Carter Wood Floors

I really didnt want to give this place an F, but sadly it was completely warranted. It started with my garage door being ripped off its hinges and destroyed by a worker, only to have the owner blame me, claiming i said it was a “manual” door. Actually, i told him his workers needed to “manually push the button on the inside wall” to open it because we werent given any remotes when we recently bought the place. Completely on him. He wanted to argue, but i let it go since i was replacing the door in a month anyway. Next, his workers took all closet and entry doors off the hinges and left them in the corner. They completed the floor work, it was average, nothing special, but it was fine. I asked the owner if he could provide me with about 5 dollars worth of polyurethane for touch up work at the request of my painters. He ignored the request. After the work was complete, i was still ticked about the garage door incident, but never brought it up again. The owner finally came back after a week, i told him his lazy workers didnt put any doors back on. When he got to the house, i told him to forget it, i will handle it. He was extra friendly when i handed him his $3144 check, never once mentioning how my garage was destroyed and propped up by a broom handle, right in front of us while we chatted. We had a nice conversation, because i hate conflict, but other people would have told him off at that point. I called him a few days later to request that little bit of touch-up polyurethane, he basically said he would get back to me, clearly not wanting to give it to me. It is generally a courtesy to give a customer a little touch up paint/stain when you are a painter or stainer, especially when you ruin other people’s $1500 dollar garage door. After a week, i called him back and left another voice mail, offering to pay for the polyurethane and go to his store to get it. No response. Tried again a week later, no response again. Zero class. Avoid this business at all costs. Owner is Kevin Carter. I wasnt even gonna give the guy an F if he gave me some of the polyurethane that i requested, but i cant avoid it now.

It went fine. They were good to work with.

Help me fix up a floor after I messed it up with a rented drum sander. Wish I had known about them first. Could have saved time and money.

unknown

Resurfaced existing and new oak flooring and refinished with 3 coats. Floors came out beautiful, we are quite pleased. Kevin Carter was easy to work with and followed up to make sure we were satisfied.

They refinished my wood floors. They moved all furniture and replaced all. Did an excellent job. I have already recommended them.

They did a great job at a great price. Totally refinished my original oak wood floors. He explained my options with great patience. My floors look like new and it didn't break the bank.

fabulous! great job, professional and clean.

Carter Wood floors showed up promptly at 7 am. They removed the carpet, foam and nail boards promptly and cleanly and laid them cleanly in the front of the house. Within a few hours additional men arrived to do the sanding. They did an okay job of trying to minimize dust from getting to other parts of the house. They did not communicate well about what the were doing. They took a piece of my baseboard and propped open a window with it. They did communicate what it was and it was lost during construction....leaving me to replace the section. Another communication issue was that they said that they were removing the carpets, but it wasn't until the end of the job did I realize that it didn't include haul away. I was left with 11 rolls of foam in my front yard and bunches of nail boards. It left me scrambling to have a bulk garbage pickup.

I didn't get to see the 68 extra planks that were removed. If I was to do this again, I would ask to count the planks myself. These planks were taken away before I could count them. Each plank was an extra $10.

Overall I have refinished floors that look nice. There are some planks that I would like replaced that weren't replaced. These guys are out of Long Beach but traveled to Altadena asked upon recommendation from my real estate license. The distance between the cities became an issue on making repairs. I don't think I would use these guys again.

We had an awful experience with this company. We didn’t pay them in full because of the problems we had. The first problem was with their attitude about stain and their reluctance to get the color right. They showed us different stains on our floor after it had been sanded in order for us to pick one. I did not like any of them - they were either too dark or too much in the red family. Instead of working with me immediately and mixing stains, they said it was all they could do. I explained that I did not want the floors to look reddish as we had red oak floors and I said that I wanted it to look more like honey. I was told by the lead worker that if I wanted the floors to have a honey color I would have to wait 17 years! Although annoyed with this attititude we were in a time crunch to move into the house and we needed this to be done that day, so my husband and I went online to look at the product that they were using and we saw there were many other colors available. I knew we had to hurry up and make up our minds with the colors. It was really stressful because we had to pick a stain to continue on with the job. Finally after hours of them sitting around waiting my husband and I suggested some colors that we saw online - which they ended up having in their work van! Unbelievable! After a few mixes with these new colors (warm oak with some warm brown) we had a color we loved. It was beautiful and I thought the trouble was over. But that was not to be! After the first coat of varnish was put on, it became apparent that our floors were overly sanded along the walls and doorways and there were heavy drum marks - especially in the living room. The floor had been carpeted since the 1960’s and they had to remove a lot of nail marks and staples but that was no excuse for the over sanding. My husband and I had removed the carpet ourselves and most of the nails and staples, so we were aware of the condition of the floor before they arrived. I was sickened by all the waves in the floor from the drum marks - and the sanding around the walls was so excessive! We had other wood floor companies come and have a look at it and they said that we would have to sand another layer or two off or even more to fix the problem. Carter Wood Flooring did offer to re-sand it for us but I did not want any more destruction. We just chose to get a discount and continue on so we could move in and maybe deal with this later. We were very tired at this point and wanted to get this over with. The next step was to varnish our floors with 3 coats of varnish (we wanted extra protection). We started with a semi-gloss. We were told if we liked the way it looked after the first 2 coats, they would do a third coat also with semi-gloss and it would look the same but just with one more coat. We liked the look of the semi-gloss after the 2 coats so we approved for the 3rd coat to be done in semi-gloss. I was shocked when I went home and saw that our house was now like a basketball court. It was so shiny and it was beyond shiny. Why didnt the company know this would happen? The company agreed to do a 4th coat free of charge - but then the delima was what type of coat do we choose to fix this problem? They did the 4th coat, a mixture of semi-gloss and satin that toned it down. But it still wasn't right. We noticed that all through out our floor we have little bubbles and blemishes. The popped and unpopped bubbles are EVERYWHERE, some places worse than others (the popped ones are the worst). I looked this up on the internet and the bubbles were caused by the improper mixing of the satin and semi-gloss. I had another issue with staples as they did not remove a few of them - but that is so minor compared to all we had been through. Another issue was that we had to postpone our move-in date because of the delays the problems caused - which in turn forced me to pay extra rent.

It wasn’t just Angie’s List that helped me choose this company - my cousin had used their services 9 or 10 years ago and she was happy with their work and I loved her floors, and their pricing was great. They claimed that they were the same people. They said that they had been doing this for 20 years. It's hard to believe! I think they have sanded so deep in some areas that we would have to get new floors to put into areas that were gouged deep - especially around our fire place and all around walls and doorways. The owner of Carter Wood Floors did come out to assess the work and at least gave us a discount. They were emphatic that they wanted to redo it for us. It’s just that I could not trust them to do it again. The floors were protected all these years with carpet and it is such a shame that they messed up something that was in pretty good shape! Our experience makes for a good story, albeit a horror story. I do like our floors now, I love the color, and it has just the right amount of shine - I just don't look at them too closely because it is too painful!

They replaced boards which were badly damaged so that you could not tell there was any damage in the first place. All in all, a great job. I will be hiring them, again, to refinish the floors in my own home.

Lessons Learned:
1. Only after the first clear coat will you see the nature of any stain damage and repaired nail holes (they will pop out visually if the surrounding wood turns dark). Carter told us about the stains, but they are not really visible until the first clear coat and they didn't anticipate the affects of the nail repairs popping up in dark areas. - Carter will lay a test area down for selecting the top coat, but if you have multiple nail hole repairs (filled areas) and multiple stained areas you won't see them all in this testing phase. When the first coat was applied to our entire floor the nail repairs looked like stars in the sky.

2. Live with the stains/repairs or replace the boards (all or selectively). We replaced boards selectively. Breaking up the stain pattern selectively produced an exciting and dynamic pattern - avoided that gymnasium look. Carter came out with older replacement boards - we told them to bring older undamaged wood to match our floor patterns. They were skilled at this! We wish they had been more aggressive in offering this solution. We are very pleased with the results.

3. The hardest part is clearing the rooms out for their work and not walking on them too soon..

4. Believe their instructions about not using tape on the refinished floors - to be sure we waited weeks before walking on the floors.

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The guys did a good job, we paid extra for them to move the furniture and the movers were EXCELLENT! (not sure who Carter Wood Floors sub-contracted the movers with), We asked for the floor color/finish to match a room in the house that was already in very good shape, and I think there was some miscommunication with that. The finish that Carter Wood Floors left was different from the one room we did not have done (but I don't fault Carter with that, I just accepted that the rooms would have to be different . . .attributed it to them using different products than had been used on the floor we were not having redone, and miscommunication. ) But that is not why I am leaving a what I consider harsh review.
After they guys were all done and we moved back into the house, We noticed a few things that needed to be corrected. On the brand-new flooring in the kitchen, there was a strip of flooring that had a knot hole in it and was missing the wood entirely. AND I found HAIR from the workmen sealed into the finish in the kitchen and dining room. There are four different OBVIOUS hairs that shine brightly when the lights are on. We called and tried to get them to come back to fix these two concerns, and they said call back in a few weeks, by then the hair should have worn it's way out of the finish! Well, that was in July. And that's the last time they have answered the phone or returned any calls. We have called a minimum of 10 times since July TRYING to get ahold of someone who will come back and fix our situation. I used Angies list to find this company and was impressed with the overall recommendations, however, I now wish I had used another company. Carter Wood Floors does not stand by their work, they are unresponsive to our requests, and they are ambivalent toward our deep concerns. I would NOT recommend using them!

They were really great to deal with. They were very professional and honest. They did not go through anything of mine. There was big furniture, and they took it out and were very careful when bringing the furniture back in. They gave me some felt to put under the furniture so it would not scratch the floor. Jim was very helpful when dealing with the woman from the city who was intimidating and made me sign papers I did not want to.

They showed up and did a nice job. They could do it when I needed it done. They were very professional and seemed reasonable. It's all good. We tried to finish the work quickly and move in. We would absolutely use them again.

Keven Carter was able to come and give me a quote shortly after I called. He quickly scheduled the repair and refinishing of my family room floor before the Holidays. The friendly workers replaced damaged boards, sanded, stained and clear-coated my horrible original floors. Repairs, sanding and stain took place the first day followed by 3 coats of clear that had to dry for a day between coats. Took a total of 4 days. My floors look new. We are extremely pleased and have received numerous compliments on the amazing transformation.

Carter did a great job refinishing the hardwood floors in our house. They came out quickly and gave us a detailed estimate for the work. They measured each room to be refinished and then gave us the option for how many coats of finish to us, costs to stain and the cost per board to repair the floor. When we decided to use them, we were able to schedule the work easily. When they came out to start, they took 1 day to completely sand all of the floors. They sand the floors 3 times and use wood filler to repair the floors. They worked with us to decide on a stain (we decided to go with the natural color of the wood) and on the areas of floor that would require repair. The repair job was superb. They matched the new wood into the old wood and without looking in detail, you can hardly tell that any repair had been done. We went with 3 coats of finish and they worked with us to schedule when they would come back out and complete the finishing process. The floors looked amazing when they were done. Carter did a great job and I would not hesitate to use them again.

They are outstanding. The job took three days, and they did an absolutely fabulous job. He was able to do stains on the floor, so I was able to see what it would actually look like before he did the job. They are professional.

The floor turned out well. It wasn't done by a single crew - many different people came through our house to do this small job.

I was very happy with the work that they did. I have used their services several times over the years. They do a really good job on the hardwood floors. They primarily do hardwood floors and that’s what I have used them for. They got back to me right away. They are a very good company. I would like to call them again for some other work.

They did a really good job of installing the floor. They were very professional and quick. There was a miscommunication between the person we talked to and the actual person that did the installation regarding the scope of the job. The installer thought he was just installing the wood floor and what we wanted was a light coat of finish as a temporary thing. The guy was going to walk away with just installing the floor, which was unfinished, and we had to tell him that we needed him to put that light coat of finish so the wood would stay in good condition until we finished up the rest of the kitchen.

The job looks beautiful and they were a pleasure to work with.

The workers at Carter Wood Floors did a great job. They were on time and finished when they said. Everything worked out well.

The floor estimator showed up on time and gave a quote on the spot. The installer was a half-hour late and did not call to tell me he was running behind schedule. The job to replace some missing wood planks was well executed and the installer was courteous. I did have another company quote the same job and Carter Wood Floors came in $150.00 cheaper.

Work looks great! The heater hole is covered, and our floors look good. The guys are friendly and call before showing up to make sure your home. They do very good work.