Floormasters Inc

A warning before hiring Floor Masters of New Orleans (floormastersofneworleans.com) Here was my experience. I am in the process of listing my house for sale. I’ve been called out of state and have had my realtor deal with contractors as much as possible. I engaged Dwayne Braud of Floor Masters of New Orleans after another floor contractor left a mess of my floors. The floor contractor I first hired did not sand thoroughly and stained over many spots of oil-based finish he had neglected to sand off. This left many sticky spots that would have to dry or be dealt with before re-sanding could commence. My realtor has 25 years of experience with old NOLA houses and wood floors. He was convinced the first job would never dry in the New Orleans humidity. Dwayne Braud of Floor Masters of New Orleans came to my house to assess the problem. We agreed that he could and would fix and finish the project. I hired him on April 11. On April 13th, he requested a deposit for half of the quoted price ($970.00, half of $1940.00) though he had not yet determined when he would be able to start. I sent him the $970.00 within five minutes of his request (a red flag should have gone off, as Braud’s company doesn’t take credit cards, only Venmo.) On the 14th, he went to my house and took a video explaining that the floors were still not dry and that he’d check them again the following Monday, the 19th. My realtor had contact with him a few times that week and he was under the impression Braud would start on Monday, the 19th. That Monday, I had not heard from Braud. I had sent him an email the day before that he had not responded to, so I called him at three p.m. to see if he’d started or at least looked at the floors. Without informing myself or my realtor, he had decided he’d go and check them on Thursday. I texted Braud with the same questions I had addressed in the unreturned email: what would he do if the floors weren’t dry? I related to him that we were under a time constraint and needed to proceed. He responded with “It’ll dry.” I posed the question again. His response: “It’ll dry.” I pointed out that “It’ll dry” was not an answer to my question of how we would proceed if they don’t. And though Braud had agreed to do this job, his “go to” was to blame everything on the fact that I hadn’t hired him in the first place. Mind you I had hired Braud to fix the previous contractors’ mess. I then called Braud. He very condescendingly explained that in his 30 years doing floors, he’d never had them not dry, and that he didn’t know what else to say. I actually told him I didn’t think he’d be speaking to me in that tone if I were a man. He then said “I’ll tell you what, how about I just give you your money back?” While my tone was stern, I was shocked and offended that my simply asking questions could elicit such a power trip in him. He had, after all, not answered my texts and emails and hadn’t done what he said he was going to. And yet, I placated him. I guess I’ve had enough misery around these floors that I just wanted them done. I told him that all we wanted was transparency. To keep us informed. Braud later texted me that it could take more than a month for the floors to dry and we’d just have to wait. My realtor related that this was not an option and asked about other methods for treating the sticky spots. Mind you these methods are the same that are recommended by Home Depot and producers of hardwood stains. Braud was not open to these methods. He then recommended that if we wanted my 108 year-old floors done immediately, that he could lay plywood over them and put a pre-finished floor down. I did not know that one should NOT give such a big deposit for a job that is only labor intensive, not parts based. My realtor insisted I get my money back immediately. I requested my money from Braud at 4 p.m. By 8 p.m. I’d still not heard a word from him. When I contacted him, he proceeded with a song and dance about his Venmo account being frozen (what Venmo had to do with him not being able to refund my money, I still don’t know.) He told me he’d call first thing in the morning to straighten it out. I called him at 10 a.m. and asked what was going on. He said he was finishing his coffee and about to head to the office. I told him, loudly, that he needed to stop being so casual while he was sitting on my $1000.00 dollars. He proceeded to berate me, screaming into the phone about my attitude. I am a 57 year-old woman. I have been subjected to some sexist, misogynist crap in my day. Nothing like this blatant display by Braud. There is no way he would speak to a man in this fashion under these circumstances. He hung up on me. He emailed a bit later, adopting a very conciliatory tone, though not mentioning or apologizing for screaming at me. He kept blaming Venmo for not being able to access the funds. He even sent me an email from Venmo saying his account had been frozen. I kept asking him what Venmo had to do with not being able to send my money from his bank account. Clearly he did not have the funds to forward to me. He spent my money without having lifted a finger at my house. Nearly 24 hours later, his wife sent me the money. From her account. Please think twice before you do business with this man. The floors on his website look pretty, but this “20 year NOPD veteran, man of faith” is a nightmare to deal with.

Dwayne was great from start to finish on my project. Quick response to give me a quote. Easy to keep in touch for steps leading up to installation. Dwayne's crew was quick and tidy. My biggest pet peeve as a home owner is cleaning up after workers I have hired. I was so happy after they pulled the old flooring out - no mess! They installed the new flooring very quickly. One small section of flooring had an issue due to the subflooring and they problem shot to fix it. I have also seen 2 other friends hardwood floors installed by this company and hired based on seeing their work. Dwayne is detail oriented and he listens to your concerns. Highly recommended.

I am a seasoned home remodeler and had a bad experience with a previous floor refinisher. That guy told me about some great product he got from Australia which hardened too hard and then cracked and came out leaving gaps in the flooring. A asked some pointed questions as to what material he used to fill the gaps in the floor boards so that I could research the product to determine its suitability and he would not respond. He merely told me that if the material he used did not work well then he would have many call-backs which he does not. I asked for a detailed quote by E-mail and to this date he has never contacted me.

My experience with Floormasters was wonderful. I was 8 months pregnant and in serious nesting mode, running out of time to complete my renovations. Dwayne was professional, punctual and trustworthy. The repairs he made to my floor can't even be identified from the original. Super satisfied customer!

Could not be happier -- Dwayne and his team were timely, the work was done well, the cost was reasonable based on the other estimates we'd gathered, and the final product looked incredible!

Ed was on time to look over what needed to be done and within a day or two he emailed me a proposal. I approved and within a couple of days the workers arrived promptly three mornings in a row to perform each step of the process. The work was excellent, much cheaper and more efficient than we had imagined.

Dwayne is a great guy. He showed up immediately and had it done in a day. He was super professional. It was a great experience.

We are very pleased with our newly-resurfaced floors. Mr. Duane Braud (a former law enforcement officer) was highly professional throughout the process, and had a keen eye and desire for perfection. Communication was prompt and courteous, and the quality of the work is very high. We highly recommend him.

The work was excellent. Highly recommend. Would use for future needs.

It went great! Dwayne and his crew showed up when they said they would and completed the work on time. They were all friendly and very helpful. In fact, when they pulled my ancient Chambers stove away from the wall, we smelled a little gas. The crew helped me turn off the main gas line and they even assisted me in replacing the old hose that leads to the stove. The stove weighs a ton and I couldn't have done it without them. To my delight, they saw to it that the yellow pine we excavated matched the red pine in rest of the house so everything now flows beautifully. The floor is gorgeous and was worth every penny.

First let me say that I have never taken the time to write a review for anything, but I had to in this case. I called to schedule a time to get an estimate for new flooring for our condo and Dwayne answered immediately. We scheduled the estimate for the next day. He arrived on time and gave us the cost before he left. I ask alot of questions and he patiently answered every one. We decided to proceed with Floormasters. Dwayne gave us a projected start date which was perfect. We stayed at our home in Mississippi during the removal of the old floor and installation of the new flooring. Dwayne kept us informed of how things were going, and was ALWAYS accessible. He either answered the phone, or promptly called back.......usually within minutes. We arrived at the condo, turned on the lights, and WOW! They had done an excellent job. We were amazed at the quality of workmanship, as well as how clean they left everything. We are extremely happy with our decision to have Dwayne/Floormasters do the job, and we have already recommended him to our friends.

I contacted Floor Masters and the owner, Dwayne, promptly returned my call. He came to my home and gave me an estimate of the cost of installing hardwood flooring in my family room. He referred me to Floor Co in Harahan where I purchased the flooring and Dwayne picked it up. I received two other estimates. They were all comparable but I decided to go with Floor Masters because Dwayne was professional and always returned my calls promptly. I asked for a Saturday appointment because I work and Dwayne was very accomodating. He and his crew arrived at the scheduled time and worked diligently to get the job done. They also removed some furniture that was too heavy for me to get out of the family room and when they were finished they moved it back for me. The job was done in the time promised and I am thrilled with the finished product. I would recommend Floor Masters to anyone who is thinking about getting hardwood floors installed.

Floormasters arrived when they said they would and performed work efficiently. The sanders they used were excellent and no dust cleanup was required.

It took four days to complete. The workers arrived promptly and proceeded to do their job very professionally. I am very satisfied with the job.

Having all of the flooring on the main floor of our home replaced was a major disruption. We were unable to to use large sections of hour home for about a month. Fortunately, we were able to live upstairs and to use the kitchen downstairs during most of that period. Floormasters installed about 400 square feet of hardwood flooring to replace carpet in our living room and bedroom. They started by installing a plywood sub-floor. That process took about 2-3 days, a bit longer than expected because the first set of drill bits were unable to penetrate our foundation. Drilling into the foundation produced a lot of dust, which we were not expecting so early in the process. Once the sub-floor was installed, it took another 2-3 days to nail down the red oak flooring. The installation crew did a great job fitting the new floor in with our existing hardwood, and in dealing with some complicated angles in the rooms. Once the new flooring was installed, they sanded all of the hardwood floors (new and old). The sanding process took a bit more than two days, but they were very thorough and the sanding made very little mess. After sanding, the transitions between the new and old flooring were very smooth. Once the floors were all sanded, they were stained and three coats of polyurethane were put on. A new coat was applied once a day for 3 days. The floor looked pretty bad after the first coat, better after the second, and pretty good after the third. However, one of the installers made a small mistake on the 3rd coat.. There was a spot about 4 inches X 10 inches that was noticeably more glossy than the surrounding area. Duane came out several times to try to repair the mistake, but was unable to blend the sheen with the surrounding area. At this point, he asked me if I would prefer to live with the mistake (because I was ready to move furniture back into the house), or whether I would like them to add another coat of polyurethane (at no cost to me). I decided to get the problem fixed with the extra coat of polyurethane even though it meant living upstairs for several more days. Once the extra coat was applied, the floors looked great. The new and old floors are not exactly the same color, but you can only tell if you know where to look. As the new wood ages, they will probably get even closer. Overall my experience with Duane and Floormasters was very positive. There was some frustration along the way -- mainly due to my impatience -- but everything was handled well and professionally. All mistakes were corrected completely and to my satisfaction. This company is petty small, and less polished than some of their competitors (no high gloss brochures or sales people), but they do great work, and do a very good job of keeping you informed. The first time I contacted Duane, he was at my house within the hour to give me an estimate. He remained responsive and available throughout the process --even after he had received full payment.

Our floors are old and they needed work. If they had just needed to be sanded and varnished then we would have done it ourselves but we thought it would be best to hire a professional so they could do it right. We decided to hire Dwayne and his crew to finish repairing our kitchen floor, which the previous contractor had left half done, and also to repair various trouble spots, then to sand and seal the kitchen/dining/living area and the upstairs as well. The "repair" part was where we lost them, I think. We had found 4 inch tongue and groove planks that matched our floors at a salvage yard to use in the repairs. These planks were not perfect and with a 150 year old floor I absolutely do not expect perfection, but I do expect a little better than we got. When Dwayne came to look at the job he was very personable and very confident. I walked through the house with him and pointed out various problem areas. He kept saying no problem, we'll fix it. He said several times that his crew would fix things "that I didn't even know needed fixing". So we put our trust in him and set the date. While the crew is working you really can't go in and see the progress, which is unfortunate. Dwayne was not on site and I only saw him at the beginning and then again when it was all done. The crew got it done with remarkable speed and when we could finally walk on it to take a look, we saw why it went so quickly. They hadn't fixed or repaired anything other the the gaping hole in the kitchen and that was not done very well. When I pointed out the dipping floorboards in the bedroom and next to the staircase (that I had pointed out during the initial walk through) he apologized and had his crew back in to fix those 2 points, which I did appreciate, but he still insisted that the floors look fantastic and they did a good job. The floors looked better, there is no denying that, but they did not look "fantastic". The overall job was not great, especially the kitchen. The gaps between the boards in the kitchen are huge. They filled them in with an ugly purple glue which has since cracked and comes out in chunks every single time I vacuum. There is not enough support under the floor boards so they shift and crack every time we walk on them. The grime of 150 years was left in between boards and was just lacquered over. There's even a spot of neon green paint that was left on the floor from a previous tenant and they just applied the polyurethane over it. I really hate to write a poor review and in fact it took me almost a year to do it. Dwayne seemed like a nice guy but he didn't live up to our expectations. And no, I don't think our expectations were unrealistic. I know that these old floors weren't going to look like we just bought them and we didn't want them to. We wanted the character and charm of the beautiful heart pine floors that have been here since the Civil War. The floors were not un-salvageable and it was not even recommended that we buy new flooring, because, all in all, the floors were in great shape with the exception of some rough spots that could have been repaired and weren't. I think if he had been on the site he would have noticed these problems but unfortunately he wasn't here so we had to notice them after the fact.

They did a wonderful job. I would definitely use them again.

Great! Dwayne is extremely professional, gave us a lot of confidence. We currently live out of state, so after initial meeting he was on his own. He was responsive and timely with his work. He found old termite damage and completely repaired it for a very reasonable price. He sent photos of that damage and also of the finished work. He was honest and forthcoming in his estimate, obviously knows his stuff. I would use him again, or highly recommend him to anyone. The work is beautiful! Everything we hoped for!

The job took four days overall. The workers arrived promptly at 8am every day - sometimes a little earlier. Dwayne checked on the job everyday. The floors look great! Now I need to have the wood floors in the rest of the house redone because they look dull in comparison. When I have the money - I will definitely hire these guys to do it.

Overall the floors look beautiful. However, the process to get there was not smooth. Dwayne was very responsive and came out to give me a quote a day or so after I initially called. I was very specific that I needed some antique pine floors refinished and our tile kitchen floor ripped up and matching antique pine wood installed in the kitchen that matched the width of the existing floors. The specific width was discussed and noted in the quote. Dwayne gave me a price which was competitive and I chose to work with him. He told me it would be several weeks to get the specific width of matching flooring I needed, which I was fine with me because the width was important to us. I was not at the property during the floor installation, but when I saw pictures of it, they clearly didn't install wood of the right width. When I talked to Dwayne, he immediately apologized and tried to make it right, but we were under a time crunch with the other trades because we had already waited several weeks due to our being told that there was a delay due to the contracted width. We ended up keeping the wrong width, but it is slightly noticeable and I sort of feel like we were strung along waiting for wood that we expected to be correct and it was not. Also, I'm not sure if Dwayne was on site during the install because I think he would have caught it had he been there. Dwayne did offer to find and install the correct width, though. One other frustrating thing was that we had asked for cardboard or paper to be put down (which I was willing to pay for) since others were going to be working and we wanted to protect the floors, but Dwayne flat out refused. I think that if you have a bigger job, or one you can be there every day to nip problems in the bud, you may have a better result, but we used Angie's List to find Floormasters and chose them based on their reviews, and I wish I had gone with the more expensive alternative suggested by our realtor. However, all this being said, the floors look really good, and the color matching between the newly installed floors and the old floors is spot on.

Called him on a Monday afternoon, he came to do estimate on Tuesday morning. Awesome.

Work was done well. Very nice and prossional crew. The only concern / complaints is regarding responsiveness. I took us weeks and several reminders to get an invoice for the amount that we paid. When 'connecting' the new floor to the old floor not everything lines up exactly. I understand that and it is fine, but where the 'cracks' are a bit wider due to this, they are filled up with liquid wood. After a week or so this liquid wood starts to settle and need to be 'touched up'. After several requests someone showed up to do this, only to leave the work uncompleted. They did leave behind some product so that we could comlete it ourselves; I don't know how to do this. We have sent a few requests for them to come back, but have not received a reply. We have since sold the house. I would hire this company again, but would make sure not to pay the entire invoice until everything is done, as to give them an incentive to complete all the details.

The floor looks fabulous! You could not even tell that anything had ever been wrong. I would recommend this company to everyone. I am so happy with the results.

They were in the $2,500 to $2,800 price range for the work where the other company was around $1,800. It was more of a price issue. I was ripping out a door and replacing it with a window and the other company could do all the work at the same time, so it was the convenience of one contractor versus multiple contractors.

Dwayne & crew did a great job! The floors look amazing!!!