Kimminau Wood Floors

Kimminau Wood Floors has has everything I was looking for in a flooring contractor: professional, responsive communicators; progressive in their use and offering of innovative flooring products; streamlined scheduling/communication/estimating/invoicing software; and top-tier, detail-oriented craftsmen. We love how our floors turned out and could not be happier that we hired Kimminau. Would recommend Ben and John to anyone, homeowner or general contractor alike. Our house is a small starter house, in which we’re doing nearly all of the renovation work ourselves. We initially refinished our 600+sf of 1960 red oak floors ourselves, and while we did a good novice job, after living on them a year, we wanted them to look nicer than we could technically accomplish with our experience level and rental machines. What forced the decision was we wanted a different finish product that would stand up to our two large dogs better, and decided on a different color stain. We knew that having these floors done professionally would likely be our single biggest home remodeling expenditure. Because they truly tie everything else together, it would be worth it, for our enjoyment and to create value for eventual sale. Totally worth it. When we were researching flooring contractors for our hardwood refinish job, we gravitated toward Kimminau because they were one of the only companies with experience using Rubio Monocoat, an innovative, fairly forward-thinking product from Belgium. After meeting Ben at our home, we trusted him so much that we actually asked him to guide us in another direction from Monocoat, with a different finish product to create more resilience and longer life until next required maintenance. We went with a commercial water-based urethane product that offered three-coats of protection over a stain of our choosing. The super-thin layers are barely visible on the wood. NOTE: BE CAREFUL AND DO THOROUGH RESEARCH ON THE TECHNIQUES AND PITFALLS OF DYI ON A HARDWOOD REFINISH PROJECT. It is a lot of very physical work, not cheap to rent potentially faulty or ill-maintained rental equipment, and you may likely have to call a professional anyway to fix it if you don’t get them right! Drum sanders and orbital sanders can do crazy damage in seconds, and incorrectly staining your newly sanded floor can create problems that may undo hours of your work. If you must or have economically chose to DYI, check out Rubio Monocoat finish options and Pete’s Hardwood Floors of Minnisota as a comprehensive and easy-to-understand online reference: [*** Link removed ***] Also, I warn you from going with the super low-ball estimate, Chuck-in-a-Truck flooring guy. Ask to see a current copy of the contractor’s Missouri Workers’ Comp and General Liability insurance, which unprofessional, fly-by-night outfits might not have to protect you and your home if a worker gets hurt or damage occurs. (Uncontrolled, fine sawdust from sanding can spontaneously combust!) Also, to go faster, some lazy contractors will use a more aggressive grit to begin with, which unnecessarily reduces the number of times you can refinish your ¾” floor--usually 4-5 times, when done right. Having worked in the residential building industry for over six years, including as a superintendent at a remodeling company whose job it was to hire subcontractors (like floor companies), I was initially uncomfortable with--at least as far as our due diligence--not getting quotes from any other flooring company. Not working in that capacity now, and from New York, I didn’t have local companies I trusted on deck. Reading the reviews here helped! The combined confidence that Kimminau’s price seemed consistent with our job size and level of quality discussed with Ben, the outstanding and dustless! machines they use--like the unparalleled German Lagler trio (three disc)--to get the very best result, and trust in his industry knowledge sealed our decision. Note on their website they are also BBB, NARI, and National Wood Flooring Associate qualified! Because we have four pets, we decided to double up kenneling them and we scheduled Kimminau to refinish the floors while we were on vacation for two weeks. We signed the contract, chose our stain color off a grid of four presented on our own floor, and handed John the key. We appreciated Kimminau’s updates each time they visited to our house. The process was so dustless that we left our bed in our small tiled kitchen to sleep in the night before we flew out, and the day that we returned! No dust on our comforter, which was literally one foot away from the edge they were sanding. We returned to stunning, gleaming floors that looked incredible. I was once called the “pickiest person he ever met” by the boss-owner of my former renovation company; though this often helped me during project-closing punch lists, it sometimes left me disappointed by being able to see a higher level of detail that was implemented. In spite of loving the finish, smoothness across boards, and color, I noticed a few spots of concern and contacted Ben, the day we returned, on a Saturday. Not knowing if what we noticed might require a recoat, I was anxious. He showed up the next day--as arranged, on a Sunday morning--and listened to my concerns, assured me, and then did a bunch of micro fixes to the top coat right then in his stocking feet for about an hour. He resolved the issues, which ended up being superficial finish imperfections that I was seeing with a spotlight, a foot away from the floor. At little embarrassed, but relieved, my concerns were gone and my wife and I were utterly happy with both the product and the service. I have learned, on both the business and the customer-side of an issue, that a problem approached right and solved well, actually elevates that company to a more trusted and preferred status that if the did everything exactly right the first time. Very much feel this way about Kimminau. Kimminau is easily the best company I’ve dealt with out of dozens of subcontractors I’ve met working in the industry. We will use them in our next house and tell everyone about them. Professional contractors. True craftsmen. Trustworthy. 100% RECOMMENDED.