Admiral Hardwood Floors

Living in a condominium where we experienced water damage from another unit, we were faced with either repair or replacement of our unit's original, construction-grade engineered flooring. Acting on a referral from another resident, I contacted John for an assessment and subsequent estimate on his recommendations. He responded promptly and followed with a thorough, on-site evaluation. Based on his documented recommendations, we chose to do a complete replacement with upgraded engineered hardwood. John accepted our preferred product (from previous renovations elsewhere), sought out competitive bids from his suppliers and accepted/adhered to the strict contractor terms imposed by our building. All products and services were delivered and carried out on and before the projected deadlines. His experienced installation team was professional, courteous and very sensitive to the preservation of our dwelling unit. Additionally, they went out of their way to assure our satisfaction - even to the point of assisting with the relocation and replacement of heavy furniture items. As a result of the service we received from Admiral Flooring and John's team, I highly-recommended them for your hardwood flooring needs.

John is highly experienced doing business in this area now for 30 years. He understands floors and easily works with new and older homes giving practical options. He put in new flooring in our 7 year old home, replacing carpet. He was also able to beautifully refinish wood floors in our daughter’s 1900 Georgetown home while competitors were recommending replacement and he did the same for our 1950s church rental house. For our 7 year old home, we have now used him twice to replace carpet, first in 3 upstairs bedrooms with wood flooring 5 years ago and this month to replace the carpet in the basement with engineered wood (wood is not recommended for basements) that could be sanded and stained to match the existing wood flooring on the stairs. He has an experienced crew; Arturo laid the flooring for both the upstairs five years ago and now the basement. John is able to do other types of flooring such as LVP but we choose to be consistent throughout the house. The floors are absolutely beautiful. They look like they were installed all at the same time; perfectly matched to the existing flooring. We recommend him highly to friends and neighbors.

I was very happy with John and his team in all aspects -- communication, quote, work, and follow-up. I had a longstanding project to repair some damage to my engineered hardwood floor. I brought in a number of contractors to take a look; I thought the best solution was to replace the boards, but no one was interested in taking on the job except for one company, which then failed to show up. Then I got in touch with Admiral Hardwood Floors. When John came out for the quote, he suggested another option to spot sand and finish the affected areas, which would save me a great deal of money. I also took advantage of the visit to show him some damage to my front door, and he offered a solution for that as well. The quote was very reasonable, and the work was done well and on time. It's clear his approach is to treat each project as though he were working on his own home.

Let me start by saying overall I am pleased with the outcome of my re-stained and newly installed hardwood floors. It pains me to write the downside of my review because I really considered John, the owner, a professional and a really kind soul. After my final walkthrough and once the natural light hit my floors, I noticed that the old oakwood floor was quite noticeable on some parts of my re-stained stairs. I called John and he advised that he noticed it and was waiting for my call. He explained that because certain parts of the original flooring was veneers it was hard for his guys to completely re-sand to bare wood. He also advised that his guys pointed this out to him as well. He then stated my only options would be to paint those parts white or to replace those parts of the stairs. I then said to him I wished he had pointed that out to me as soon as he was advised and recognized it. He then said he would try to locate replacement veneers. I never heard back from him. After calling him he said the distributor was closed due to the pandemic; totally understandable. He then said he would send me a quote to replace the parts of the stairs. After two follow-up attempts, I never received the quote. I am very disappointed that knowingly John didn't point out this issue to me and offer options to resolve, until I pointed it out. And, that he never followed up with me to resolve. I really thought he and team would be my go to hardwood floor contractors going forward. Really disappointed in the lack of transparency and follow through.

We've utilized the services of Admiral Hardwood Floors on multiple occasions - over a period of close to 20 years. Not only were the jobs done on time and on budget - the owner (John McAuliffe) always make certain the client is satisfied with the end result. - not only at the completion of the job but months later. It's rare in the day/time to find a craftsman that truly cares about the craft - John is one such individual. We have also provided numerous referrals to others and have received nothing but positive reviews from those who chose Admiral. Short and long - they do quality work for a reasonable price!

I've used Admiral Hardwoods for my flooring needs for over a decade. they have done both new installations and specialty repairs. I had a need for repairs from water damage. Several contractors wanted to replace all of the flooring on my entire first floor. Admiral was the only one to look at my needs and were able to remove the damaged flooring only and blend in new flooring and match the existing stain. When they were done, you would never know that repairs had been made. The quality of work is unmatched.

The work completed is beautiful! The new floors exactly match the old, refinished floors, you cannot even tell where the seams are. The work was fast and professional. I would definitely recommend this company.

Hardwood Floor Install

After ripping out the carpets of our newly purchased house we were delighted to find oak floors underneath but not delighted that they were quite badly damaged by liquid in some spots. John and his crew tried hard to remove the black stains by sanding (my preference) but the stains went very deep so they recommended stain colors to disguise the damage. By the time they were finished the floor looked great. They started the job on time and completed it on schedule. John is very knowledgeable about materials etc and I appreciated his advice.

Admiral was excellent to work with. Their staff was polite and knowledgeable. The work was performed in a diligent and professional manner

John and his crew did an outstanding job at our place. He is very knowledgeable and knows exactly what each type of hardwood floor needs. We are very happy we followed his recommendations and our floor looks great! His crew was timely and efficient. John also handled a misunderstanding and a resulting unexpected situation very professionally. Simply the best.

Having used the provider two times before, I was confident there would be no problems with regard to refinishing the floor and performing the task in a timely fashion.  I was not disappointed.  The work was well completed by hard-working and professional technicians.

From the initial introduction, through color selection, finishing and trim, all of the steps of this process were very professional.  Top notch materials and methods were used.  The work was done on time very cleanly, particularly considering the amount of dust created by sanding a floor.

They did excellent work.  They were prompt, accurate and had superior knowledge of all types of wood. 
They were unbelievably accurate with the color and fit.  They were outstanding, you cant even tell it was patched, it was an  Identical match.  This is one of the best companies I have every worked with.

A huge financial investment causes alot of stress. Admiral understood the stress and the financial commitment and more importantly delivered a professional product.

We bought a rowhouse in Petworth that had awful carpet upstairs, so we ripped out the carpet only to find that there was tile between it and the hardwood. So we brought in 5 companies to give estimates to refinish the floor on the stairs and second floor. 4 of the 5 said they would not/could not deal with the tile and/or the old wood, and offered a variety of solutions (float a new floor on top, pull out the tile and put a new floor on top of the old wood). Enter John McAuliffe. Despite being a self-described "pessimist" (which I actually found very reassuring), he was the only one to really poke at the tile to see what was going on down there. To my surprise, he said "you know, I think we can actually do this." I was sort of incredulous, given that 4 other companies had said nothing could be done (and that he and I are both pessimists), so I asked him why he said yes when everyone else said no. He explained that he specializes in historic restorations where a new floor is not an option for historic reasons. So he provided quotes both for refinishing the existing floor and for installing a new floor. I liked the fact that he didn't exude undue optimism, and that he took the time to poke around at the tile, unlike any of the other 4 companies we brought in to bid. I had a good feeling, so we chose Admiral. The prices for a new floor and refinishing the old floor were very close to each other, so I asked why, if a new floor was about the same price, would we try to refinish the existing? He explained that the old wood is really beautiful, and that if they could get the tile up without too much trouble, it would probably be nicer looking than new wood. So we went with that option, contingent on their being able to deal with the tile. The tile came up pretty much without a hitch, and they tongued in new pine to an area that had been covered by two 4x8s of plywood, doing a fine job of blending new wood in with (very?) old pine. I was out of town while the work was being done, but as my wife and I were discussing stain options, we realized that we weren't really in love with the color of the stain (gunstock) on the first floor, which was much newer wood, and oak not pine. So, on the fly, we asked John whether it would be possible to sand and refinish the first floor as well. We negotiated on price and came to an agreement, so they agreed to do that as well. Long story short, things turned out great, and we are very happy with our floors, particularly with the decision to keep the old wood upstairs. Yes, it is creaky, but it is really beautiful. I am an extremely tough grader, so I have to say that I only have two fairly minor complaints. First, there were, I think, two occasions where we were told they would come by "Monday or Tuesday" or something like that, and, since we were living in our unfinished basement at the time, we were pretty anxious to get the work done, but we heard nothing Monday and didn't see anyone until Tuesday. No federal crime. Second, a chandelier on the first floor mysteriously stopped working once the work was complete, and after we confirmed that no circuit had blown or anything, we had to get an electrical guy to come out and figure out what the problem was. He discovered that the wire connecting the chandelier to the switch had been cut through, and showed us the sawed wire, asking whether there had been anything done to the floors upstairs. He said it was for sure that that was how it got cut, given that it was working fine before the work and not at all after the work. He said there wasn't really any danger, per se, but we would rather not have had to deal with that. Like I said, though, I'm a hard grader. I highly recommend John McAuliffe and his team at Admiral Hardwood Floors, especially if you have a floor you'd like to keep but can't find anyone who can do it. John and his guys almost certainly can, and you'll be glad you worked with them.

It is really hard to get in touch with him. The parts that they did on the floor don?t really match the existing floor so they are supposed to come back. It?s a small business so you have to be patient with their responsiveness, but I would recommend them. My overall experience with them was good because they know what they are doing and they were prompt.

They were fast and reasonably priced. I spent $1700 at that time. The quality of their work was great. I will use them again in the future.

They did an excellent job - worked with me to get the best day to do the work, and then were highly professional in the manner that they carried out the work. We will be asking them to quote for all future flooring work. Given the amount of work that they did, and the fact that they returned on multiple days to do the coating, I thought that it was a very fair price.

Last Fall I bought an old house needing some renovation work including refinishing all the hardwood floors. I wanted to have the floors finished before I moved in so I met with John the day after my closing to get an estimate. After getting three estimates, I chose John because I was most impressed with his experience and professionalism. The estimate he quoted me was fair and reasonable and fit within my budget. John was very professional during the initial consultation while I chose my floor color and we went over the full scope of the job. The workers were also very professional and on time for the job. The quality of the work they did was very, very good. They even completed the work a day earlier than expected, in part to accommodate my moving schedule. The only problem I had was that the workers did not replace the wood pieces underneath my stairs even though it was part of the contract. I called John about it and he was out here the next day to finish that part of the job. Even after that, no one came back to put on the polyurethane to really complete the job so I just did that last little bit myself. To be fair, I didn't call John back about the polyurethane since it was a small, out-of-sight area and it was faster and easier to do it myself. Working with John was pleasant and the quality of the the work was so good that I would use Admiral again for floor work. I would just keep a close eye on the what the workers are doing to make sure the whole job gets done.

I called three different places and I liked them the best. They didn't do part of the job that they said they would do. I had to call them back out to finish it.

Admiral was fantastic to deal with. Steve provided great information and options when providing our bid, and they gave us competitive pricing. The work was finished well within schedule, and the outcome is stunning. There were a couple of minor issues, such as a a bit of broken glass on a window pane, which Admiral fixed immediately and without charge. In all, an excellent experience.

It went well. The only issue, is that the amount of repairs needed were greater than they originally estimated. Could they have known this before? It's hard to say. On balance the job costs more than I had budgeted, but Admiral were honest and straightforward with my options. I would use them again.

The end result was very good. I was trying to ready my home for sale, so I was a bit on edge about scheduling. With both jobs there were times where I didn't get my phone calls returned for several days, which did make me a bit nervous. But ultimately, they showed up on the days promised and did the work promptly. Mr. McAuliffe demonstrated excellent knowledge about the type of flooring and wood in my older home, and even used salvaged boards from a house of similar vintage to make a better match. He was willing to answer my questions and explain what he was doing during the job. For the second job I was really running into the deadline to market my home. Mr. McAuliffe actually took a day out of the middle of his family vacation to personally assure that my job got done along with another job he was working on. I can't imagine very many people doing that.

Perfect. Couldn't have been any better. Mr. McAuliffe provided a detailed estimate, and explained exactly which of several options he recommended, and why. He was helpful in telling me about the various wood products available, and in guiding me in making a good selection. He had to work along with the construction company that the owners of the building are using to rehab the apartments, and this was not always easy because they were not the most cooperative people in the world. The work was done on time. The estimate proved accurate. Cleanup after was good. Everything was perfect.