Brilliance Flooring

I was so super excited to finally have my floors refinished. It was something that had been bothering me for at least 18 months or so. This however, was a very disappointing experience. The company rates well and has some good reviews. I was sold by Ben the owner after several bids came through from other vendors. He offered a Bona product that would protect the floors from scratches from our mini aussie (25 lbs.) The overall bid and contract process was great. I had the bid in my hands within an hour and the contract process seems to go very smoothly. I received automated emails prior to the job indicating a project manager would be in contact and on site for the job. The automated emails were extremely informative as well. Unfortunately, things went down hill from there. To sum things up - Poor Communication, Lack of leadership and rushed job = BAD Job and loss of Trust!! Day 1 - Movers came to move the furniture to the garage and loft areas. All went OK, until they decided a very large bookshelf/cabinet was too heavy to move and they would not be moving such piece. This piece in question was a concern of mine from the beginning, but I was assured by Ben that his team of movers wouldn't have any issues. Day 1 continued to be a challenge as there was not a project manager for the job, he was out "sick" so I was told. The crew came into the house and started sanding. They did not speak a bit of english and did not appear to want to be bothered with questions. The day continue and they decided to finish the floor around the large piece of furniture and then move the large piece back in place when a coat of varnish/finish was applied. This area was NOT dry nor was it the finish that would be applied to the remaining areas of the floor. I stressed my concern but the crew didn't respond. The crew continue with their work and proceeded to stain the floors. I called the owner and he assured me that it would be addressed and things would be taken care of....... I requested that he meet me at the house the following day. Day 2 - The owner met with us and agreed the large piece of furniture needed to be moved upon the crews arrival the piece of furniture was moved to the garage. I also discussed my dissatisfaction about stain color. It didn't appear to be even or the color that I had selected. I was once again assured it would become darker as the finish was applied and not to worry. Day 2 - Again no project manager on site and the crew continued with the first coat of the finish. Day 3 - No project manager and the crew was growing very angry and frustrated with my questions. They applied the final finish. The finish appear to be a matte finish when I had requested a Satin finish, there was hallowing and sander burns throughout the 1400 sq. feet. I was extremely disappointed and heartbroken that this was a disaster!! I called Ben and left a couple of message, he finally texted back after a couple of hours. I expressed by concern and he offered to re-do the floors for a 50% discount. After several message, I requested that he meet us at the house the following morning. He agreed after seeing the floors that they were a mess and that he would refinish the floors himself with one of his crew. I was glad he saw what we saw and give him a ton of credit for taking on the refinish. He worked Friday afternoon/evening, Saturday and Sunday to re-do the floors. Unfortunately he rushed the process and took shortcuts. He did not remove the quarter round from the baseboards and didn't apply the finish evenly. Overall, I have pooling, debris within the finish and quarter round molding that is a mess! You can't remove the quarter round since it is finished to the floor and it is virtually impossible to paint a clean finish. The day of the move in was a disaster as well. The movers arrived and it was down pouring. I asked the guys to hold off on pulling things out of the garage until the rain slowed, but there were plenty of items that were in the loft area that could be moved. (They were the same movers who moved everything out). Unfortunately, they decided to leave without communicating to me and told the main office that I denied them access to the house. I simply wanted to wait a few minutes for the storm to pass to protect my furniture. We ended up contractor someone ourselves to move the furniture back. The finish that was applied was a Bona Traffic HD finished, which should be very durable. Well after being in the house just a few days, I have scratches throughout the floors. My husband and I have only worn socks and did not return to the house to live until the full cure period (3 days) During the weekend process, I also become extremely concerned since it appeared they were going through the garage and potentially not closing/locking the house while they left. Also the dust and debris ended up in the garage with my furniture. This wasn't suppose to be an access point. Overall - I spend additional money on hotels and dog kenneling then I had budget but I wanted the floors to be right. The owner didn't even offer to reimburse us for our add'l expenses. I also spend many hours going back and forth the the house. Since there was no project manager, it became my responsibility to ensure the crew had access to the house and that things were locked up daily. I am completely dissatisfied with the floors and the overall job. I would not recommend this company. He may have done some jobs great, but this job must not of had is regular crew, Ben the owner is a very nice gentleman, but he job is selling and he really needs to ensure he has teams that can do the work correctly. This was extremely expensive and I am not satisfied at all! I am not the type of person to write a bad review and impact a persons business, however I don't want others to go through the stress that I just went through.

The overall quality to the average customer was fine, but I have been in hospital construction and management for over 40 years. When I contracted with Brilliance Flooring, Ben won my wife' s heart with his smile and "yes" man attitude. He was not the cheapest, nor was he the most expensive. I requested a specific finish after samples were done for my wife. It was to be Jacobean stain with oil based sealer, satin finish. We went on vacation and left the house in their hands, something that Ben said was done with them all the time. His installer was a "yes" man as well, and communicated with me by text or cell phone regularly during the week. Never during the conversations did we discuss that they were scrambling to finish the project before we returned, left the back door to our home unlocked over night, left the garden hose running over night and used water based sealer to speed up the application and finish before we returned. The pictures that were sent to me documenting the progress looked awesome, but that was just the stain color. When we returned from vacation we found that they had used the Water based sealer to save some time and told me they upgraded the product with no additional charge. They used the alternate product that I specifically requested not to use because they were behind schedule and it cut labor time out of the project. The water based sealer is not the problem, in fact it really made the floor pop. The problem was preparation. As any seasoned professional would tell you, the more preparation, the better the end product will look. Initially we thought the floors looked OK, but after review we found rotten wood finished over and removal/replacement was part of the contract. They also did not refinish the floor grills or thresholds under the doors. There were other items but I just wanted the product that we paid for. After living in a home with pets for a year, the floors appear scratched and look terrible where the dogs are actively playing. I cannot blame this on poor workmanship or the water based sealer application. It is a standard case of poor preparation. I have not responded to the Angie's List emails to evaluate the product before because I have been too busy. My position at work is the basically the same as this project to refinish our floors, too much to do and not enough time. In the mad scramble to complete the job and move on to the next scheduled project, we lose sight of the ultimate goal, pleasing the customer.