Earl's Floor Sanding & Install

Great job! Started when they said (day and time) and finshed when they said. Cleaned up nicely.

Floors were in terrible shape and hadn't been refinished since installation in 2001. Three kids and three dogs later they were a complete mess. Todd and co. did a great job. Floors are beautiful. Very pleased. Would recommend and use Earl's again. Also, I have followed his cleaning recommendations to the letter and the floors look great.

Todd was able to schedule the work while we were on vacation. He answered all our questions in a professional manner and recommended only a buffing the second floor with more intense sanding only in specific areas where my kids had really worn and scratched the floors. This was a great option to save some money. The marks and dents in the wood are still visible, but the floors look nice. Since we couldn't walk on the floors, the work was scheduled while we were on vacation. When we got home from vacation we found the floors done, the house clean and the poly finish applied flawlessly. The only problem was the floors had no shine and weren?t at all what I expected. I recall talking to Todd about using a semi-gloss poly, but he didn?t recall talking with me about finishes at all and had used a satin/matte finish. The written agreement didn?t specify semi-gloss (or any specific finish) so I was grateful that Todd agreed to come the same day I contacted him to lightly buff the floors and apply a final coat of semi-gloss finish. The day after the semi-gloss was applied I noticed a few spots that had been missed. Even though I had already made final payment, Todd sent someone to do the touch ups within two days. The touch-ups were done OK and are only somewhat noticeable. They also touched up a couple spots where my son had stepped on the floors before the poly had dried. I left a message for Todd about sending me a bill for the extra footprint touch-ups, but he kindly told me there wouldn?t be any charge. Our miscommunication was unfortunate ? Earl?s ended up working an extra hours and applying an extra coat and we couldn?t move back into our house for an another 3 days. That said, I really grateful and appreciate how Todd handled the situation. Overall, I felt that Todd was really committed to doing a good job and making sure his customers are satisfied. The floors look great! They aren?t overly shiny, but they have a nice, happy sheen. Now that the floors are refinished, it makes our entire living space look so much nicer.

They replied to my phone call right away when I called to set up a meeting and get an estimate. They were able to fit our job into their schedule and to work around our painter's schedule. The crew was polite and worked well into the evening to complete the work in time for the floors to dry before our movers arrived. They offer a low VOC finish so there was no lingering smell. They contained the dust from the floor sanding well, but I understandably had to wipe out cabinets after. The house was empty at the time the work was completed, so cleanup was easy for me. I would use them and recommend them again!

I made an appointment with him and he came into the house. He looked everything over. He is very professional. We talked about the various possibilities of what the floor would look like once he got it up. I was just impressed with his general knowledge and skill level and the way he approach the job. He will show up when he said he would.

See above. The work was completed in a timely manner. We love our new floors and were surprised by how little sawdust there was to "dust off" of items in the kitchen when the project was completed. Todd and Alex were great - pleasant and easy to work with. They answered all of our questions (I had a lot, and they were patient with answering them all!). I only wish I would have contacted them sooner - I could have been enjoying these beautiful floors years ago. Instead, we put it off and only now realize how much mold had accumulated due to the water issue. We will definitely use Earl's floor sanding for future floor refinishing projects.

Logistically, it went well. Started on time, ended on time, kept on schedule, etc.... On the whole, the final product installed is a huge improvement, but I was dissatisfied with a few things, not necessarily in this order. 1 - I don't feel that there was enough discussion on what to expect as a result of the project. What is possible, what isn't possible. For example, how would waves in the floor, caused by not having a perfectly flat floor base, appear along the base shoe. How detail oriented should I expect them to be at concealing such imperfections. Would they strive to use a single piece of baseboard wherever possible (No) or would they use the first piece available (Yes)? I feel this way because there are points along the floorboards where two boards are spliced, even though the length of the two boards together is shorter than what is readily available, so 1 board with no splice could have been used. That would have looked much better. Floor boards and door trim were installed in what appears to be a "best first attempt" possible. For the most part, not bad, but there were a few places where the gaps were unsightly. I could have done this part myself. It would have taken me MUCH longer, but I would not have settled for "best first attempt". In the end, the floor looks great, the baseboard and trim, ok. 2 - One issue that I was very unsatisfied with was this - I asked for a frame for a yet to be purchased/installed fireplace hearth. I discussed, on more than one occasion, my concern over the need for flatness and squareness because the hearth piece to purchased would be flat and square and I wanted to install it flush with the floor. At the start of the installation, I showed the crew special instructions that I had written and went through each item. Especially important items were highlighted. One of the highlighted portions in the instructions reads "Frame squareness and flatness are critical to a good hearth fit". The frame appears to be as flat as can reasonably be expected, but the left side is not square with the front. The response I got when I mentioned this was that it only needs to look square and that it can't be reworked. When I pointed out that this would mean I need to redesign how I am going to do the hearth, "I am sorry you are going to have to redesign how you do the hearth" was the response. This was especially frustrating given the discussions we had on this specific issue. So, now I am left with figuring out how to install the hearth in a fashion that conceals a hearth frame that is not square. 3 - Upon removing a runner rug from the entry area, I discovered that there were black marks on the floor. They would not come off. They appear to be chemical reaction type stains. I think it was wetness and carpet backing. I emailed Todd to ask what these stains were, how to remove them and what other special instructions might he have neglected to give me upon completing the project. I believe that was 2 weeks ago and I have not received a response. Looking online, I discovered that not just any rug is appropriate for wood floors. I also learned that the finish isn't fully cured for weeks. Don't know if this rule applies to my finish. I think some follow up instructions would be appropriate. in the end, would I use Earl's again? No. Would I have gotten better service from another company? Quite possibly. Would I have gotten a better result from another company? I'm not sure.

The spot treatment didn't work; in fact the technician was concerned about it when he left. When dry, the finish crackled over the spots where stripper had bled through the drop paper, so they returned and did a complete strip down and reapplication of finish to the area. They completed the work quickly, probably because work was a little slow at the time. They were professional, respectful and careful.

The name, Earl's Floor Sanding and Install, really does not do credit to this company. These guys are first and foremost very professional floor installers. Add to that some guys with very advanced carpentry skills. On Day 1 four guys descended on hour house with an armada of tools and equipment. They had the old living/dining room carpet out of there in no time. Once they decided on the orientation of the flooring they had one guy laying out the planks, another guy cutting-to-length, and another doing the actual nail-down. Bart, a fourth member of the crew--and the lead man--focused on the stairs. Opening up a rough-in stair case that was originally intended for carpeted steps can be a real archaeological dig. You don't know what you are going to find. And as Bart and I found out, the job would require some real attention to detail and a lot of creativity. Bart came through on both! Back to Day 2. This was floor sanding day. Everything gets sanded, discretely touched-up with wood filler, and then sanded some more. The workers were exceptionally careful to use plastic draping to contain the inevitable dust. All widows/doorways, etc. were blocked, etc. Liberal use of vacuums also! The individually measured-and-fitted stair treads and risers were precisely cut and installed. A lot of cosmetic restoration (ie: sanding :-) was also done to all parts of the stairway components. At the end of the day everything received the first coat of sealer. Day 3 was a couple more coats of sealer to everything wood and last-minute attention to staircase trim detail. And then they were gone........ ________________________________________________________ All-in-all Earl's Floor Sanding and Install exceeded my expectations. Workmanship was exceptional. And I consider myself an advanced handyman and critic. Communication was excellent and every question or concern was addressed on the spot. I will be using them again on another project very soon.

It was great. They were very punctual. They came in right after we closed on the house and did it on time. They were cautious to coordinate with the other contractors in the house. They were also able to supply local sustainable hardwood.

I have hired Earl's Floor Sanding for two projects - once in 2011 before I joined Angie's List, and once last month. The first project was sanding a 18-stair staircase, the landing and hallway, and an office and office closet. My home was built in the 1880s and it was remarkable to see how Todd and Earl's could transform the beat-up pine and fir flooring that was beneath the carpet (and remnants of strange tiling) into striking, rich, period-appropriate stairs and floors. Todd and his crew were very detailed and thorough in their work and their bid and I was 100% satisfied with the end result. They also did a great job of clean-up, no small feat considering the large amount of square footage they had to sand over the course of a week. I was so impressed i brought them back for a second project last month, which was sanding some original maple flooring that was stored in the attic and had been recently installed. The workmanship was again top-notch, and I have no doubt I will be hiring Todd and his trustworthy crew again soon as I tackle other restoration projects in my old home.

Todd is incredibly responsive. They were on time to the minute every time I met with them. The house was as clean as possible for the work that was done - we're finding dust in odd places but everything that should have been clean, was. There are a few dings in our radiator paint that we will have to repair but he will compensate us for that. During the walk-through I pointed out a few areas on some pillars that I wanted touched up (the dings were ours) and he did it right away before leaving. The house looks like a whole new house - no exaggeration. It just came alive with the removal of all of that wax! Todd's team did great detailing around and behind the radiators. The texture of all of it just begs to be touched - it looks almost velvety. Couldn't be happier!

We removed old carpeting in the living room of my late Mother's home to highlight the red oak hardwood floor as we are selling the house. Unfortunately, there were several areas of discoloration. This floor is 53 years old and through the years has sustained some discoloration from use and pets. After determining there would be too much floor to replace and we did not want to re-carpet, I had 4 estimates for sanding and staining and chose Earl's Floor Sanding to do the job. After seeing the floor and determining the best outcome, we decided to sand out as much as possible and then stain the wood to match the existing darker window trim. The stain is perfect with the trim and even though there is a little show through yet, I am very pleased with outcome.

Earl's responded quickly - John was pleasant, patient, and answered all of our questions. Unfortunately we chose a company whose bid came in quite a bit lower.

They had good reviews on Angie's List and that's why I selected them. It took them three or four days to do the job. It went pretty well. For the last two or three days I've noticed some things on the wood and I was planning to call them up to check how they wanted to back their service. I don't know how they would respond to that. It's been six months now and I'm seeing some things on the wood, so I'm going to call them up to see what their service level is to back their product.

I had Earl's restore the hardwood in three rooms that I think were probably never touched after the carpet was ripped up years ago, and in a hallway that had been refinished and stained in a DIY job. Two of the rooms were in what I would call pretty rough shape, with little to no finish and many dark and worn areas. There was also a DIY patch job done on an area of the hallway where an old air return used to be; it had no subfloor and visible gaps, with the boards in the patch running perpendicular to the rest of the floorboards- pretty bad looking and squishy to walk on. I had no problem arranging a time with Todd to come out and give an estimate- he accommodated my schedule. He walked me through various options and estimates for the finishing, patch and room transition (since I wasn't doing the whole house and the transitions are very visible). The estimate was within $40 of what I had expected based on my online research, so I didn't bother having anyone else come out, plus Todd gained my confidence right away. The crew showed up on time to do the work and I actually ended up doing an additional room; once they started sanding down the hallway, Todd called me to discuss the transition between the hallway and the kitchen. He didn't tell me what I should do or try to talk me into anything, but talking through the options, I understood he thought I would get the best result if they did the kitchen at the same time. Normally, I might have felt I was getting "upsold", but I had already told him I intended to do the whole house eventually, so I opted to have it done, at what I thought was a very fair price. They had to move the furniture and other stuff out of there, so that's one less thing to worry about when I get the rest done. I was more than satisfied with the outcome of the job. The floors look amazing. They really brought out the original beauty of the maple. And the patch job was artful- you'd never know it was done. The crew was courteous and professional, and they clearly know their craft. The only complaints I have (because nobody's perfect!) are that one of my wall ornaments that was removed from the kitchen was broken, and they had removed the batteries from the smoke detectors and didn't replace the one in the hallway, which took me a little while to discover. Can't wait to have the rest of the house done, though, and have already recommended them to others

My 25-year old oak floor had a few nicks, some light scratches, and a bit of furniture marring. Earl's tech spent much time on hands and knees carefully prepping the floor...meticulously dyeing imperfections to match the rest of the floor, and taping the surrounding borders and carpet to protect other areas. We discussed various finishing options, and I went with a matte finish. The low VOC/low fumes product was barely noticeable. The end result looks great! It's also much more durable than the previous finish, and light spills now wipe up easily. I should have called much sooner! Earl's was able to come out on short notice, to give an estimate. The work was performed the next morning, and by early afternoon, my floor was in showroom condition. Since I am selling my place, the entryway makes an immediate impact...I will definitely use Earl's again on future projects! Thanks to Earl's Flooring AND Angie's List!

We received bids from 3 installers who had differing opinions (based on the products they sold, primarily) of what to do for the flooring in our kitchen/great room. The bid from Todd was a little more than we had hoped to spend on this project, but he spent a lot of time explaining options and describing the process from start to end. We were a little concerned about dust and fumes but the crew did an excellent job of sealing the space from the rest of the house with zipper doors and covering cabinets/counters with plastic. the floors turned out beautiful and are a near perfect match to the existing floors in the rest of the house (installed over 70 years ago!). There were a couple things that didn't go perfectly (as is often the case in a major job like this), but Todd and the crew addressed the issues and provided very reasonable solutions that made us very satisfied. In retrospect it would have been better for them to have moved the refrigerator and stove out of the space (even though this would have required lifting them over a threshold onto the porch). By keeping them in the workspace there were problems with sliding them around and getting adequate finish under the appliances. Eventually that was solved by enough movement back and forth. Unfortunately, a mishap occurred with some equipment and the corner of the stainless steel refrigerator, leaving a couple dents. But after looking at it Todd, had us contact his insurance company and replacement parts are on the way. Overall, we are very satisfied both with the finished product and the care and professionalism of Todd and the crew (including Alex who did the final finishing--he is an artist...) And we highly recommend the low VOC Streetshoe finish and having an extra coat installed for longer life. This is what any customer wants: a goal of perfection in every aspect of the project; and if that falls short, no-excuses solutions that demonstrate integrity and customer satisfaction. That's what we got.

Todd, the owner, was wonderful to work with. He came to the house to give a free estimate. He was very clear about options we had, as well as responsive to what we wanted to have done with the floors. He also made suggestions that were helpful. He and his crew were very professional. The floors have been restored to their original beauty. They also moved our furniture before and after the refinishing job; and they handled everything with care. We are totally satisfied with the work, with Todd and his crew. We highly recommend them to others. We give them an A+. And we would recommend them for a 2011 Outstanding service award.

Working with this company was a wonderful experience. We called Todd and had him come out for an estimate in April of this year. We knew we wanted the floor project done, but it was the last step in a kitchen remodel, so we knew we wanted to wait until the end of the summer for this step (but wanted an idea on cost). Todd was easy to work with, knowledgeable on every aspect of the job and patient with all our questions. In July we called to schedule a date when they could start the work. They told us when they would arrive on the first day, how many days it would take to complete the job as well as bits of information on 1) when we would need to be there in order to see the stain samples on the floor and make a final decision 2) what day(s) we needed to come home a little later because we couldn't walk on the floor until a certain time and 3) how long to wait after the job was complete before we could put furniture/rugs down. We were given a brand of stain to look at in the local home improvement stores in order to pick out the stain color that we wanted. Todd told us to pick 3 choices and told us he would put a small sample on our floors for us to see and chose from that. Stains can look differently in on different woods and in different light. We loved that we had this option because we knew that we would know EXACTLY what the stain would look like on our floor even before the job was entirely complete. I was very surprised by how one of the colors looked in the store vs on our floor... had I not seen it on our floor first and chosen this color, I would have been very disappointed. This particular step ensured our satisfaction with the look of the floor. Todd and his crew worked long hours in order to complete the job when they said it would be completed. The final cost actually came in slightly lower than the estimate because Todd was able to find a better deal on supplies (and rather than keep the extra money, was honest with us and passed along his savings to us). We couldn't be happier with the end result. Our new hardwood matches are existing wood so close that people can't tell the new from the old. We love the stain color, we love the custom fitted vents. The space looks amazing. We would ABSOLUTELY recommend this company to anyone and everyone we know and definitely would use them for future projects.

We hired Earl's after they delivered a reasonable estimate that including some minor trim work and higher quality floor finish (Streetshoe) than the other bidder. The owner, Todd, was always very professional, and even dropped the price about $150 when I asked if he was flexible. Unfortunately, we had a few issues that, while rectified and compensated with a phone call and their return visit, were quite significant enough to warrant a negative review. The primary issue is that we learned they used a lessor-quality floor finish than called for in the bid. The employee was still at the house when we returned from vacation, which was another problem, as they were supposed to be done much sooner in the day. He happened to mention that he used the different finish and was told that's what he was given to use. After he left, I also noticed that the floors were rather rough to the touch and dull, but wouldn't have thought anything of that if it hadn't been for the fact I had the floors on another level refinished last year. Those floors were much smoother. When I called Todd about these problems, he said they should have used Streetshoe and didn't know why another product was used. He also wasn't sure why the floors would be rough, but supposed it could have been from dust. Todd sent out his "best finisher" the same day I reported the issue, and the better-quality finish was applied and the rough floor was buffed out. Unfortunately, we had to move some furniture all over again, and my pregnant wife had to vacate the house for a few hours due to the fumes. I asked Todd knock off $200 due to the trouble, and the fact that it was only by luck that I even learned about the use of cheaper finish and poor quality work. It took a little debate to get the price adjusted, but he eventually understood my reasoning. Todd insists, and I trust, that they didn't intentionally use cheaper finish to save money on the job. The floors are now shiny and smooth. They are certainly capable of excellent work. The original finish guy was apparently rather new, so hopefully this will be a learning experience for him and Todd.

From the first phone call to the final clean up Todd and Alex were friendly and professional. They did what they said they would do, explained choices and answered our questions. The floor looks great!

The work they did was good. They were really professional irrespective of my time. They wanted to get the job done at a certain time and they really paid attention to detail. They did a real good job in putting the wood stairs. They really seemed to know what they were doing and they were clean too.

Earl's was very professional, kept me well informed on progress and provided high attention to detail. Thanks for a job well done!

I think they were great. They came out on time and gave me an estimate right on the spot. They seemed to be very knowledgeable. They were very professional and gave me a sense of comfort. I would rate them high overall.