Tompkins Flooring
About us
Tompkins Flooring is one of Orange County's oldest flooring stores,started in the 1940's and now we have grown to become the most respected floor covering store in Orange County. Additional locations and phone numbers: Laguna Niguel (949) 425-5900 and Laguna Hills (949) 462-0093.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Bathroom Showers & Counter Tops, Carpet, Complete Flooring Installations, Granite Counter Tops, Hardwood Flooring, Laminate Flooring, Porcelain Tile Flooring, Tompkins Turf Artificial Grass, Travertine Flooring, Vinyl Flooring
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
| Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
|---|---|---|
| 92% | ||
| 2% | ||
| 6% | ||
| 0% | ||
| 0% |
The existing laminate was a high quality, more expensive Armstrong product in a color that was difficult to find when the original living room flooring was installed. It was a very attractive color that took me several weeks to find. (Tompkins installed
the original product in my living room, den and two bedrooms.)
Armstrong had discontinued the product; however Tompkins located enough flooring at a local distributor to do the job. Reportedly, Armstrong did not inform my salesman (who said that he told Armstrong the flooring would be interlaced with
existing flooring) that the product has been changed though the name and model number had not. The new flooring was ¼ inch wider and the clicking system was different from the original, making it impossible to interlace the new planks with the older ones. I never looked at the packaging to see if there was information in the fine print that would have notified the installer
of the changes.
No one verified that the new flooring could in fact be interlaced with the old flooring before tearing out all of the tile in the
dining room and entry hall and some of the old flooring in the living room and bedroom where the new product would be interlaced. By the time this fact was discovered my home was dirty from the demolition and in total disarray.
I went to the showroom to see if there was some flooring that could be installed in the living room and dining room that might be close enough that it would not be an obvious mismatch with the other three rooms. There were only two possibilities
in any similar color but the best match of those two choices was not available for at least six weeks.
I should have stopped right there and shut the project down,however, I did not know if I could find an available, better match and did not want to try to reload the hutch and buffet, shove the furniture back onto the dirty concrete and live with the mess while I looked for other flooring. Instead, I decided to install a much less attractive, cheaper product because it could be done the following day. After some negotiation Tompkins charged an additional $375 to remove the rest of the old living room flooring and install the new flooring in the living room, dining room and entry hall. Tompkins stated that they took a loss on the
total job to include the living room in the installation at that price.
Once the new flooring was installed it was obvious that the mismatch with the old flooring was extremely noticeable in the den which opened to the entry hall with double doors and a door open to the front door to the house. Upon entering the house the first thing that struck your eye was the fact that the flooring while similar did not match. This was much worse than the original situation with two entirely different types of flooring. I decided to redo the den in the new laminate and Tompkins agreed to do the work for $900 which they stated was their cost. I was told that they were unwilling to lose any more money on the project.
So bottom line, for $4,275.00 I have matching flooring in the living room, dining room, den and entry hall. The flooring in the two bedrooms is a different color. It looks as if I am hoping no one will notice that they are the same. My goal of upgrading my home and increasing the resale value by coordinating the flooring throughout was not met. I could pay more to redo the two bedrooms which would meet my original goal of continuous flooring throughout, even if the product was less desirable, but decided to save the money.
I would think that anyone trying to interlace existing flooring with new flooring of the same kind would verify that the two were compatible before beginning demolition as a matter of course. Tompkins stated that this is a very unusual occurrence where a product with the same name and model number was in fact not an identical product. Tompkins placed the entire blame on Armstrong for not identifying the change (however, did nothing to hold Armstrong responsible for the cost as far as I know). I do not know if the change was documented anywhere either on the phone or the packaging. Nevertheless, verification of compatibility seems to be an important first step when interlacing flooring..
Tompkins stated that they had gone out of their way to accommodate me, and was unsympathetic with my unhappiness with the outcome. It was clear from the onset that Tompkins would not willingly replace all the flooring throughout the affected rooms for the originally contracted $3,000 to achieve the goal of matching flooring. Tompkins did state that they performed some of the additional work at a loss and more of it at their cost. I would have given Tompkins a grade of F on
this project except for the fact that I participated in a less than satisfactory solution.
Over, the years I have had Tompkins install flooring for me several times and have been very happy with their work. I regret that was not the case this time.
"When a product is discontinued we do not try to match it because of the potential problems it creates. Only because you were a past customer our salesperson tried very hard to locate your discontinued product so you could add on to you existing floor. Unfortunately, Armstrong neglected to notify us that the calibration and locking system changed in the new material. It is virtually impossible to know every detail of the thousands of flooring products we install. That is why we must rely on Armstrong when they advised us that it was the same material. Armstrong used the same style number and the same color name except they changed the locking system and recalibrated the material. They also did not identify the locking system changes on the box. We were unable to feather the new floor into the old discontinued floor due to the revisions that were made in the new flooring specifications. It is absolutely impossible to know the calibration and what type of locking system that was in the existing discontinued floor. We could only go by Armstrong’s word that the floor was the same product as the discontinued floor. Armstrong had no idea of the changes that were made between the new and the old floor. If Armstrong has no idea how could we possibly know the differences between the products? We don’t make the product we only install it. We saved you a lot of money by installing your floor below our cost. Tompkins Flooring was not the enemy here. We tried to help save you money. Maybe we should have just said sorry your floor is discontinued. That would have been the easy way for us. It would have saved us a lot of our time, energy, and money. However, that is not how we do business. Our family run business has strived to help our customers over the past 70 plus years. We go above and beyond, even sometimes at a loss, to provide the very best service for our customers. Our customers are very important to us, even when we save them money by installing flooring below our cost. You could not have purchased your floor from anyone anywhere for the price we sold it to you. Even though we had to write a check to complete this job, we will always have faith and respect for our customers. Thank you for choosing Tompkins Flooring a Family Run Business Since 1942"
Shawna Rad, our salesperson, was outstanding in product selection, presentation, price and follow through. She is an excellent salesperson with great knowledge.
Our installer, George, and his crew are very knowledgeable, courteous, and outstanding in the performance of porcelain tile installation. George has excellent communication skills and high desire that a good installation occurs.
We will definitely use Tompkins Flooring for any additional needs and highly recommend them.
Tompkins did a great job from beginning to end. Rick was the sales rep we worked with in the store. There was no pressure, no upsell. Just helped us find the look we were looking for at a fair price. We were trying to decide between two different wood options and one was almost twice as much as the other. He verified the warranty was the same for both and did not try to push the more expensive option in any way saying the quality would be similar.
The installers for the wood and tile were led by Tom. They were quick and efficient. I was told Tom was one of the best wood installers they had and he proved so, making all the transitions from tile to wood flow without having to use any moulding despite some poor workmanship on the tile someone else had installed in our kitchen. It was extra work to get it to line up without needing moulding, but Tom took care of it and it looks great. Despite his expertise supposedly being wood, the tile that Tom installed looks better than any other tile installed in my home.
The carpet guys came a couple days later and also did a great job. The install looks perfect, do not see any seems, no problems.
As far as the install goes, the only thing I would do differently if it was my company would be to clean the wood and tile after install. It was somewhat disappointing to come home to these beautiful new floors not being cleaned at all on completion of the install.
One other thing to note is this only pertains to my experience at the Irvine store. I went to the Laguna Hills store first and the sales guy was awkard and not very helpful and the selection was very poor. Definitely worth the little extra drive to go to the Irvine store!
"I am sorry that we did not make you’re “A” list. I would greatly appreciate if you would help me improve our business by e-mailing me at [email protected] I would like to know what we should have done better to provide you the very best service. Thank you for your business. Jim Maniscalco C.E.O."
I decided to replace the tile in my house, found that Tompkins Flooring has great ratings on Angie's List. There was some miscommunication between me and Tompkins at the beginning, but my experience with Tompkins turned around when I met Jim Glenn, one of the floor and tile specialists with Tompkins in Irvine. He was so helpful, knowledgeable and patient with me. He helped me pick out my tile, measured my home and set up a time when the installers would be at my house.
George Lopez and his 2 member crew arrived on time, very respectful, very hard workers. They cleaned up after themselves every day they were here.
I gave an "A" rating for the price because I was so pleased with everything else. I didn't shop for tile anywhere else, so really can't attest to the cost.
I highly recommend Tompkins flooring, as a matter of fact, I've already recommended them to one of my neighbors.
me to make sure it was the correct wood. The floor was installed 2:00PM
and it looks beautiful. They just finished and so far so good.
Carissa was the sales person at the store. She was well informed about all kinds of flooring. She was patient
and kind. She was responsive and even called me several times on the phone during the process of installation.
The other sales person at the office was also very helpful when I called to ask about preparing the floorboards.
Alex, the installer, was a perfect craftsman. He and his crew move all of my furniture and didn't damage anything.
He brought out three men to make sure the job got done early! My wood flooring is beautiful and perfect!
I rave about this company to everyone. They even beat another bid I got by $900.
Licensing
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 Find Licensing Requirements page.
*Contact business to see additional licenses.