Jeff Dean Hardwood Flooring

We hired Jeff Dean Hardwood Flooring to refinish approximately 630 sq ft of our main floor hardwood flooring. We researched this company as best as we could, read all the reviews, and also received a recommendation from a neighbor. We booked him in early 2018 for a mid-July project date. When we met Jeff Dean and his crew at our home on Monday, July 16, 2018, at approximately 8:00 a.m., we had our house prepared. We moved all furniture, moved the refrigerator out, removed all wall hangings, removed all window treatments, removed the toilet in the powder room, and turned the shutoff valve to the “off” position so water wouldn’t flow. All this work was completed the night before, as we had to pack up our family of 6, including small children, to leave for the week as soon as Jeff’s crew arrived and we completed the pre-job walk-through with Jeff and his employees. We confirmed the area of work (entry hall, powder room, hall connecting to kitchen including coat closet, kitchen, dining room - all continuous hardwood flooring). We showed him and his crew that we removed the toilet from the first floor half bath the night before, and which upstairs restroom his crew could use if necessary while at our house. His crew sanded a spot in the dining room so that we could approve our stain choice. Once that was done, we left the house in his “capable” hands, and headed out of town, fully expecting to come home to beautifully refinished floors 5 days later. The next morning, as we were heading out for the day, we got a call from Jeff that “we have a problem.” Oh boy did we have a problem. Our modest hardwood refinishing job turned into an absolute nightmare, which nearly 4 months later, we are still living through and fixing the damage we incurred. Somehow, while the only folks who had access to our house were Jeff and his crew, the water turn-on for the (removed) toilet got turned on. It appears it was knocked and turned on Monday, and not turned off until the crew arrived at the house on Tuesday. Jeff called to tell us this happened, and gave us a few different accounts. First he said there was a “constant stream” that caused the flooding. Then later he changed that to a “slow leak” (that caused major flooding within 24 hours(?)). Regardless of the story he used, he made sure to tell us it was not his fault, and the water had been flowing from before we left town. We find it odd that this water damage, enough to cause warped boards in the bathroom, hall and coat closet, that dripped down through the floor, into the HVAC duct system to the finished basement, causing a flood severe enough to ruin the flooring, drywall, and personal belongings, was a “slight drip” **that wasn’t noticed while his crew sanded that very same floor**. We are no contractors, but numerous (trustworthy!) contractors have confirmed that you simply can’t sand wet wood! Jeff Dean maintains, to this day, that the water leak began prior to his arrival, and refuses to accept responsibility. We decided to let Jeff Dean finish the job, as we have 4 children and the idea of us living on “raw” sanded wood until we could get someone else out there sounded like a worse option. We returned in the early evening on the 5th day to see the completed floors. But, we just took a quick glance and headed upstairs as Jeff instructed us to stay off the floors as much as possible until the following day. The next morning we got a chance to inspect the floors, and we realized the amateur job that was done. There were fibers stuck in the stain. There were bubbles all over in the stain. There was stain splattered on the dining room wall. There was a defined color change in the stain about a foot off of all perimeters, where they didn’t correctly buff and blend the area where the different sanding machines meet. There was a large dent in our dishwasher (that will cost us over $600 to repair). There was a patched hole in the bathroom wall where Jeff “fell” into the bathroom with enough force to push the door handle into the wall behind it (maybe because of being so shocked to see the amount of water that had accumulated with the “slow leak?”). Yes, he repaired it...but now we have to pay to have the bathroom repainted. There was more and more damage, combined with the flood he claims his team didn’t cause. Not only did Jeff Dean Hardwood Flooring do a horrendous job (really, he should be quite embarrassed by the shoddy craftsmanship of his crew, but isn’t; he claims it was a “quality job”), his company has cost us tens of thousands of dollars in repairs. Additionally, we had to hire another company to re-do his “quality job.” And the loss of use of the majority of our home for 4 months, which anyone can imagine that with four young children, was a major disruption to our lives. As we had other companies come in to quote re-doing the refinishing job, they all (4 of them) commented immediately on the poor job, and told us what was done wrong. All of them, without our prompting. That speaks volumes. (Speaking of the refinishing job itself, nothing to do with the flood and ensuing damage.) When Jeff came out the following Monday for the final walk-through, he gave petty childish answers regarding the shoddy work, the disaster, everything. Answers I would expect from my 5 year old, not from someone in the dusk of his career. His proposed resolution to fix the errors of his “quality job” was disheartening. In essence the job was so well done the first time he basically admitted the job would have to be redone to be corrected. At that point we had no confidence his crew had the skill to execute with an acceptable level of craftsmanship that was not evident in their first attempt. Mr. Dean decided that we should keep the remaining balance of the amount due and he terminated the contract. The whole experience was (and still is) so unbelievable. We are sure that in the height of his career, Jeff Dean did great quality work. It’s unfortunate that he hasn’t yet been able to train his protégées to perform high quality work, and his legacy will suffer as a result. He did tell us that last day that this job was a “job from ****.” For being a rather small job (630 sq ft of continuous hardwood flooring), it’s a shame that his crew let him down to this degree.