Sand Free Baltimore

My oak hardwood floors turned out beautiful BUT.......not without problems and stress. First, I had 2 other companies come & give me an estimate. Bob Heffner's communication was the worst of the three, but their price beat the others so I hired them and here are my complaints: 1. Others really explained my choice of water based or oil, time required, process, etc. I learned way more from the others, which allowed me to make my decisions with Sandfree. 2.Bob screwed up the schedule, which completely stressed me out because I scheduled painters several days after the floors were done since all the furniture was outside in a POD. The morning they were to arrive, they didn't. Bob blamed it on the workers & called back stating they should be there by 1:00. Day 2 nobody arrived in the morning, either. 3. plan to stay and oversee the job. If I hadn't been there, the workers only covered the kitchen cabinets, not the chandelier, which would've taken me forever to clean every dangling crystal, nor the ceiling fans, which would've been ruined with all that sanding dust getting in the motors. I had to ask them to wrap the chandelier & the fans.4. I left one bedroom as is because it was a guest room hardly ever used & the floors were in great condition. After the rest of house was done, I decided I liked the darker color, & wanted to have them come back & do that bedroom, which Bob told me would be an extra $450 when he measured it. What he neglected to tell me was that it would be $450 only if I did it at the same time. Now, he tells me it would be over $800. ANOTHER HUGE COMMUNICATION SCREW UP. I asked nicely if he would do it for the original price he told me since he had messed up so many aspects of this job and never told me it would be double to do it later. His answer was no. If he had told me it would be double, I definitely would've done that room, too, when the others were done. 5. Plan on touching up or repainting your door trim around closets or bedroom doors because they got the dark stain on the bottom quarter inch of every single piece of white door trim.

During the estimate I asked Bob how the floors would come out or would it be a better idea to have new flooring installed. The floors are 125 years old have have seen their share of battle scars. I was told "the floors will look great" . They would use a dark mahogany and it would cover everything. The only thing they couldn't fix were any deep gouges in the floor. However the stain would cover any discoloration. Much to my disappointment the floors look the exact same as they did before. The only difference is they have a coat of poly on them. I didn't want just cleaned and sealed, we asked for a solid color stained floor throughout. There are multiple areas that look like no stain was applied. One area about 1'x8' looks like a darker shade of stain. There are also areas that look like no poly was applied. I questioned the technician about all these inconsistencies and he tells me that I should have gone with replacing the flooring. He also begins to tell me that "Bob" does this all the time knowing that what they put down won't cover floors with all this wear. I believe this since I used dark Mahogany on the stairs and it covered darker and better then what they put down. I informed the technician I wasn't satisfied with the work. He said he understood and wanted his check. I asked him to inform Bob of my dissatisfaction and he said he would. I have not heard back from them at this point ;In the end this was a terrible deal for the money. I could have cleaned and sealed the floors with similar results and saved a ton of money. After making an attempt to resolve this issue it has become clear that this business supplies a guarantee of only slight improvement after completing the job. This.improvement is based on their opinion and not what was offered in the beginning. However, I did receive an email saying for additional money they could do a better job. Doesn't surprise me in the least. Do yourself a favor and avoid this business unless your project expectations are low.

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He was scheduled to come out to evaluate the job on Thursday but arrived announced on Wednesday morning.

The services provided by Bob Heffner's (SandFree of Baltimore) was fantastic. The staff were competent, courteous and accommodating. They arrived on time and finished the entire job during the agreed upon time estimate. The hardwood floors on our second story desperately needed restoration. After the SandFree treatment they look like new!!!! We couldn't be more pleased.

I made an appointment for the owner to check the floor and confirm what could be done and that my voucher would cover it. (Full price would have been $400 for up to 200 square feet; I had a voucher for 50% off.) The owner arrived promptly and was helpful, friendly, and professional. We made the appointment for the actual work. A different person showed up, also very friendly and helpful. I believe he did the process just as it should be done, but I was a little disappointed with the results. The floor definitely looks better, but it still looks patchy where the previous finish had worn off, and there are still paint marks in a couple spots. (I did specifically ask about the patches and was told they would be fixed, and while they are a bit better, they are still quite visible. However, I may have had overly high expectations of the results.) The claim of minimal disruption is true; you can walk on the floor within hours, and there is no awful smell. The process is not a substitute for sanding or even buffing, but if your floor is in good enough shape that sanding isn't needed, this chemical process will return the shine. For that, Sand Free Baltimore seems to be a good company.

I thought that the whole process went well. It was a little difficult contacting them at first. I left a message on Bob Heffner's phone. He got back in touch with me at the end of the first day that I called. We made an appointment for Bob and an associate to come out and take a look at my floors to see if they would be able to refinish them. They came out on the date and time we set for the appointment. My floors were in pretty bad shape with stains, since the previous owners of my house had a couple of large dogs that they kept in the house. There were also lots of paint stains that occurred before carpeting was put on the floors. Bob suggested we use a dark stain to try to cover up some of the damage to my floors. I chose "Sandfree Baltimore" because it is an extremely cost-effective and efficient 4-phase, no-sand, low-odor process that recolored and refinished my hardwood floors with great results. The down-time was minimal, because they started around 2:30 p.m., and the entire process was completed by 6:30 p.m.

We were very pleased by our experience with Sand Free Baltimore. Bob arrived promptly and he and his assistant Ed worked very hard throughout the two days to complete the job. I appreciated that Bob was honest about what our results would be up front. Our hardwoods are 54 years old and showed it; he did not promise that they would look like new in the areas that were badly stained, but he did say they would look 200 percent better. I'd say it's more like 400 or 500 percent better. Yes, you can see the worn areas, but they are under a gleaming, easy-to-clean surface that brightens the entire room. Because there was no sanding involved, the process was easy on the people and animals living in our home as well. The finish they used dried quickly and any odor had disappeared within a few hours. Bob also worked with us, agreeing to come over two days so that we wouldn't have to remove all the heavy furniture (including a piano) out of the room entirely. We are very happy with how our floors look now, and just wish we had discovered Sand Free several years ago. We are likely to have them come back in the future to work on our hardwood bedroom floors.