Proper Wood Finishing

All went well except that the job took a week longer than had been estimated originally. Michael was very pleasant, professional and obviously experienced and knowledgeable about his field of work.

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Had a chair that was part of a dining room set. Tried many "furniture repair" places. They all seemed to be trying to get me in the store to sell something not to do a repair. After several attempts I had no one to fix it. Not even a referral. Check Angie's List and found Proper Wood Finishing. Everything went extremely well. They had the chair a couple days and the price was fair.

Excellent email communication, and all work was done in a timely manner. I would use this company again.

Michael Horrillo was phenomenal. He knew everything about the history of the use of the kind of wood and the kind of carving that was involved, knew immediately what the repair involved. understood how to restore the antique frame to its original condition and did the job promptly and reasonably. A true master craftsman, he knows the field like nobody else. I interviewed multiple craftsmen and he was the only one who demonstrated that he really understood what was involved. His employees were efficient and helpful as well when they came to separate the mirror from the frame to take it back to his shop. The antique mirror in its frame was so heavy that four moving men had difficulty getting it from the truck to our home.. Three Michael's employees moved it with ease. Michael was personable and intelligent, and sensitive about causing minimal intrusion. He not only repaired the mirror but installed it in our dining room in a way that was secure and non-hazardous. He was more patient than he should have been with the insurance company, which caused many unnecessary delays. If you have any antique wood repair job, he is the person to call.

Michael is pleasant to work with and does reasonably good work, but he tends to promise more than he delivers, and always has an excuse when things don't go well. For example, when his 24-step schedule for refinishing claims that he will apply four coats of material, it actually means one coat. He counts the fact that he moves his spray gun back and forth several times as separate "coats". He did not apply any finishes to the bottom of the shelves in the lower cabinets. He said that was not normally done. He recommended a certain brand of hinges, but when he had trouble with them, he claimed he had never received a bad batch from that manufacturer before. When the rubber bumper pads kept falling off the cabinet doors, he claimed that he had never had that happen before.
We paid extra to have him paint the wall which formed the back of our cabinets. He slopped the paint on the newly refinished shelves in several places, and it took many calls to get him to return to remove it.

Michael Horrillo of Proper Wood Finishing is a master craftsman who knows antique wood better than anyone on the planet. A large, antique mirror that had belonged to a US president was seriously damaged by the moving company that shipped it across the country. Michael Horrillo needed to disassemble, repair, and reassemble the frame, repair broken ornate wooden carvings and broken dowels, and put everything back together again. It was unusually challenging because the mirror had to be separated from the frame before the repairs could begin, and the mirror and the frame were so heavy that five men had been needed to move it from the moving van. His work was superb. His knowledge of antique woodworking was remarkable. He did the work punctually and professionally, and was a pleasure to work with. If you need any antique furniture repaired, he is the man to call.

I was going to remove the doors and take them in. They offered suggestions on how to block the entry once I had the doors removed. They totally stripped and refinished the doors. There was one slippage on the completion date, but that was because he took one more look at it, decided he wanted to do a little more work, and asked if I'd mind waiting 24 hours to pick them up, which I think is just perfect.

Michael has done work for me before, about 7 years ago he completely sanded and refinished all the built-in shelves & desk in my home library at a cost of about $10,000.00. We also used his service to refinish the cabinets in a duplex we purchased. I thought we were going to have to replace the cabinets, but he saved us a lot of money by refinishing the cabinets, and they looked like new. He is a perfectionist about his work, and I love every job he has done for us over the years.

Overall I had a good experience.

It was very difficult to make arrangements to drop my chair off because Michael was never in the office and never returned the phone messages I left. When I finally reached him on my cell phone, we set a time to meet at his shop. I dropped the chair off, and he said it would be done in 2 weeks. Many weeks and phone calls later, I finally was able to pick up the repaired chairs, almost 2 months later. So, the work was excellent, but the customer service leaves a lot to be desired.

This company is always very responsive and the guy who does the work is a very nice guy. They give me a great price. The guy who performs the job I have used them many times on different projects. He always does a top notch job. I am always very impressed with them.