Mara's Flooring

Mara's Flooring is my go-to floor company--hands down. Adrian has worked on every floor of my apartment building replacing the flooring on 2 and refinishing 3. His workmanship is excellent, prices unbeatable. I never get a second quote. I just call Mara's.

I paid $1,200 above quoted price and the end results are HORRIBLE. Buyers beware- this guy will try to scam you . I hired him to cover up pet stains. He advised that after he is done the stains would not be gone but he promised it will look much better. Then he quoted $2,700 for natural cherry colored stain. I suggested he does darker stain. He agreed to do that but said it will cost more for darker staining - the revised quote was up to $3,900 because staining the floor darker will require different materials and will be more labor . We agreed to do the more expensive darker stain because it will make the pet stain less visible and in his contract he wrote down that he will be staining the floor the darker Jacobean color . When he started the work he called and said that he feels natural cherry will look better for the stain so we shouldn’t do the darker Jacobean color staining we had agreed on. He said that he thinks that doing the darker (more expensive and more labor intensive) Jacobean color we agreed on would make the stain look worse. So I trusted his professional advice- that was a big mistake. However he refused to change the price back to the original $1,200 lower price he had quoted for the lighter natural cherry. He claimed he was doing extra work he didn’t expect- removing three closet doors he didn’t plan on and other stuff he didn’t elaborate on. I had no idea what extra work he was doing. After paying $1,200 above quote for natural cherry color staining the pet stain I hired him to cover up looked as bad as before he did the work- there’s no difference in the visibility of the stain before and after and,contrary to the promise he had made during his sales call that it will look much better, it looks as terrible as it did before he did the work . The extra work he did was remove and put back three closet doors and put some personal belongings from the kitchen counters of and the window sills of my studio inside kitchen cabinets and the bathtub. Charging 1200 for this is ridiculously excessive. I could have found someone from the building staff who would have removed those doors and put them back for a lot less $100-$200. He also should have included that charge in his original quote as he clearly saw the closet doors when he came to my unit to give me a quote. As far as putting my belongings away he only removed items from the kitchen counters and window sills-I would have done this myself in less than an hour if he had properly informed me about everything that needs to be done before he came to do his work. He only told me to remove everything from the floors and I did that - there was nothing on the floors per his directions . He mentioned NOTHING about having everything from the kitchen counters and window sills removed- I would have easily done this if he had told me and avoided a ridiculous and excessive $1,200 surprise charge that was a result of his improper communication . It was due to his own mistake and not properly communicating everything that needed to be done before he came over to do his work that he had to put my stuff away and HE CHARGED A RIDICULOUSLY HIGH AMOUNT FOR WORK HE DID AS A RESULTS OF HIS OWN MISTAKE. To make it worse, because of him moving stuff under my nose, I can’t account for some of my personal belongings that were in the pantry and I am still looking for them. Finally I still don’t understand why he subsequently changed his mind and felt that staining the whole floor the much darker Jacobean color we agreed on and listed in the contract( and the extra $1,200 price for which I paid though he didn’t do) would have made the pet stain worse. I would have thought it would have made the stain blend better with the rest of the much darker stained floor. I think he just wanted to cut his costs and effort and make more money out of me at the expense of quality. I think working with him was a complete scam- I paid $1,200 above what he had quoted for the work he actually did and the main task I hired him to do didn’t get accomplished. The place of the floor where the stain is still looks HORRIBLE. Between this condo and my rental I have worked with numerous contractors and I will say that working with Mara's Flooring was the most horrible contractor experience I have ever had.

Very impressive! This team performed great service, everything was ready in time. It is easy to work with Adrian. Very satisfied doing business with Mara Flooring which I recommend it to everyone!

We have used Mara’s Flooring several times. Was done in a professional manner and on time. We were very happy with the work.

They did a great job, very professional and clean. I will recommend them to all my friends.

We had Maras Flooring coming to our house for a free estimate. Adrian come will a lot floor sample. We have over Sq 1750 that needs to be Sand, Stain and refinish. The job cost us $3700 . I highly recommend Adrian! It was good working with Maras Flooring. ❤

Adrian was very professional and gave us excellent service. The quality of our floors are outstanding. 10/10 recommended!

They did the whole apartment in one day.  I plan to use them again in the future.

The person who came did quite a good job for a reasonable price. They did exactly whet they said they would do and charged me the price I expected them to.

We carefully removed a 1'X1' portion of the laminate flooring ourselves to reveal maple underneath that appeared to be in ok condition. Then I called in Mara to pull up the rest and refinish the floor underneath if it proved to be in good condition. They ended up having to replace a few boards here and there. Overall, I was not happy for several reasons: 1) They left nails in the floor and sanded them into the floor (I'm not an expert on refinishing wood floors by any means but I would think that nails should be removed rather than sanded into the floor); 2) The new boards were not level with the original boards; 3) They did not haul away the old laminate flooring. The owner explained that hauling is not part of their scope and not in the contract. Although I did not realize that initially, I do understand and do not hold that against them. However, they left a huge mess pile in the middle of my garage for me to take care of myself. When I complained, they did come back and put the debris in plastic garbage bags and neatly lined them up along the side of my garage; 4) They put a huge scratch in my exterior entry door when carrying in and out heavy equipment. They didn't tell me about it... I discovered it on my own shortly after they left; 5) I did not have them finish the job. I hired someone else to install new wood flooring; 6) I got the distinct impression that the owner prefers to deal with men as customers.

The resulting stairway looked beautiful.

The owner was very professional, but I think he sub-contracted out some of the work and the workers were not. They got behind in their work and had to stay until 10 p.m to finish. I asked them to leave earlier in the evening as the work was noisy etc, but they would not because they said they had to finish that day or they would be in trouble.

He was really good answering calls and any questions that we had. We shopped around a bit and he was better than most others. We were happy with the work done and would recommend them to others.

The job was done without supervision and took much longer than was promised. This was because the owner took most of the workers off the job. The workers were abused by the owner.

Adrian returned our call quickly, met with us the next day at the house, and began work the following day. He was able to start so quickly because of a cancellation in his schedule, which was great. However, even without the schedule change, he was very willing to start work as soon as possible. He listened carefully to what we wanted, and was able to offer suggestions on the best way of going about the rather difficult job of making the many different flooring types in our house appear consistent. He and his team worked very hard and were always careful to make sure that we were happy with what was happening along the way. They even went back and put on an extra finishing coat to make sure the floor was as dark as we wanted it to be. When they were finished, they did a great job cleaning up. Overall, we were very happy with the work they did!

Not well. The project started by Mara's being late, the men were courteous and called frequently to keep me updated on their progress getting here. The repair was made by cutting the hole a little larger and inserting floor planks. The final repair is very zig-zaggy, I said I didn't like it after the first day of work, but I was assured after sanding it would be fine. I think they should have removed all the planks and blended far more into the existing floor. After the sealer it still looks patched. They were late on the second day but stayed till 11 pm to finish. They came back for 2 hours on Saturday to do the buffing and second coat of sealer. The sealer is very uneven and you can see marks from the big squeegee they used. Also the finish doesn't even resemble the existing finish (gloss very smooth vs matte almost rough, doesn't resist ANY water or stain). I think this will all have to be redone when we sell our unit. I'm not very pleased and I feel they didn't listen to me.

In the beginning it seemed like a respectful, reputable person, and in the end the floors look nice but the way that I was treated during was disrespectful and I felt he was trying to take advantage of me. They were going to work Saturday and Sunday. He called Saturday 10:30pm saying his workers are too tired to finish Sunday, they'd have to finish Monday by 6. They were done at 10:30pm, broke a pipe and told me it was probably broken before and I just wouldn't know. He told me I had to pay before I could see it (floors were too wet to go in). I did, when I returned the next morning the new quarter round was broken in many places, closets dismantled, all doors off hinges, I told him I wasn't satisfied and wanted him to fix those things. He said he'd do it later, I said I would never have paid him to leave it in this condition and said come back or I will stop the check, he said no and threatened to put a lean on my house. His worker asked me ''why didn't my man do this?'' It was rude.

It was a good experince, but I didn't get the Angie's list discount. Adrian gave me a quote over the phone without seeing the floors. There was some wierdness regarding the Angie's 5% coupon that Mara's supposedly offers. When I asked about it, Adrian said that he could give me the discount but that he would then have to charge me tax. If I did not take the discount, he would not charge me tax. Given these two options, it was cheaper for me to not ask for the 5% discount, but I felt that it was a bit dishonest of Adrian to basically manipulate me into not insisting on the Angie's List discount. Everything else about this experience was great. The guys arrived relatively on time & finished before I expected (about 5 hours). Adrian was not there; I never met him in person. The three guys who did the work were very nice, respectful, & a did great job. Despite the discount wierdness, I'd recommend them. Check out before and after pics below.

I called Adrian and he was very nice on the phone, so I made an appointment to visit his showroom. He was extremely thorough and patient, even though he had a lot going on while we were talking; he made our conversation a priority. He recommended a floating floor because my condo has radiant heat, but he gave me an estimate for full-on hardwood, as well. (I told him I was not interested in non-wood.) He held a date ten days later to start and said the job would take three days. I mailed him a check of $5000 for a deposit--he did not really want a credit card. He fell a little behind on schedule, and his working late resulted in a couple complaints to me from my building. (They also said the workers ''left a mess in the elevator.'') Adrian wanted to work ''quietly'' on Saturday (against the building rules!) to finish, but I told him he really couldn't. He had planned to charge $200 for the carpet disposal, then changed it to $50. I gave him $100 because he trimmed the shelves for me.

Met with Adrian, the owner, first at our home and then in his showroom to pick out the flooring for the kitchen. He was prompt, professional, and easy to work with. We wanted wood floors in the kitchen, but we didn't want to remove the cabinets and countertops at this time. Adrian suggested a floating floor and it turnout great. His crew work did a great job removing and replacing our appliances. The removal of the tile in the entrance/hall way took a few hours longer than expected because the subflooring had been screwed to the hard wood floor. They work late to finish the job on time. Adrian is also a good source for other contactors.

Excellent work and excellent price. Adrian and his crew were extremely polite, professional, and on time. We highly recommend them.

Adrian was very accommodating. He answered my calls immediately and scheduled my work within a couple of days. The work was beautiful and Adrian was a pleasure to work with.

In terms of the quality of refinishing the floors, Mara's was great. All the floors look great, and this was no small feat given what some parts of the floors looked like before the refinishing. Adrian was very personable and friendly, clearly explaining the job and the price up front. All of this was done in 2 days after we closed on our house and before we moved in. Because of this, we were not around for most of the work. This led to 2 major problems though. They worked past midnight the first day running the power sander and annoying our new neighbors. They did not properly dispose of their waste materials, including old carpet pads, old flooring, dust from sanding, etc. They put the waste in our neighbors trash and recycling cans. Now we have to get it removed ourselves. The only excuse for this lack of professionalism is that they primarily work in Chicago, where dumping waste in random alley dumpsters is generally ok, that's not the case in Oak Park.

Adrian and his team did a beautiful job with the floors. I was on a very tight time line and they were able to start immediately on the job and work until it got done. They even worked on Father's Day! I was very pleased with the service and the great job they did on the floors.

Adrian came and gave a quote. He was very friendly. He came with 2 of his workers the following day and finished the job in 1.5 days.