IMPERIAL WOOD FLOORS

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These guys were our second choice of the providers on Angie's List. Chris came over, we talked through the job, and he said he thought it would be no problem. He told me there was no reason to remove the shoe on the baseboard, that their equipment could sand right up to it. We set the date. 5 guys arrived, without Chris, and they attacked the sanding. The dust containment system consists of the old style cloth bags on the machines, there was no vaccuum of any kind. Quick work of the sanding, and a stain application. Since you can't walk on it at this point, the problems to come were not apparent. After drying over a weekend, one guy came back to put the base finish coat on. The next morning, when the finish should have been set up and we walked in, it was apparent that the stain was far from perfect, probably because the sanding wasnt consistent. There is a stripe all the way around the perimeter of both rooms that is considerably lighter than the rest of the room. As well, there were some areas had thick spots of finish (they looked like they were 1/8 thicker than the surrounding area), and there were some areas with no finish on them at all. Discussed this with Chris, and he indicated that the top coat, to be applied the next morning, would take care of these things. When asked about the color inconsistency, he said it was probably the wood, and that the top coat would also hide that. The same guy came back the next day to apply the top coat. After the coat dried, we discovered a dark foorprint in the finish in the center of one of the rooms, still a stripe, and many areas where the finish was non-existent, or had been buffed dull and not recoated. After several phone calls, Chris came offered to come by to take a look, but had to cancel at the last minute. Instead, he said he would send his partner out to look it over and resand any bad spots then recoat them. The next day, the partner came back, resanded one entire area and hand sanded all around the edge of the room. Chris came by during this operation and helped hand sand some spots and assured that we would be happy with the product. They put a base coat of finish on the areas they had treated, and the partner said he would return to do the top coat the next day. The following morning, the partner was a no show, and instead they sent the guy who had done the initial work. I told him, no offense, but we wanted the expert to come do it so it would get done right. He left, and late that afternoon the partner came back to apply the finish coat. The next morning, revealed that the return trips had only made it worse. While the footprint was gone, and some of the spots were fixed, they had made the stripe around the edge of the room worse, and now there are spots with no finsih where it was fine before. In his defense, Chris did offer to come back and resand the entire job and start over. Since they couldn't get it right in four trips, we had zero confidence they could do so starting over. We needed to get on with putting our kitchen back together. Eventually we wound up settling for half the original price with Chris threatening court action. We now live with a room that looks like we did everything, except refinish the floor (we have heard this from several guests). We should have spent the time and money on an attorney and gone to court. These guys appear to take on way too much work and then rush like crazy - this is no quality product - at all. I can't say the competition is any better, but they can't be much worse.

The installation and finishing went well, the workers were great - but communication with the owner/manager was terrible. I signed a contract for a certain size of flooring only to learn at the very last minute that that size was only available by special order. If I had know up front, I would have made other plans. Second, they removed the stove and refridgerator from the kitchen as I had discussed with the owner, but then made no attempt to put them back. I had to pay movers separately to replace them. Again, if I had known the company's policy to begin with I could have made better arrangements. My only other complaint was that they just set the pieces of the old floor at the curb, instead of removing them completely as they should have. Not professional!

Chris responded to our initial call quickly, and we got a free estimate from him (as well as two other companies). Imperial's bid was far below the others, and we didn't feel like the others offered any higher quality. We planned to have them done while we were away on vacation, and Imperial worked with us in that respect. Since we weren't here during the process, we don't know exactly how that went, but we chose to not use the dust-containment system (which would have been an extra $400), and they taped plastic sheets up by the bathroom and kitchen to minimize dust. Overall, we are very happy with how the floors turned out. We asked him to call us on vacation with any questions, and he did call once to ask if he could repair an additional board, which was completely fine with us. We are very happy with how the floors look.

In general the sanding and finishing was fine. The problem was with a water stain in the original boards. I agreed to pay extra for these boards to be replaced. This was HORRIBLE. They didn't have much oak with them in the truck and rather than going back for more used some tiny pieces (6" next to a 10") to finish the job. I called the owner and he said yes you should never use any board less than 12" long. He said the only option was to sand everything back down and refinish again after replacing boards. We were already on a tight schedule and couldn't afford to wait another week to get this done. I had also purchased my own non-toxic finish ($300) for the project. I wrote him and said we didn't know when we could vacate and empty the house again for 3 days and that I'd want the same finish used again. I had already paid $500 and owed $500. He didn't reply. Now months later he sends me a bill again. Very lousy experience. Overall a bad experience.

They were reliable, appeared when they said they wood, and did a beautiful job refinishing our floor. I highly recommend their service.

Initially we were pleased with our contacts with Chris. Unfortunately, he did not supervise most of the work. Instead, he sent some young men to do the project, who did not appear to be very experienced or professional, and sometimes argued with each other. They were reluctant to pull and replace boards, left very rough patches in corners, and dripped finish in a number of places. They finished over small piles of sawdust. When we asked them to correct this, they dripped more finish in other spots. At that point we decided that we would rather live with the problems in the refinished floors than keep calling them back. This was during a very busy time of year in Madison (August), so it may be that the company was overextended. We were happy with the bamboo and subfloor installation, but not happy with the refinishing.

I called this company and one other for estimates and Imperial Wood offered more services for a better overall value. They have a convenient web page where I could get an initial idea of their services. They were prompt in coming to give me a free estimate and agreed to add quarter round in one room even though this is not a usual thing they do. The gentleman who gave me the estimate (Chris, maybe?) told me that my floor was old and had not been treated well through the years and was conservative in his estimate of what I could expect. However, I was incredibly impressed with the work and the look of the floors was beyond my hopes. They did leave some broken belts and used up sand paper around in my closets and dripped some finish on the kitchen side of where the wood floor meets the kitchen floor, but that was the only complaint I can think of.