TLC HARDWOOD FLOORS

Hired TLC to refinish the hardwood maple floors I had installed about 10 years ago. The plan was to go from the clear prefinished color to a medium to dark brown color with 2-3 coats of satin clear. The owner Roman, came over to look at the floor and gave me a good price and said he could do it. I was to buy the stain and clear, he would provide the labor and ancillary materials. What transpired was a week of ****. We had to stay at a friends house as my wife was pregnant and you don't want to be around the fumes. I stopped by after he had put on 2 coats of stain and 1 coat of clear. The stain was kinda blotchy and there were huge sanding marks from the edge sander on the perimeter walls. I was pretty upset and asked Roman why the heck would you continue to stain and clear when it obviously looks like crap. He said he would do it again, so I went and bought more stain and clear. Two days later I checked on him and he was getting ready to literally do the same thing again. We got into a bit of a yelling match and then I decided to break out my oscillating palm sander to get the edge marks out of the perimeter areas myself. 2-3 hrs later I was done and the whole time Roman was staining behind me. I show up 18 hrs later and there aren't many edge marks but the blotchy stain job was pretty bad. You see, on the 1st go, I had given him a gallon of pre-stain wood conditioner which helps to even out the stain. However, he insisted on staining the floor right behind me as I was running the sander. Didn't water pop or pre-condition the floor. So I guess it's slightly better the 2nd time but there are areas that are literally a pale, light brown then it's almost black right next it. I think what happened is Roman does not understand the difficulty with maple flooring - you have to be a very good craftsman, have the right tools and the right know how to properly do maple right. Not every floor is oak nor should every floor be treated like it is. He knocked $50 off the agreed upon price and I paid him by check. He cashed that check so bad reviews are what happens

Really this is a mixed review. Roman's work on the new hardwoods was excellent (I would give them an A). But the refinish work was much lower quality (I would give them a C+) and the cleanup was bad (this was an F). For the new floors he pulled off the quarter round, as expected, but when he attached it he did nto fill any of the nail holes. The refinishing on the old hardwoods was the bigger challenge. I was informed that these floors were actually a laminate which makes refinishing very hard. So I was very happy that Roman was willing to refinish this flooring. Unfortunately the final results were not what I expected. From a color matching perspective Roman did great (A rating). The new floors were darker than the original floors so he needed to find a complimentary color since the two floors touch (the transition work was also A quality, it is a very natural transition). Unfortunately the final finish on the flooring was rougher than I would expect (C quality). However this wasn't the worst of issue. Unlike the kitchen floor, he did not remove the quarter round so the stain was all over the quarter round (F quality). When I called him about the quarter round issues he told me he does not do painting and thought I was going to have it painted. However, when we discussed the painting I was having done, before he started his part of the overall job, he made it clear that I needed the painters to go first so the finish on the flooring would not be walked on and no paint would spill on it. Clearly there was a miscommunication, but instead of trying to work with me to resolve the issue, as other contractors have done, he dumped it on me to fix. Based on the overall experience I am very disatisfied. If you work with him I recommend you get everything (and I mean everything - setup expectations, cleanup expectations and general work requirements) in writing so there are no unexpected issues like I had to deal with. This is probably a good recommendation when working with anyone but in this case it was very important.