Uptown Wood Floors

Previous owners had mistakenly used the wrong products on these pavers including polyurethane which gave them an extremely shiny finish. These pavers are supposed to have a matte finish. In addition, it doesn't appear that the pavers and related grout were ever cleaned properly. Dirt and grime have built up through the years so the beautiful colors and variance in stone didn't show. We originally hired another company to do the work. I did extensive research and really thought I was hiring a reputable company. However, after two days of work, the owner decided to walk off the job and not return, as the job turned out to be too difficult for them to handle. He didn't charge us for the two days, but they left us in a complete mess. I then began to interview many other companies and became extremely gun shy. I understood this job was going to take true artisans with extensive background in the industry, knowledge of these rare pavers, etc. I interviewed 11 companies and decided on Uptown Wood Floors to do the job. Mike and Kristen, the owners, came to my house and gave us an estimate. The price was generally in line with what the other companies had quoted, but they brought what appeared to be extensive knowledge to the table. They did charge us an additional $1,320 to color the grout which the other companies included in their original bids. The additional money for the grout brought their bid on average to $1,200 above the others. But, I paid the additional money with no discussion, as I wanted the final result to be beautiful. In addition, they understood my anxiety and that this was a true custom job that needed hands-on attention by the owners themselves. My husband and I decided to hire them. Several times, I told them to use top of the line products and I didn't mind paying additional money. I just wanted the best. They started the job two weeks later. They stripped the floors first. This was NOT an easy process. The previous company had used a sealer that was almost impossible to remove. In addition, the floors that had poly on them were nearly as difficult to remove. Mike, Kristen and John worked tirelessly the first day (from 8:00am-9:00pm) just to strip the floors. The second day they began trying to clean the grout ,to no avail. The grout was still very dirty, so we decided to color the existing grout. My husband and I did NOT want the grout to look painted or in any way unnatural. So, Mike came up with a process to allow the original pebbles to show through while still covering all the dirt. They did an excellent job coloring the grout in the kitchen and breakfast room. However, for some reason, in the laundry room and upstairs landing, grout color (paint) is all over the tiles. It's not just SOME of the tiles, it's truly almost all of them that are covered in grout paint. They then sealed the pavers and the newly colored grout. I want to be clear that they did an excellent job stripping the floors and applying the grout paint in the kitchen and breakfast room. It appears that they didn't listen when I explained that I wanted an enhancing impregnating sealer to bring out the colors of the stone with no shine. The previous sealer was a solvent based sealer which meant that only a solvent based sealer could be used again. However, a solvent based sealer would apparently damage the newly covered grout, according to Mike. In my opinion, the answer would have been to carefuly seal each individual stone while making sure NOT to get any on the grout. I made it clear that I would have paid additional $ for the tedious work. However, they did not do this. They didn't even use a true sealer on the floor. They used a sealer protector. We are NOT happy with the final result of the pavers. Kristin and I chose several tiles throughout the process and covered them with water to demonstrate how the final result would look. Instead, the result has no color enhancer and each individual stone has some shine on parts and other parts are extremely dull. Ultimately, we could have lived with a little shine (satin finish) which matches the samples that Kristin and Mike showed us. However, the samples had a consistent finish on the stone. Our final result has no consistency. Some stones are shiny, some are not and some are half and half. It gives the appearance that the finish has worn off through the years. Again, the final result is not at all what we expected. The stripping process went well and the grout looks good in the kitchen and breakfast room. The grout color application is not good in the laundry room and upstairs landing. In addition, the Lifeguard Sealer Protector is not good. After studying the Aldon website (manufacturer of the sealer protector) today, I don't understand why they didn't choose to go with one of Aldon's solvent based color enhancer sealers (i.e. SBS Sealer or Porous Stone Sealer) with the Lifeguard on top. Again, they could have carefully applied the Aldon solvent based color enhancer sealer to each stone first and then applied the Lifeguard over the entire surface (grout and stone) for the final finish. This is also what the website recommends. The website also clearly states in several places that the Lifeguard is NOT a sealer. Instead it's a sealer protector. Mike and Kristin strongly argue this point. They say it's a sealer AND a finish. The Aldon website also states to use one of the color enhancer sealers (solvent based) for a matte finish. For extra protection of the sealer and to ADD GLOSS, they recommend using Lifeguard. Again, we didn't want gloss. The second project was the cleaning of the master shower and floor which went fine. However, the application of the new caulk was also not good. I have hired a new company to remove this caulk and replace it with the proper grout. Updated on June 1, 2011... The Lifeguard has now started to blister and peel. Kristen offered to come back and try to fix the problem. However, they've lost their credibility with us, so I'm going to hire another company to remove the Lifeguard and seal the floor properly with Dry Treat Enhance Plus sealer. Updated June 12, 2011... The new company is almost finished. It has taken this new company 8 days to make the floors look like they should look. Cleaning up the excess grout color and removing the Lifeguard has been a tedious, time consuming project. I will say that I know that Mike and Kristin did their best. In addition, these are very difficult floors, so these floors should not be used as a judge if you're considering Uptown Wood Floors for a wood project or even marble. Those are completely different than this.