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Farrell Wills Wood Floors

Hardwood Flooring Sales and Installation, Flooring Sales and Installation, Floor Cleaning and Waxing

About us

In 1979, I was in my late twenties, and I was working as a machine operator. I'd been there for 5 years, and I made union-scale wages. At the same time, I felt that I needed to have more freedom to pursue my musical career. So I gave up the job, moved into modest housing, and begin to do temp work in the industrial sector. I drove forklifts, worked in a steel mill, and sanded electronic circuit boards. It was great fun, for me, doing all these different kinds of work. In the meantime, I kept my eye open for something that I would want to do on my own. A friend decided that he wanted to expand his general carpentry skills, and he had heard that sanding floors was a useful trade to know. He needed a helper to get started, and I agreed to work with him on the project. With my friend's new flooring business, we ended up learning on the job. But I found that I loved the work, and I went on to buy my friend's business, and become a licensed contractor on my own. That was 34 years ago. My workers and I have turned out a lot of quality floor jobs since then, and I still enjoy playing music on the weekends. I try to make floor installation and refinishing into a manageable process for you. I use strict dust control, including zippered plastic to enter and exit rooms. We work consecutive days to get your job done, including Saturdays and Sundays, if that works with your schedule. I have procedure sheets that describe what we do, and how we go about our work. So if you’re an Angie’s list member, click on these to get an idea of the type of service I'm aiming for when I start your job.

Business highlights

46 years of trusted experience
LGBTQ+ Friendly

Services we offer

Installation of hardwood, softwood, pre-finished and engineered floors, sanding and refinishing, stair installation and refinishing, stain-matching, recoating, repairs, cleaning & waxing.

Services we don't offer

No sanding of painted softwood floors or painted stairs.

Amenities

Free Estimates
Yes
Warranties
Yes
Senior Discount

10%



Accepted payment methods

Check
CreditCard
PayPal
Zelle

Photos of past projects

Reviews

4.49 Reviews
Number of StarsImage of DistributionNumber of Ratings
5
67%
4
0%
3
33%
2
0%
1
0%


Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
4.3
value
4.8
professionalism
4.6
responsiveness
4.6
punctuality
4.6
Showing 1-9 of 9 reviews

Liane A.
09/2015
3.0
flooring contractor
  + -1 more
He was very reasonable, but he took way too long. He initially did not match the wood properly.
Description of Work: He repaired a section of floor that was damaged by dog urine.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
4.0
value
5.0
professionalism
3.0
responsiveness
4.0
punctuality
4.0

$750

Response from Farrell Wills Wood Floors
There is a misunderstanding here. Initially, I didn’t have to use any new wood in the patch I did for the customer. I was able to take out the existing pieces and flip them over, using the clean back side of the wood. If the stain does not go too deep, this is the best way to go. Since I’m re-using the original wood, there are no matching problems with the existing floor. The two pieces that did not look good to the customer were both pieces that were in the original 110-year old floor. They had more wavy grain than the other pieces, which was not apparent to either me or the customer when they were sanded. When I put the finish on, the grain re-appeared, and the customer did not like the look. I pointed out that while they might stand out somewhat, they had been acceptable pieces in the original, and the fact that the old wood matched exactly in color would be better than putting in new pieces. She decided that she did want them replaced. Neither new red or new white oak will exactly match the color of a century-old floor, so I had to paint the new wood to make it match better, and then coat over the paint. I felt I did a good job of this, and the customer did not mention dissatisfaction with the end result in her review.

Bradley K.
11/2014
5.0
hardwood floor
  + -1 more
Mr. Farrell was very through with what he does from the moment he answered my call to the end he finished the job. He was straight forward and honest about the problems we had with our hardwood floor which had multiple dark smelly dog urine patches from the dog of the previous owner. He even gave us an alternative solution to fix the problem, but due to the time and budget limitation we could only stick to our original plan. He understood our need and concerns so he agreed to work on the weekends to meet our deadline which I appreciated the most. Half way through the process, he brought me in the house and pointed out areas that could be modified to save $$ and in the same time speed up the process, we went with his suggestion. The floor was finished within our budget and deadline. I was very happy with that. Mr. Farrell is a hard working man and he handled his work with perfectionism . We will definitely use his service again.
Description of Work: Polished the old hardwood floor with dog urine stains and repainted after repaired areas had water damage

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
4.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0

Yes, I recommend this pro
$3,100

Response from Farrell Wills Wood Floors
I'm glad the timing worked out for this customer. I checked with them about the "B" rating for quality, and made arrangements to do some touch-ups on the floor.

Maria S.
06/2014
3.0
hardwood floor
  + -1 more
The price was not in the ballpark. He was thorough, but sometimes appearances; he was not as neat. He came out quickly.
Description of Work: I got an estimate from Farrell Wood Flooring for wood flooring and refinishing.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
value
3.0
professionalism
4.0
responsiveness
4.0
punctuality
4.0


Response from Farrell Wills Wood Floors
Ouch! I don't like hearing about bad appearance. I try to clean up as much as I can before I come out after work, and that's often the situation when I'm doing estimates. The customer was put off by my presentation, and whatever I did didn't work this time around. Now, concerning my price--I always include a link to a flooring website with my estimates, and it lists average prices for flooring procedures. My per-square foot price for a stain on this job was 5% higher than the national average, as tallied by this particular site. I don't claim that this site is the final authority on pricing, but it's a site that's designed to be a place where homeowners can go for advice and information on floor work. I use it to give my customers some perspective on what they can expect to see when they get estimates. Given that our cost of living here is higher than the national average (about 50% higher for San Mateo), I would expect a 5%-above pricing to be reasonable for the area. (My reference is the U.S. Census Bureau cost of living index) That said, I don't know the situations of my competition. I have payroll taxes, Worker's Compensation insurance, and full liability. I do have to charge more to pay for those costs, and I'm well aware that other companies don't necessarily have these same expenses. I tend to be on the high side, but it shouldn't be out of reach, if the other contractors are offering the same level of service that I am. I would have liked to have done this job, as it had some challenges that would have been fun to deal with. I'm sorry the estimate didn't work for the customer.

Marva F.
07/2013
5.0
flooring contractor, hardwood floor
  + 0 more
He was very professional. He is very experienced. It was a major project for us that we had to literally move out of the house for a week plus because of the cat and the furniture that we had. He was very personable and cooperative and really wanted to be sure that he made it easy so he worked around the movers. He sent us pictures and emails and kept us informed all the time with exactly what was happening. The work was beautiful. I think probably his patience and understanding of this, without people having to have this done worked out really well. He was really different than a big company would have been. The neighbors all said that he was very friendly because he was here for well over a week. Everything about him was very personable and then the work went very well. The pricing was actually within the range, if not cheaper than the others.
Description of Work: Farrell Wills Wood Floors refinished our floors.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0

Yes, I recommend this pro
$4,000

Response from Farrell Wills Wood Floors
It was nice to work in Oakland again. It's been five years since I moved away, and I no longer advertise in the area. The customers were very thorough about getting all the preparation work done, and that always puts me in good spirits when I show up for the work. There was a lot of detail with this job, and I was glad that I could send pictures to the customer. They were able to more easily approve work that might have taken a lot of explaining otherwise.

Patricia B.
07/2013
3.0
hardwood floor
  + -1 more
Not well. Although Farrell was very ni e and worked very bard, he used an inexperienced helper and old equipment, which he indicated would take longer than the sander he had hoped to use, but was unavailable for to use. This may have contributed to the poor qualiy of the job. Staple holes and scratches are still visible . I even found a pebble and carpet staples in the final polyurethane finish. Overall, it was not nearly the quality job that I had done on the living/dining room and kitchen floors by other contractors previously.
Description of Work: Removed old carpet, repaired and refinished hardwood floors in 3 bedrooms and hallway.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
2.0
value
4.0
professionalism
4.0
responsiveness
3.0
punctuality
3.0

$2,400

Response from Farrell Wills Wood Floors
In an ideal world, we might have postponed the job, but both the customer and myself were on a tight schedule on this one. I would not have been able to do the job if I didn’t do it in that time slot. My helper had been a full-time floor worker for two years when she was younger, but she was not as fast as an up-to-date worker would be. I did the final trimming and refinishing, and the procedures were the same ones I describe in my literature. So any mistakes in that area were mine; without seeing the floor, I can't say what might have gone wrong with the standard techniques. When we finished the job, I thought (Member name removed) had gotten the results that she wanted. This review says differently, and I left a message telling her that I was sorry that she experienced these difficulties. If I had known at the time, I would have been able to correct some of these problems by applying another coat.

Ashley M.
03/2013
5.0
hardwood floor
  + -1 more
Sent detailed RFP to company to discuss flooring project. Never received a call or email back. As soon as my review was posted, the owner phoned me to state that he had never received my RFP and that he would look into why it did not reach him. After he and I both contacted Angie's list customer service, we both concluded that the system did not process my request properly. I appreciated his professionalism and willingness to make things right.
Description of Work: After I wrote a review stating that the Company never responded to RFP, I received a call from the owner who apologized and immediately wanted to make it right. He was professional and prompt, a sign of an owner who cares about his customers and his reputation.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0

Yes, I recommend this pro

Response from Farrell Wills Wood Floors
Hi {Member name removed}-- As far as I know, I've responded to every request that I've gotten through Angie's list, but for whatever reason, you never got a response. I will need to ask for tech support from Angie's list this week, to see if where the responses are archived, and see if I generated one which you never received. Sorry about the mix-up. I have talked to the customer twice about this issue. It turns out that she requested quotes from four contractors on Angie's list, and did not heard back from any of them. I said that this was unusual, and that it might be a problem with the Request a Quote form itself. She agreed that this might be a possibility, and has written to Angie's list requesting an investigation of the matter. I did find a copy of a quote that I prepared for the customer, and it was dated the day after her email request. There is no way to determine if the quote was actually sent, though. At present, Angie's list does not archive quote responses, and there is no check box for sending a copy of the quote to my own inbox. I was told that Angie's list is working on instituting both of these features. In the meantime, I have disabled the Request a Quote form until I hear the results of the customer's inquiry.

BARBARA S.
08/2012
5.0
flooring contractor, hardwood floor
  + 0 more
Farrell arrived promptly each day, worked hard, helped move furniture, took care to cover extra furniture, doorways and his time estimate was very accurate.
Description of Work: Farrell has refinished our oak wood floors 3 times over a 32 year period. He sands them, finishes them twice and returns for a final check.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0

Yes, I recommend this pro
$2,069

Sandra D.
06/2012
5.0
flooring contractor, hardwood floor
  + 0 more
They were on time and conscientious, and worked a weekend to get the job finished. The floor was difficult to install (very hard wood). Excellent outcome!
Description of Work: Installed the bamboo wood floor. They did the job from 24th to 30th of April 2012.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0

Yes, I recommend this pro
$2,170

Susan W.
03/2012
5.0
flooring contractor, hardwood floor
  + 0 more
EXCELLENT! Farrell is very good at what he does. We have an older (over 100 year old) home, so the flooring is very fragile. The work has to be done very carefully. We’ve had a few other companies that did some work which didn't turn out very well. The quality of his work, along with the price, were excellent. He was incredibly prompt, did exactly what he said he would do, and was great to work with. I would highly recommend him!
Description of Work: He refinished flooring in the entrance way to our home, a living room, and a dining room, which makes up about 40% of our home.

Rating CategoryRating out of 5
quality
5.0
value
5.0
professionalism
5.0
responsiveness
5.0
punctuality
5.0

Yes, I recommend this pro

Response from Farrell Wills Wood Floors
A lot of the houses in the customer's area are the older ones, and there can be difficulties with the older floors. The new wood on repairs doesn't match as well, and there can be a lot of nails that come up after repeated sandings over 100 years. Our business doesn't tend to have repeat customers , but this customer has been one of them, and I'm glad the jobs have gone well for them.

    Contact information

    1234 El Camino Real Ste 101, Burlingame, CA 94010

    www.farrellwills.net

    Service hours

    Sunday:
    Closed
    Monday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Tuesday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Wednesday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Thursday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Friday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Saturday:
    Closed

    Licensing

    Bonded

    Eco-friendly Accreditations

    LEED Accredited Professional
    No
    Energy Star Partner
    No
    EPA Lead-Safe Certified
    No
    Use Green Products or Work Practices
    Yes
    State Contractor License Requirements

    All statements concerning insurance, licenses, and bonds are informational only, and are self-reported. Since insurance, licenses and bonds can expire and can be cancelled, homeowners should always check such information for themselves. To find more licensing information for your state, visit our State Contractor License Requirements page.

    *Contact business to see additional licenses.


    Service Categories

    Hardwood Flooring Sales and Installation,
    Flooring Sales and Installation,
    Floor Cleaning and Waxing

    FAQ

    Farrell Wills Wood Floors is currently rated 4.4 overall out of 5.

    Sunday: Closed

    Monday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

    Tuesday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

    Wednesday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

    Thursday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

    Friday: 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM

    Saturday: Closed

    Farrell Wills Wood Floors accepts the following forms of payment: Check,CreditCard,PayPal,Zelle
    Yes, Farrell Wills Wood Floors offers free project estimates.
    Yes, Farrell Wills Wood Floors offers eco-friendly accreditations.
    No, Farrell Wills Wood Floors does not offer a senior discount.
    No, Farrell Wills Wood Floors does not offer emergency services.
    Yes, Farrell Wills Wood Floors offers warranties.
    Farrell Wills Wood Floors offers the following services: Installation of hardwood, softwood, pre-finished and engineered floors, sanding and refinishing, stair installation and refinishing, stain-matching, recoating, repairs, cleaning & waxing.
    No sanding of painted softwood floors or painted stairs.

    Contact information

    1234 El Camino Real Ste 101, Burlingame, CA 94010

    www.farrellwills.net

    Service hours

    Sunday:
    Closed
    Monday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Tuesday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Wednesday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Thursday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Friday:
    8:30 AM - 5:00 PM
    Saturday:
    Closed