Floor Coverings International

Awesome! Very responsive.

unknown

At first everything went well. I wasn't sure if I was going to finance it or pay outright, and Michael was patient while I got that worked out. Michael was very professional while I went through the process with him of choosing tile and wood for my place. He told me it would take 4-5 days total for everything. The total estimate for everything, including installation, was around $18K. I paid $10K up front. Michael does not do any of the work himself - he subcontracts out to local contractors. The tile guys came first, and they were awesome. They were on time, very professional, and did amazing work. I very much love my fireplace and the tile in my bathrooms. Michael does not do any of the work himself - he subcontracts out to local contractors. A friend of mine offered to house my 2 cats for the few days of the project (starting July 24), so I brought them to the friends house. It is now October 20, and the project is still not done, and my friend still has my cats. The tile guys came first, and they were awesome. They were on time, very professional, and did amazing work. I very much love my fireplace and the tile in my bathrooms. The bamboo, however, was a completely different story. The guys arrived on 7/25 to put in the bamboo flooring, and I left to go to work while they worked. I got a call from the subcontractors later that day, saying there were major quality issues with the floorboards themselves and I should come home immediately, which I did. There were about 20 planks laid out with notes written on masking tape attached to the planks, pointing out the issues - the planks were chipping, they were unevenly sized in thickness and girth and didn't fit together well, and the finish was coming off in places. I called Michael, and he came to look at it the next day. He wanted to just order more planks and have the contractors sift through them to find good ones to lay. I was not happy with this - it was obvious that this stuff was terrible quality. Eventually (a few days and a couple of terse emails later) Michael finally agreed to order a different product (CaliBamboo). On 8/4 (Saturday), Michael arrived with a truck full of the new material. But he didn't bring anyone to carry the materials up to my condo. I live on the 3rd floor and he had 50 boxes weighing 80 lbs each. I ended up helping him carry each one of those boxes up, and carrying the boxes of the rejected flooring back down. On 8/7, the contractors began installing the new flooring while I was out of town. I expected the flooring to be near completion by the time I returned on 8/9. It was not. I arrived to find a house full of contractors with no foreman or manager in sight. They were smoking on my balcony and leaving the ashes out there. When they left, they left my front door wide open with the key still in the lock without telling me they were leaving. I called Michael, and he assured me that they would clean up after themselves and that they would be done by the next day, Friday 8/10. They were not. But Michael said they would come and finish on Saturday 8/11. I left the contractors alone Saturday, and when I came home, I was appalled. The flooring was mostly ok, but there were small scratches everywhere. The worst thing, though, were the baseboards. Here are some of the highlights of the issues: -The baseboards had been painted offsite and apparently were stacked together before the paint was dry, so the paint was peeling terribly everywhere, like someone had gone over it with a cheese grater. -The corner joints between baseboards were all very sloppy, sometimes with gaps between 1/4 and 1/2 inch! - My concrete subfloor had not been leveled before the bamboo was laid, so there were many places where there were big gaps between the baseboards and the floor. - Many of the doorframes had been cut WAY too short (up to more than an inch in places), and they didn't come close to meeting the floor. There were places where the flooring didn't quite reach the doorframe and they just left big holes there, exposing the concrete subfloor. - The baseboards were completely missing in my kitchen - there were none installed. - The transition pieces that had been installed between the tile in my bathrooms and the wood floor, as well as the transitions to my glass sliding doors from the wood flooring, had been nailed down and the nails left large gouges in the wood transition pieces. - There were large (1/4") gaps between the flooring and my tile fireplace, exposing the concrete subfloor - pieces of baseboard were missing It was a mess. Michael assured me that someone would come that Monday 8/13 and fix everything. I came home that Monday expecting everything to be fixed, but the ONLY thing that had been (partially) fixed was that they had installed baseboards in the kitchen. Nothing else was fixed. I called Michael, he said that he would talk to the subcontractors and they would fix it the next day, Tuesday 8/14. I came home 8/14, and again nothing was done. Called Michael again and he said he would come personally the next day and make sure everything got done. When I came home from work on Wednesday, again nothing was fixed. Thus ensued a now 2 month long battle. Some of the issues have been fixed. Someone finally came to paint the baseboards, but he didn't paint the baseboards in the closets, and he didn't fix the issues with the baseboards not reaching the floor. I have sent lists of issues, in MS Word format, in MS Excel format, I've sent pictures showing the issues, and yet, still, only some get fixed. Michael sent a guy with a marking pen to "color" the scratches, which diminished the appearance of some, but many still remain. New transition pieces have been put in, and that looks much better, especially around my fireplace. What is most frustrating about this whole experience is that I hired Michael to manage this project, and has not at all managed it since August. Instead, I have to keep emailing, calling, nagging to get the issues fixed. I would NOT recommend hiring FCI. Not to anyone.