APREL FLOORING INC

We just finished a home remodel and dealt with about a dozen different types of contractors (painter, plumber, electrician, HVAC, carpenter, carpets, etc). Yuri stood out among all of them due to his quality work, focus on customer satisfaction, communication, and integrity. I wish everyone we had worked with was as reliable and easy to work with as Aprel Flooring. For our flooring, we received 4 or 5 quotes to replace the hardwood floor in our kitchen and attached living room. Aprel was the most competitive in pricing, but the reason I chose them was due to the confidence I felt in their knowledge and expertise, as well as their thorough communication. Aprel gave us the most detailed line-by-line proposal for the job. Other flooring contractors told us we would need to put a 1/4" round trim along circumference of the kitchen island, whereas Yuri felt confident in his ability to tuck the flooring under the island without a visible gap - which he did quite successfully. We were so impressed with how the floors looked, we decided to hire them again a few months later to replace several carpeted areas with hardwood. What blew me away was the focus on quality work and customer satisfaction before, during, and after the job. Aprel also showed extreme care in operating within our home and not doing any damage. We had an issue with some of the floor boards that we had purchased, and the team was very responsive in navigating that and handling the problem with the hardwood supplier. I felt so many of the contractors we worked with on our remodel were looking for opportunities to gouge us anytime something came up, where as Yuri was just focused on doing a good job and making us happy. Five stars!

These guys and their crew (David and others) are very good at what they do, especially with woodwork, etc. I had several quotes for installing our floors, some that were less than Aprel, yet went with Aprel based on the high Yelp reviews and photos of their work. I would recommend them to anyone who wants a quality job at a good price.

07/31/2012 We had worked with them before and were very satisfied. They came in and gave us a very reasonable bid. They showed up on time and did everything they said they were going to do. They did an excellent job of cleaning up, also. Very reasonable!

Yuri and Oleg were reliable and professional at all stages of my work. The work was completed on time and at the agreed upon (very reasonable) cost. All work was of excellent quality.

They got back to me at first, but after a couple iterations they fell off and never responded.

The provider remained courteous and delivered quality results throughout a painstaking process (due to the difficulty of dealing with our homeowners association requirements) that would have caused some contractors to throw their hands in the air and say "forget it." Aprel was professional through the whole process - helping us deal with delays and even storing the wood we purchased from a wholesaler for over a week (due to a delay). Our condo has concrete beneath the floor - and many flooring contractors tried to tell us that we needed to "float" the wood floor, rather than glue it down...but I knew that I wanted to glue down the wood. Aprel was honest, saying that it would be more work, and that any unevenness in the concrete may cause unevenness in the wood, but they were happy to do it for us. Ultimately the floors look great, and I'm glad we glued the wood down - for one, because it's much quieter (our neighbors floated their wood floors, and walking through their place is much louder). That's just one reason why I'm happy we went with Aprel. They didn't try to force us into one hardwood flooring application - they listened to what we wanted, and gave a reasonable quote to do just that. Also, Aprel doesn't sell wood themselves. Aprel said that we could buy the wood from anywhere - which is nice - but it just happened the wholesaler they recommended (Hardwood Floor Superstore - in Alameda) had a great product (manufactured Brazilian Cherry) on sale for a good price (About $5? Can't remember exactly how much).

This unit previously had carpet which had been removed prior to this job. Aprel worked with me to select the wood and gave me the option of purchasing it myself or having them purchase it at no mark up. The work was done on time and at the estimated price. The work was done in a professional manner and looks great. The only negative was that between initial estimate and commencing the work, it was difficult to get in contact with them to answer follow-up questions or to confirm work dates. The lack of response almost caused me to move forward with another company. I am glad that I stuck with them, as the end result was as good as I hoped and the price was several thousand dollars lower than comparable estimates. When I am ready to refloor the rest of my home, I will be calling them because they did what they said they would do at the price that they quoted.

The work was scheduled with Yury to start the day after Christmas. The wood for the kitchen was delivered as scheduled. He then phoned me a week later and said he was going on vacation and could not start the work until 1/7/09. The crew arrived each day on time - 8:00 - and worked some days to 6:00 p.m. They did work on Saturday also. The original estimate for the work to be completed was between 7 and 9 days and was "completed" on the 9th day. However, upon inspection, the finish coat was poorly applied; there were numerous areas of pooling of the coats, areas that obviously didn't receive any finish coating, and large streaks when the floor dried. In every room there was debris embedded within the finish coat, including hairs, string. The transition boards were installed bare and received no coating. There were rough spots throughout that were not completely sanded, etc. Very poor quality work. While moving the furniture back into the house, the crew dragged the pieces across the floor, resulting in scratches and scuff marks. The six-month old stainless steel refrigerator frame was bent. There was paint splattered from the baseboards all over the newly finished floors. The paint on the ceiling in my dining room was peeled off from the tape they used to put plastic around the light fixture. I contacted Yury about the problems. He said he would come and fix the problems when he returned from vacation; that this was "very normal" to have places that need to be corrected. He said it would only take a couple of hours. They arrived on the scheduled day. I pointed out all the areas I was unhappy with. He agreed they were not right and said he would fix them. It took a three-man crew 9 hours to "touch up" the work. Upon inspection after this re-work, there is still debris embedded in the floors that they did not remove. The rough spots were not fixed. In fact, the more I walk on it, the more rough patches I seem to find. The squeaks remain; there was no attempt to eliminate them. Yury justified this by telling me I wasn't charged for the squeak elimination anyway (there is a line item in the estimate for this work). Very disappointed with the results and will have another contractor come in and fix the problems.

My experience did not go well. Some of this I can blame on myself. I am sure that Yury and his crew are used to owning "the whole job" and not finishing someone else's half-started job. The scratches in my floor and imperfections in sanding are not his fault, but then again I'm not upset about them - they add character to the floor in my opinion. However, the excessive time (30 days) it took my floor to fully cure and the stickiness in the corners that still haven't gone away, I can entirely blame on his crew. First they applied the stain by pouring it on the floor and spreading it around with a big rag on a stick - this part of the job looked pretty standard and the stain looks pretty good - but they were careless with the rag-on-a-stick and ended up leaving little 1" wave patterns of stain all over the (freshly painted) door trims, and got a bit onto the floor tile in an adjacent room as well. I had to repaint those areas later. Although Yury had all the information on Tand T up front from when I sent him links to the product and manufacturers' website, he did not read the instructions on the can for how to apply the finish. The can says "Apply a very thin layer with a soft cloth and immediately wipe dry. It is almost impossible to use too little!" Yury applied the finish one morning and when I returned in the evening to the house to check up on things, there were wet pools of varnish oil all over! They had poured it on the floor and spread it around, then left it to dry - which is how you apply their usual commercial finish. After I called Yury and asked him to come wipe up the excess so it would dry, he promised to do so "first thing in the morning". They did not actually come until the next afternoon - more than 32 hours after it was supposed to be wiped dry! Had I known he would not show and how long the floor would take to dry, I would have wiped the floor dry myself that very evening. After waiting a week with the heater on 81 degrees and with fans blowing all over the floor, I had him come back to finish buffing the floor with lots of pads to try to get up the excess finish. It succeeded for the most part but it took 2 more weeks for the floor to dry enough to move in furniture and things. In short, although the floor looks OK now, it took an extra 30 days before I could move in (costing me $190 in storage fees), I had to run the thermostat at 81 degrees for a week or so ($300 energy bill this month) and I had to delay moving into my new house for an extra month - all troubles which could have been avoided had he read the instructions on the can of finish! They probably do great work if left to their own devices and materials, but I sure have a bad taste in my mouth about my entire experience, and won't be recommending them to anyone.

Sorry, I m not good as long descriptions but they did everything that you d hope for when getting your floors installed and for a great price.

We contacted and interview several companies for this fairly large project. We liked Yuri right away decided to go ahead with him based on our interview and Angie's list referrals. Yuri and his crew are absolutely incredible. They arrived every day on the promised time (they are based out of Daily City and we're in Foster City. They worked everyday, including Saturday, until the job was complete. They covered our kitchen in plastic to keep off the dust (Dust!!! It gets in everything and no matter how many times you clean up, it keeps coming back. Get used to it!) They are very good at remodeling and rebuilding. They framed and drywalled two new closets and a new entry hall in our home and did a terrific job. We had several quotes for the job that exceeded $14,000 and that was just for the hardwood floors. Yuri and his crew charged us $5,600 for "everything thing". We saved many thousands of dollars! They are terrific and we will use them again!

Sanding was an all day job to prepare the floor for the application of the polyurethane next day. First coat was smooth and dried quickly. Second coat was thicker and took many hours to dry and it was found the poly pooled in places. Crew came next day and sanded the trouble spots and brushed poly on those spots. Crew came back same day and was not happy with the results and re-sanded, then applied another light coat of the finish. Floor dried fairly quickly and looked OK. Yury explained that engineered wood is tricky to work with as the wood is not thick as regular hardwood is, so sanding has to be light. The results can vary and I knew this at project start. Overall the project was successful and I can call April with any problems. The difficultly I experienced had nothing to do with the workers, but my personal space was limited and I suggest that during the work day one should make arrangements not to be home and pets need to be considered too.

Yury, Oleg and their team were fantastic. They ripped out our old floors and cabinets, installed kitchen cabinets, tiled the laundry closet, disposed of all the debris, and reconnected our appliances in just 8 days, well ahead of schedule. They showed up when they said they would. They worked hard and professionally all day, and they left the job site as clean as can be reasonably expected. They were at work every day (including Saturday!) with up to 6 guys. All the work was done by their team without subcontracting anything out, which makes things a lot easier. They purchased some of the materials themselves, but didn't mark it up by one penny. For the hardwood, they pointed us to their supplier, and allowed us to purchase the wood under their contractor's rebate. We bought the wood at 1/3 of the price that was quoted to us in a large local flooring shop. We love the floors, and we love the kitchen. Note that the project cost only includes the work, not any materials or appliances.

I highly recommend Aprel. I met Yury after he and his team remodeled my friend's bathroom. As my friend would say, "Beautiful work, on time, and right on budget." I collected some bids, and Yury was attractively priced, issued a detailed proposal, and came across as trustworthy. His team was professional, reliable, efficient, and very thoughtful. Regarding the work, everything is beautiful. You should see the downstairs floors and the bathroom especially, so nice. As I was new to this process, I asked their advice in many instances, on choice of materials, etc. His team knows the materials, they do great work, and they focused on saving me money when ever they could. When ever we hit a snag in the process, Yury would remain calm and say, "Don't worry, we'll figure it out." And they did, every time. My job was complicated, they took care of everything. They stayed on budget and are very honest, nice guys to work with! I highly recommend them!

I came across this company on a web site. Yury returned my call shortly and came over to give an estimate. Yury and Oleg were never late and always exceptionally responsible. They are real professionals! They did an excellent job and we are very happy!

These guys are really amazing! I liked them from the very moment when they came for an estimate. Even having checked their references I never expected that they would go over my expectations! Professional, quick, beautiful job and kind and helpful attitude to what they do. I do recommend this company to anyone who value true quality.