was more than I originally wanted to spend, the stairs look amazing! I really feel that this project has enhanced the overall appearance of my home and I couldn't be more pleased with the results. I had originally planned to simply install wood flooring where the carpet used to be, but after consulting with the folks at Common Sense Flooring I decided it would be worth the extra time and money to remove the railing and posts and get the end result that I really wanted. The people who did the installation were professional and nice to be around. They always called before arriving and where very good about communicating throughout the project. I plan to use them again in the future and fully recommend their work!