Bluford Jackson & Son Inc
About us
Bluford Jackson and Son has been family owned and operated since 1919. We have spent over 90 years specializing in installation and refinishing of hardwood floors. We provide dedication and commitment to our residential and commercial customers. Bluford Jackson and Son is committed to providing clients with professional, high-quality service.
Business highlights
Services we offer
Installation & refinish of hardwood floors, plankstrip & parquet. New installation. New dust containment system. Maintenace & preventive maintenace.
Amenities
Free Estimates
Yes
Accepted Payment Methods
- CreditCard
Number of Stars | Image of Distribution | Number of Ratings |
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77% | ||
14% | ||
0% | ||
3% | ||
6% |
The project was to start on a Monday and was estimated to take a couple weeks. Mid morning on the Monday it was scheduled to start no one was at my house. Called and was told I needed to talk to Ryan Buford. Ryan is the scheduler and supervisor of all of there crews. He explained his guy was in route to pick up the new flooring from the distributor and would be at our house shortly.
He did show up about noon and worked 2 days in laying the new floor. While I had wanted the new floor to be tied into the old floor via toothing method (as was in the proposal) the installer explained the pros and cons of that method. We decided on a 5" wide transition in the doorway. It looks nice and the installer did a nice job.
After the installer was done a second person showed up to sand the floor. He did a nice job of sanding the floor and working with us on the stain color. Putting several colors of stain directly on the floor to give us a visual. He did a good job of covering our bookcases to minimize the dust but being realistic you will get dust all over your house in this process and I understand that.
After sanding he stained the floor. The entire process of sanding and staining took 3 days. After he was finished staining he mentioned that another person would be there to apply the 2 coats of polyurethane. Since he was done on a Friday I was not thinking this would happen until Monday. So we were out of town on Saturday and when we got back home Saturday night the first coat of finish was on. I didn't know if I should be happy or upset that no one had told me someone would be in our house while we were out for the day.
Then on Sunday morning my wife went to work and I went to the gym. When I came back from the gym the finisher is in our house putting the second coat of poly down. Again, not sure if I should be happy he is working the weekend or upset because I can't walk in our house for at least 4 hours. So I went and killed some time sitting in Starbucks in my gym clothes.
The next week a 4th person shows up to install all the matching quarter round. After that I got an invoice for the full amount even though the project was not done. They still needed to install custom molding around the stair base and I had a punch list of 6 items that needed to be addressed. I send in payment of 85% of the invoice along with the punch list stating that once the project was entirely complete I would pay the holdback amount.
It took me 10 weeks from that point and various emails and calls to Ryan to get him to finish the project. All the while they keep sending me statements saying that my account is past due. This was very frustrating and highly unprofessional.
In terms of the quality of work we would rate it a B+. The crews know what they are doing and care about their craft. Were I think they fall short is in customer communication. I would have liked to know going in that they would use four different guys on our project each with a different skill set. And the problem with this approach is that there in no one person from Bluford who takes ownership of your satisfaction on your project. Ryan may say that this is his role but he never followed up with us to see if we were happy with the project, or when the punch list would be completed.
And probably the single most issue I have with them is no one called to say "Thank You" for your business. You think that would not be so hard for $9,200.
The foreman chose an inferior method of tack strip removal. There are two ways to mechanically remove tack strips.
1) flat bar and hammer. Pounding the hammer between the floor and the tack strip and then prying up the tack strip.
2) cats claw/nailpuller and hammer. Pounding the cats claw into the tack strip itself and then prying up the nails through the tack strip.
If method number 1 is used, there is damage to the hardwood floor below. Either the flat bar chips into the floor as it is wedged between the tack strip and floor or it hits the tack strip horizontally and bangs the nails against their holes which widen the holes and flake out the wood around the nail holes.
If method number 2 is used, then damage is minimized because the tack strip absorbs all the prying and the nail is pulled straight upward rather than being wedged against the sides of its hole.
The foreman chose method number 1. When I stopped his work, he had already flaked up some of the beautiful 100 yr old hardwood flooring underneath and widened the nail holes. He panicked, ran to his truck, got some woody putty/glue and tried to repair it, he then packed up his tools and left the remaining tack strips for me to pull up myself (which I did without damaging the wood).
When I spoke to the representative on the phone, he yelled at me, told me they weren't ever doing work for us again, and then actually hung up on me.
Then to top it all off………….. The foreman leaves the demoed carpet lying in the middle of our porch!!
1. You don't quote a job, then show up to do the job and THEN realize that it is outside your expertise.
2. If you specialize in carpet and hardwood, you ought to know how to remove carpet without damaging the floor below it.
3. If you make a mistake, then apologize for it. Don't get flustered, yell at a customer and then hang up on them just because you are embarrassed and being defensive about it.
4. You don't leave debris laying in the middle of a clients porch.
They were scheduling out pretty far 2-3 months at that time.
Only sent out a single person to install, so took ~2 days to install, another day to sand and put down first coat of poly. Then they came out the next 3 days to put additional coats of poly.
Floors look great and are holding up well. Installer did a great job getting floors tight against fireplace brickwork and the slider.
Did not spring for the dustless sanding service, but there was hardly any sawdust to deal with.
All their employees were very experienced and professional.
The installer was very friendly and easy to work with. He worked around my schedule.
Horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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