Antique Hardwood Floors

This is a long overdue review for Terry Richardson. He made a horrendous week for a homeowner - because noise, dust and odor come with the job - as workable as possible. The man is an expert at what he does: very efficient, very organized. He helped me move furniture, taped off everything well, was patient when it came to choosing the color, and ended up mixing a custom clear with some mahogany for me, when none of the samples I brought home looked right. He had two helpers for the sanding and one for the rest. Having seen all the work they do, I feel like I really got my money's worth.
And it gets better: Just after they finished, I was obsessing about a damaged piece of wood in our entry way. He said if he replaced one plank of 100-year old oak with new oak that it would stand out. Still, I didn't think I could live with it and was complaining about it. So, entirely on his own, he went and purchased this wood art kit or something, and with a thin brush, he painstakingly lightened the dark areas (dog urine). It was subtle and looked fairly natural. Having lived for a while with the new oak boards in other parts of the house, I know now that I would have regretted putting a new oak plank in such a visible area.
 
And better: A few months after the floor was done, my dog passed away. During her final weeks she became incontinent and despite our best efforts, managed to ruin a few areas of the brand new floors. I called Terry, who came by with a worker and fixed the local problem areas. He remembered my dog and was sympathetic and did not charge me. Really, a great guy.

Within a few weeks, the edges of many floorboards were peeling up, likely because they were too thin to endure another sanding, which was not a risk that I was made aware of or else I wouldn't have refinished them. The peeling and cracking of the edges continued to get worse over the course of a couple months, and there are now 2-15 floorboards in every room in the house now with this problem. I occasionally kick out a splintered piece as I'm walking on them. There is also some hardened and quot;gunkand quot; that has seeped out from between some of the floorboards that is not pleasant to walk on.
I asked Terry to take a look and see what he could do, and he said that it's not possible to predict whether the floor boards will be too thin to endure another sanding and that he couldn't have known this would happen. He offered to take $200 off a $450 fix to replace some of the boards, but I got a second opinion who said that removing some of the boards would risk damaging the thin remaining boards that surround them. The second floor guy recommended just peeling out the bits of the boards that were not salveagable, filling them with putty to match the color as close as possible, and to re-poly the whole house with two more coats because the floors looked poorly protected. The expense to fix the floors ($1200) as well as the pain of moving out all my furniture, relocating for almost a week, and then moving everything back in is very significant. I requested a partial refund from Terry to help cover at least some of these costs, which he denied, stating that these issues cannot be predicted and he isn't responsible.

It went perfectly. Terry Richardson was very professional and responsive, and his crew was a dream. Most bidders refused to move furniture and would have required us to hire someone else; having him do it made the job much easier. We discussed how to proceed and agreed to do half the house one week and the other half the next week. Furniture was moved from the work half to the other half, and back Sanding and repair took a day, then two or three coats of finish, one each day, depending on need. He also helped replace a leaking toilet that had damaged the floors in one bathroom. We stayed in the house throughout. The floors look great.

We bought an antique house built in 1903 with the original wood floors. After trying to do some of the work ourselves, we decided on contacting an expert since the job was too big for us to handle. We contacted a couple of companies for quotes but there was something about Terry and his exuberance that convinced us to go with him. We are so thankful for choosing Terry. From a timing perspective, he was spot on. He told us it would take 5 days and it took just that. His estimate was also spot on. About the best thing I can say is that he treated the job as if he was working on his own home.
About the only bad thing I can say is that he isn't the easiest guy to get a hold of. However, he always returned my phone calls after I left him a voicemail. I think if he would really benefit from a website so he can include some pictures and testimonials.
We only finished the 1st floor of our house and once we finish painting the 2nd floor of our house, we have no intention on using anyone else except for Terry.

I moved out to save time and he came in and sanded for two days. He even painted 4 (2'x4') different color stains for me to chose from based on what I told him I wanted. He then stained for one day and two more days for two coats of poly.

They were very personable and easy to work with. They were prompt and did a thorough job, which I was pleased with. They were very pleasant and nice to work with. I do not feel they overcharged me. They did everything I wanted them to.

Went very well, especially given the couple "whammies" that Terry discovered along the way. When we first examined the floor, the home was still in escrow so we couldn't thoroughly examine the site (i.e. take up the carpet and see what was going on). Based on what we saw in a couple corners, it was assumed that there was no hardwood already installed and that he would be installing over subfloor. On installation day, we pulled up the carpet only to find that there was some very dingy hardwood already there that would need to be demo'd and removed, which also necessitated a new plan regarding the baseboards and base shoes that surrounded the room. Terry took all of these surprises in stride, and even better, did not change his estimate. And the result could not have been better. His initial estimate was higher than others that I got, but the quality of work was terrific, and he was quite generous in not dinging me for the extra day's work that resulted from the unexpected surprises. I would use him again, and recommend that you do the same.

Terry has a very energetic, friendly, and professional attitude. The day before the work was to begin we realized the electrical capacity of the old building, built in 1949, was not adequate to run the equipment. Terry, very cheerfully, offered to pick up a generator inorder to proceed with the work. He refinished approx. 500 sq. ft; living room ,dining room area, and one bedroom. He also installed 2 beautifully matched wood threshholds. The work was done in a very timely manner and the floors look brand new. I will use this companies services in the near future.

Great job. Showed up on time (early, actually), and did a beautiful job. We are very pleased with the results and the work overall.