Shen Valley Floors LLC

Description of Work: We had the main stairway and landing of our 1906 historic home refinished by Shen Valley Floors

Description of Work: Hired Shen Valley Floors to refinish damaged hardwood floor in 11' x 11' dining room. Gentleman called me after my initial inquiry and stated he would be out the following Sunday to provide an estimate, but would call on Saturday to provide a time on Sunday to expect him. He never called on Saturday but did show up on Sunday, luckily we were still home. I told him I wanted the floors sanded and refinished and showed him an area where the floors were still in pristine condition because there had been a cabinet installed over them and I wanted them refinished to match that area and color, which was a dark pecan color. He gave me an estimate and I thought it was a reasonable estimate so I accepted on the spot. Later that week the office woman called to set up the appointment to begin the work. 8:00 AM on April 25th. She also called on the 22nd to confirm that the workmen would be arriving between 8:00-8:15 AM on the 25th. On the morning of the 25th we were ready for them to arrive by 8:15 Am, they actually arrived closer to 9:00 AM. They had the floors stripped and sanded and a coat of something or other on by 11:15 AM. Since I know nothing about refinishing floors, I didn't ask any questions but didn't realize the stain should have been applied by now. They said they would be leaving but would come back by 1:30 PM to apply something else. They arrived back at 2:30 PM, applied another coat of something and left again, stating they would return between 4:30-5:00 PM to "screen" and apply another coat of something. I figured this was when the color must go on. Also, ALL the trim and baseboards in the room were the same dark pecan so that should have been a clue that the stripped floors were not going to match without stain. The workmen returned again at 6:30 PM (late all day) and sanded again and applied another coat of something. By this time my husband had come home and questioned me why the floor hadn't been stained. Since I know nothing about refinishing floors, I told him I didn't know that they were just about finished, I thought they were still going to do the stain. When we questioned the workman, who was the same man that came to give the estimate. he said the floors would darken up. He then said they'd be back by 8:30 the next morning to finalize the floors. After they left I really was not happy that the floors had not been stained to match the original dark pecan, or even the baseboards, every little stain and imperfection stood out because the floors were so "blonde", also, the gaps between the floor boards, that we were originally told would be filled in, were not filled. We had just purchased a new dining room set and are in the middle of a kitchen remodel and all the finishes were purchased to match the dark pecan floors and now my floors are blonde. The next morning the workmen were actually on time. When my husband asked why the floors weren't stained "Jeff" told him that I never said to stain the floors. However, I had told him twice. First when he came to do the estimate and second when they first arrived the morning prior. Plus, I was home all day with them and didn't the darker baseboards give him a clue? What do I know about refinishing floors? If i knew anything I would have done it myself, then it at least would have been the right color. When my husband asked what it would take to get the floors stained, he was told another $500.00, basically we'd have to pay to start the job over. My husband then asked if they could add color to the final or finish coat to at least give it some color and he was told no. I am not at all happy with the floors or the lack of communication. I might have considered paying half price to have the floors "fixed" but the offer was never made. Now I am stuck with floors that don't match anything and I am now shopping for a sisal mat to cover the floors that I just flushed $500.00 away on when I was hoping to have beautiful new floors to show off. I will have to do it myself to get it done right. UPDATE: “Your letter to Angie's list about not liking the color of your floors is confusing since it's the color you chose” We were NOT given a choice of colors. When you came for the initial visit to quote the job, I showed you the original color of the floor and specifically stated that that was the color I wanted the floors returned to. “and when we asked if you wanted to make any changes before we put on the fourth and final coat of finish, you said no.” No we did NOT say NO, when WE asked about the color before the final coat was put on, we were told it could not be done. We then asked if a tint could be applied to the final coat to help add some color and again were told NO. “Also, we don't understand why you would not contact us directly if you had some unresolved issues. We offered to re-sand and change the color if you continued to feel it was too light.” We made it clear before you left that we were not happy with the color. YES you did offer to resand and add color (color was never added to begin with) and you told us that in order to fix it, you would charge us full price again, essentially paying for the job twice. “Everything that was stated in the contract was done. There was no request in the contract to make the floor "pecan" or to stain the floors. “ There was no “CONTRACT”, there was a generic “estimate” that did not mention anything we requested and was left at our house until the work was done with no signatures from either party. Nothing we discussed was written on the estimate. “And as is our style, we even did some extra things for which you were not charged: for instance, putting down commercial finish, dealing with filth and floors saturated with pet urine.” Please, there were NO extra’s! We did not ASK for a commercial finish and you knew when you came to do the estimate that the entire reason we needed the floors refinished was because of the pet urine damage from 5 years ago. There was NO FILTH, that room was spotless and the adjacent room was in the middle of a remodel. Are you trying to tell us that you never worked on floors during a remodel? This statement intentionally makes us look like we deceived you when everything was communicated to you during your initial visit. “ In spite of these extras, we completed your job in less than 2 days and considered the job done of the highest quality. This is also what the member stated when he paid for the job in full before we left. If you weren't happy, why was payment made? “ So you could not come back and state that you weren’t paid for the job or try to take us to court for non-payment. You came out and did work and were paid even if the work wasn’t done as we originally requested. “As you know, we have sanded, stained and finished thousands of floors to our customers' complete satisfaction. Our standards are very high. Your report, filled with false statements was very hurtful to everyone at our company. Under these circumstances, and because you indicated you would never hire us again, we find it impossible to return to your home and perform the work you have requested. Jeff Miller” As was your untrue response and I do not see a high standard in my floor. I am the one that has to pay another company to come and fix what you didn’t do and/or pay to cover a solid hardwood floor with a rug or laminate… which basically puts me out more money. You did nothing to improve the look or try to hide the damage to floor. You didn’t do any of the “fixes” you offered to do during you initial estimate. We feel we paid you and got nothing in return. I offered to have you back to make a good faith attempt to finish the job correctly and even offered to split the cost, which you originally wanted to charge us full price to do. You also made no comment about the fact that you left the transition strip outside on the ground when you were specifically asked to leave it in the garage. We paid for it and it is now unusable because it has bugs, dirt and pollen stuck to it. That is NOT professional to me. You rushed through our job to get to your other higher paying job and now you’re upset because we’re calling you out on it. If you refuse to come back to fix/finish it, and wonder why we paid you, a good gesture would be to refund our money so we can afford to have it done by someone who will listen to what we ask for an follow through with our request. If you refund our money ($525.00), I will retract my statement on Angie’s List, until then, we are not happy with the work and trying to make us look bad will not help you look any more professional nor will the fact that you were consistently, unprofessionally, late.

Description of Work: Mr. Jeff Miller and his crew of very neat and polite workmen refinished the living room, hallway and three bedroom floors of my house. They had to put up with some totally unprofessional behavior on the part of my contractor, reschedule their whole work week because my idiot contractor didn't have the floors ready for the refinishing as he should have. All he had to do was make sure his workmen cleared the rooms of the overflow garbage from the remodeling, his tile men were to have cleaned up all the boxes, plastic, cardboard, old trim they had thrown into the livingroom, his other guys had to cart out the old carpet, foam padding, trim, excess lumber, but apparently no one wanted to clean up after themselves or make the rooms ready for Mr. Miller. In order not to inconvenience me, Mr. Miller made sure he worked doubly longer days to get my job done on time, that is the kind of ethical man he is and it was no fault of his that he couldn't begin work on time. They did a masterful job