GREGORY HARTLEY HARDWOOD FLOOR

The process with Greg and his 2 young guys that did the work was a disaster. I actually went to New York to take pictures of an aged hickory floor in a J. Crew store that I had seen a picture of on-line before construction started. The floors were one of the most important design features of our new house. When our contractor decided to hire Greg, I showed him the pictures and he told me with complete confidence that he could replicate the look and feel of the floors in my pictures. What we got was nothing like what he promised. The first sign of trouble was that his guys would show up for an hour or 2 a day and leave or not show up at all when they were expected. After a week or more of this, all of the other subs became angry because none of them could do their finishing work until the floors were done. Subcontractors who are normally very gracious and calm were getting increasingly furious. The wood on the floors was finally installed--it looked beautiful--and Greg announced to me that the wood was too non-porous to absorb white stain that was needed to create the aged look we wanted. He showed me a sample of what he said was the best he could do. His explanation for why he couldn't replicate the finish in the pictures I had showed him was compelling at the time--I trusted him--and now everything he said just seems like the evidence of how little he knew what he was doing, how little experience he had working with knotted hickory. We agreed to apply the white stain in any event to get as much aging effect as we could. It broke my heart to give up the floors I had counted on for months. When the floor were done, my husband and I were shocked. The wood did not absorb any stain. All of the white stain went into the filler in the center of all the knots throughout the floor which made the dark knots looks like they had been filled with greyish chewing gum. In addition, there were gouges in the floor from the sander that were never attended to, white filler put into areas where there were no knots that did not at all match the surrounding wood, and areas where joined boards were not sanded at the same level and filled in with greyish filler that also did not match the surrounding wood. And the piece de resistance was the installation of 2 boards, totalling 12 lineal ft in cherry or purple heart in our living area that are as far from hickory as you can imagine. We did not see these boards until the job was complete. For 8 months we have tried to get Greg's attention through our contractor to fix the floors and he will not respond. We have just sent him the required pre-complaint notice in advance of filing a formal complaint with the Construction Contractors Board. I have worked with really great construction tradesman on many projects in my life. I've never come across someone with this kind of dishonest and dishonorable character as Greg Hartley.