Wood Floor Solutions & Design

The project took about 3 or 4 days to complete as stated by Cleo.  The final product came out very nice with a smooth surface similar to that of tile, cool and easy on the feet, also easy to sweep and mop.  The cracks in the original concrete were grinded down, filled in and smoothed over to match the rest of the floor but are still visible which I was told would be the case.  All in all I'm happy with the finished  product except for a few unforseen issues:

1.  The stain on the floor came out much darker than we had anticipated.  We chose a light sand color on the color chart but when applied came out more like a medium brown or the color of a football.

2.  Scuff marks and scratches maybe an issue I was hoping to avoid.  Tile floors was an alternative option we could have used and avoided this issue for the most part.

3.  About 2 weeks after the floor was completed, a painter came out and used blue 3M tape to place plastic and paper on the floor in order to paint the ceiling and avoid any drip marks on the floor.  When his crew cleaned up the job,  some of the tape had lifted the stain from the floor which I did not expect to happen on a newly completed floor that we had not used yet.  For the money we spent, this is not something I expected nor in my opinion should have occurred based on the product that was explained to me when I decided to go with polished concrete vs tile.  I called Cleo about it and he came out to see the tape marks.  He agreed to follow up with me to come up with a solution to the problem.  A week after his visit, he called me back to say he was working on a solution and scheduling someone to come over to make the repair needed.  The quesiton about whether I would use them again is based on where I am now in terms of a $2k+ job with some unforseen issues that came up in the process.  To spend that kind of money, I was expecting a different outcome.  Pending their repair, I reserve the right to change my opinion on using them in the future, afterall, I don't have an issue with the staff, just the final product. 

Upon their follow up, repair and after a few weeks of using the patio, I will give a final review of the product along with how well it handles normal foot traffic and wear and tear of moving patio furniture around, the kids playing on it, etc.

Installed Material: Engineered tongue in groove wood.

Issues with the installation are found in all rooms, stairs and hallway. These include (but not limited to):

1. There are visible gaps found on both the long and short edge of the planks. There are areas where I can easily slide a nickel in between boards. Again, this is a tongue and groove engineered product that should have tight joints.

2. Where the wood reaches the wall, there are areas where the expansion gap is larger than 1/4 inch, and is not hidden by the quarter-round. (In other words, there are visible gaps at the wall.)

3. At the sliding glass door, the installer used edging material of 2 different widths. Presumably the installer ran out of one edging material, and used another to complete the run. (Had the wood been cut correctly, molding could have been avoided all together. Even so, there is no excuse for such sloppy work.)

4. No returns on the quarter-round, poorly cut joints between strips.

5. The wood was not cut to size at the door jams and glue was used to fill the gaps.

6. Proper installation as indicated by the installation instructions from the wood manufacturer (as well as 2008 NWFA guidlines) indicate that there should be at least a 6 inch end-joint spacing. There are boards throughout the installation that have 4 inches or less of end joint spacing.

These and other issues were detailed in an email sent on Aug 14.

During our initial walk around, I showed Cleon a number of these issues, including the gaps between floor boards. At the time I was told the wood would and quot;expandand quot; to fill the gaps between planks.

On a second visit Cleon brought a second gentleman over, purported to be an expert, he admitted that the closets needed to be redone and offered to use wood filler throughout the rest of the house.

I have had other specialists in; they say that normal expansion will not fill the gaps between the individual planks. (Again these gaps are found in every room, hall and stairs.) I also asked about the wood filler, and was told that this was not an option. Wood filler alone will age, discolor, and wear away at a different rate then the floor. Using filler between the boards will only be a band-aid, and will need to be re-applied on a regular basis. Longevity and uniformity of the filler would require resealing the wood (which requires sanding). This is not an option on brand new engineered and quot;hand scraped finishand quot; flooring. Moreover, a negative review of and quot;Wood Floor Solutions and Designand quot; found on the homeadvisor website includes a complaint that the and quot;puttyand quot; used to fill the floor was failing after a few months.

I was also told by the 2 companies that I consulted with, that because glue was used, removing the flooring may result in damage to both the wood flooring, and the plywood sub-flooring. I can only assume that the offer to use wood filler was designed to avoid the material and time costs incurred for properly addressing the defects.

(8/14/2013) I sent a follow up email on 8/14, After the second visit (where wood filler was the suggested solution). In that email I detailed the issues, explained that wood filler was not an acceptable option, and asked Cleon to and quot;Please detail how and when we can address these issues.and quot;

(8/16/2013) I received no response and emailed Cleon again, explaining that I was dissatisfied with the work, explained that I had again been informed that wood filler was not a solution, and that the wood would need to be pulled and redone.

(8/16/2013) Cleon responded that they would get back to me.

(8/22/2013) I followed up again on the 22nd indicating that I had not received a response, and reminded them that they had left debris in the front yard for well over a week.

(8/23/2013) Marshea from Wood Floor Solutions and Design contacted me indicating that they would remove the debris and wanted to bring an inspector in to assess the floors.

(8/23/2013) I responded indicating that the yard would remain accessible to them at any time. I also asked if the inspector was an employee of Wood Floor Solutions and Design and asked for and quot;more information with how this fits into addressing our concerns about the improper installationand quot;

(8/27/2013) Marshea correctly indicated that the debris was removed. And made the following offer: and quot;Monday morning between 9-9:30 am we can come by to address the installation of the floor. The inspector is not from our company. We can go over in more detail on Monday morning.and quot;

(8/28/2013) I indicated that now 2 people from the company have inspected the floor and should be able to provide ample information. I advised Marshea to speak with her employees to obtain an assessment of the situation.

(8/28/2013) Marshea responded that Cleon had brought over another installer to review the work, not an and quot;inspectorand quot;. I was then asked if and quot;Is Monday and Tuesday of next week good to re-do closet and other areas of concern?and quot;

(8/28/2013) I asked for clarification on what and quot;re-doingand quot; the closets and other areas of concern mean, and confirmation that they will supply additional MATCHING materials, if the existing wood cannot be salvaged (I had ordered the wood from Home Depot). I offered to schedule the corrective work once we came to an agreement with respect to those 2 questions.

(9/10/2013) I have not received a response from Wood Floor Solutions and Design. I called and briefly spoke to Marshea. Marshea did not provide any information but said that I would receive an email that evening.

As of 9/6/2013 2:30pm, the promised email has not arrived, and I have received no additional communication from Wood Floor Solutions and Design.

I have saved the emails of all communication with this company. They will not give me a straight answer about how they now want to fix the floor. I have paid them a $2,832 deposit, in addition to my costs in materials.

The provider had extremely professional and courteous workers who knew what they were doing and got the job finished in the amount of days promised. I am having them estimate on another house this week. I was very impressed with them. Lakeside Dr.

Great! Cleon and his team were punctual and friendly, and finished the job on time. These guys are pros.

My future wife and I were living in a 1 BR 1 BA condo. We made the decision to buy a 4 BR 2.5 BA foreclosure property for a very good price, unfortunately the condition was very poor. The first floor had engineered wood floors in the main living areas, a different colored wood in the kitchen (this was so ugly!) that was glued down and hard to remove, and cherry wood flooring in the powder room downstairs. Having wanted to do some renovating to make our new home look better, we signed up for Angie's list and found Commercial Cleaning Solutions. We initially contacted Commercial Cleaning Solutions by phone, and spoke wtih Cleon, who is their field super. We told him we wanted to refinish our engineered wood floors in the common areas (instead of ripping them up), remove wood flooring in kitchen and powder room and replace with Travertine. We also asked them to install primed (not painted) 5 1/4and quot; baseboards and quarter round.

I gave Cleon the measurements over the phone and he quoted us a price for light screening, and heavy screening to refinish the engineered wood flooring. To save money, we decided to go with the light screening in hopes that the damage and lack of maintenance from the prior owners could easily be removed. Cleon gave us a price over the phone (site unseen) which was reasonable for the amount of work requested, and we scheduled the work accordingly. We agreed in advance to go buy the Travertine flooring from Home Depot in advance to save money, and we would just have them install it. (Home Depot had a killer sale and we only paid $1.99/sqft as opposed to $3.99/sqft which is average price for Travertine)

The first day 2 guys from Commercial Cleaning Solutions showed up around noon (said they would be there at 10 a.m.) to begin work. One gentlemen was performing the light screening to our engineered wood floors, and the other guy was installing the 5 1/4and quot; baseboards. Around 3:30 pm we get a phone call from Cleon advising that the light screening does not appear to be working as intended, as they will need to do the deeper screening to get out all the imperfections and chips done by prior owners. He quoted us an additional price, which was fair and they came back the next day to start the heavy screening. The guy installing the 5 1/4and quot; baseboard did a good job, but he didn't finish as promised b/c the tile guy never showed up. We were told the tile installer was running a little behind, and that he would be here that weekend to remove our kitchen and powder room floors, and install the Travertine.

The next day, the same gentlemen from Commercial Cleaning Solutions showed up to perform the deep screening on our engineered wood floors. I couldn't believe how great our floors looked! They basically looked like brand new wood floors, even though they were not stained and sealed yet. Their worker ended his day by sanding most of the floor area, and said he would be back the next day to get in the corners, and stain and seal the refinished floors. After pushing other subs (for other work) back, the tile guy again does not show up!

The following day, the same worker on the engineered wood floors comes back, and takes his time making sure he gets all the old wood flooring sanding in the corners with a special and quot;cornerand quot; tool which is used by hand, and is very labor intensive. He took his time, and then after he was finished with the corners went through and vacummed up the entire floor for any saw dust that may be left prior to the staining. He was working so hard, I went to Wendy's and bought him lunch!!! He was very appreciative, and later on that day he finished staining and sealing our floors. Let me be clear on this point.....

COMMERCIAL CLEANING SOLUTIONS PERFORMED MIRACLES ON REFINISHING OUR ENGINEERED WOOD FLOORS!!!!!! (I will post photos of before and after later)

My fiance and I were sooooooo happy with how the floors came out! They even gave us a helpful list of and quot;dosand quot; and and quot;don'tsand quot; as they related to our new floor. In addition, they gave us a Bona wood floor cleaner kit!!! I couldn't believe it. Although the new stain was not as dark as our original color, our whole entire home now looked brighter and more alive! We were so happy.

Then the tile guy enters the picture :( After several missed appointments, and constant rescheduling with Cleon for his tile guy, he finally shows up and we're told he would finish everything in one day. Having been so happy with our new finished wood floors, I go to Home Depot and buy large paper sheets to put down in the high traffic areas so we and the tile guy can walk on the paper, and allow the sealant to properly cure, as the floor was still a little tacky/sticky feeling after 24 hours.

We leave the house for the day to work, and the tile guy begins his work. Again, we were told he would have all his work completed by that day. When I get home that night, I find out that he ripped out the old flooring in the kitchen, and replaced with travertine. It looks great!!! Now the bad news. He didn't touch the downstairs powder room yet. Even worse, he laid 6 20 lb. bags of mortar mix and thin set directly on our new engineered wood floors!!!!! I couldn't believe it and was furious! I immediately lifted up the bags, and put them on the protective paper sheets I previously laid down. (just for this reason!) It gets better, one of the bags on the bottom was cut and tons of small rock pebbles and grit was covered and scratched the surface of our engineered wood floors. It took me about a week of constantly cleaning that area (after countless vacumming passes) to get all that dust off, so the finish didn't look and quot;cloudyand quot;.

I then go outside, and see that he used a saw to cut the travertine directly in front of my black BBQ grill. In turn, my grill was now COVERED with greyish white dust. We have a large back patio, I just don't understand why he had to cut the travertine directly in front of my BBQ grill, especially after he saw dust was covering it????? A complete lack of respect I thought.

I called Cleon to complain about their tile guy, and he directed me to Marshea, the owner of Commercial Cleaning Solutions.

Now, let me preface this with a brief statement. I don't care what company you're in, everyone gets complaints. It's how you handle accountability, and respond that makes you a good company. Marshea was very apologetic, and she could tell by my voice I was very upset about what had happened, and told me she was sorry and they would send someone out ASAP to refinish the floor in that area. That made me feel good, she didn't try and tell me to pound sand, she acknowledged my concerns, and had a great resolution.

The next day our favorite tile guy comes back to finish removing the wood flooring in the guest powder room and install travertine. It looked great! That same day, a different guy comes to finish off the remaining 5 1/4and quot; baseboards and quarter round in all the remaining areas. Bottom line, the tile guy did a GREAT JOB with the travertine. We love it, and it looks great!!!! (but he could have used common sense, and taken better care of our brand new refinished engineered wood flooring and cut travertine stone away from home and BBQ grill). Marshea the owner completing stood behind us, and offered most anything to make it right.

To wrap up our initial experience with Commercial Cleaning Solutions, we were very satisfied with the end quality of all repairs done by them. The scheduling (like any subcontractor or trade) was a little touch and go, and the tile guy disappointed us with his carelessness, but his quality of work was excellent.

No better compliment to a company can be then to use them again. As such, we hired Commercial Cleaning Solutions to do additional work in my rental condo. No issues with that job, everything came out better than

.They did a great job. They gave have us a good price with a great deal on it. The guy who came out was very nice. He was very punctual and made sure he did a detailed job on everything. I will use them again in the future.

They were very thorough and had done a great job. They were just excellent.

They arrived at the designated time to provide an estimate. The price was fair and competitive. They were very professional. The workers who did the floor arrived on time and worked diligently. We were very pleased with the result and would definitely recommend this company to friends and family. Anyone who needs to have a wood floor refinished or any other floor cleaning should look into Commercial Cleaning Solutions."