CRAFTSMAN HARDWOOD FLOORING

We hired Craftsman hardwood flooring on the recommendation from our contractor during our kitchen remodel. We needed a few areas of our hardwood floor sanded and stained because there were areas of unfinished hardwood floor under the old cabinets that were now going to show. The main guy came out for the quote and wanted to refinish all the hardwood on the first floor, which would have been the entire floor downstairs. We made it clear we knew that would be ideal but it was not in our budget and we did not have the time. The guy seemed a little annoyed we did not want to do the whole floor but ultimately said he could do the few spots and gave us what seemed to me an expensive quote of about $1800. Generally I would get at least 3 quotes, but since we were on a schedule with our remodel and they were recommended by our contractor we figured it was expensive but we would just bite the bullet and do it. From the beginning of hiring them it became a not very good experience. A different guy from the company came to the house to do the job for 3-4 total days for a 1-2 hr each day , so put in about 8-9 hrs total time combined for that entire week. He would come in and out of the house without announcing himself and had ZERO communication with us. He would not tell us if he was done for the day, or if he was coming back (we would need to know to leave the doors unlocked). He also did not show up one day and when my contractor reached out they said they did not have the stain. I also tried contacting them several times during the week and he did not answer, or returned my phone calls/voicemails. At the end of the week we had no idea if they were finished. The last day the guy left the back door wide open without telling us he was done or why he left the door wide open. Again I called to ask if they were done, and to ask a few maintenance questions about the floor. Again, no answer or call back from the voicemails I left. Perhaps a lot of this could be forgiven if the floor looked perfect, but it does not. Some areas look fine, other areas dont. The main guy did mention the color would be different, and we understood this but there are 2 spots that look a lot darker than the original stain and the other spots look fine, not sure why the major color variation in all the spots. Additionally the poly coat on top was left very thick and it seemed no effort to blend it. (SEE Pictures). Additionally, on top of everything they used about 8-10 hardwood planks instead of plywood and charged an ADDITIONAL $680 for this at the end of the project. SO we paid about $2500 to sand and stain about 3 small areas and place and stain 8-10 planks which was a total of about 8-9 hrs of total work and about 1/3 of the work looks good, and 2/3 looks not very good. Additionally my contractor told me that the main guy commented to him that he probably would have done the whole kitchen and living room floors for about $3000, so at the end of the day it seemed like they upcharged just because they could since we were in a time crunch and unfortunately the work came out subpar. I write this so hopefully you make a smarter choice than I did (or at least get a few quotes) and go with a different hardwood company that will respect your space, communicate, charge a fair price, and take pride in their work.

The only recurring problem was being able to ask questions without the contractor being "put out". The color, also wasn't right, though when finished, was better than the one we had picked out. Better planning, being receptive, would have gotten them all A's.

Here's what I did in order to contact this company. 1. Filled out an online form on this companies website. Never heard back. 2. Called them by phone. Took forever to get a response. Finally I was called. The guy told me that he would call me back for an appointment to come by for an estimate. Never heard back. Just a terrible experience. With such bad communication, I don't understand how people can do business with this organization.