The Sandman

Good job, Work was professional and well done.

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Everything was excellent. He came back up to do some more work for us. It was excellent service. He left the area spotless. He was there when he said he would be.

His worker arrived on time and prepared for the job- and told me he could match the hardwood floor where we accidentally stripped half of the finish off of the floor.  I was worried because I did not want any problems 5 days before closing.  I left and let the sandman do their magic.  I came back two days later and could not even notice where the damaged hardwood was.  It was done to perfection and I am grateful for everything that was done.  I will refer them out anytime.

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Jim and his crew were excellent. Great communicators. They demonstrated flexibility in schedule but made staff available when needed. Floors look great.

We purchased a house but could not move in until all the carpet was pulled and the floors refinished or covered. We had a very strict timeframe and tried to pre-arrange one company to start the work as soon as we closed on the house. That company ended up being dishonest about their timeframe and we were in trouble. We called many other companies and Jim Williamson was the only one who understood our dilemma and agreed to start the job immediately. He and his crew worked weekends and late to finish and did an expert job with all facets of the job from pulling carpet to clean-up. He will even come back for repairs to match our old wood. He was a true pleasure to work with and I highly recommend him.

Mr. Williamson, aka The Sandman had several jobs going at the same time ours was being done.  He dropped off his workmen to move things out of the rooms being refinished and then they began the sanding.  Mr. Williamson actually didn't do the work, his workmen did.  My husband had just had back surgery and was unable to lift anything for several weeks.  We did not watch what the workmen were doing as we trusted they would do a good job.  However, they piled things on our recently refinished mahogany diningroom table and when we were able to move things back into place, we noticed a huge deep scratch on the table.  We called him and he said not to worry as he would submit to his insurance company.  However, he stopped by with one of his workmen to see the damage and his workman denied doing anything to the table.
Subsequent to their visit to our home, we received a letter from an attorney representing Mr. Williamson.  In the letter he reiterated that Mr. Williamson's crew was not responsible for the damage but they made an offer of several hundred dollars.  As the table had recently been refinished due to water damage from the ice of the winter, we knew that it would cost approximately $900 to totally refinish the table again.  We did have a furniture refinisher come and see if just the scratch could be repaired but was told it was so deep that it would be noticeable.  Given Mr. Williamson's refusal to pay for the damage we ended up having to take him to small claims court.  We won at that level and he appealed that decision.  We went to another hearing with 3 arbitrators who listened to both sides and again we won the judgement.  Mr. Williamson refused to pay us and ignored the judgement so we had to attach his bank account to get the money to repair the table again.  His attitude was not professional and he refused to own up to what occurred to our table as a result of his men putting things on the table.
Given all of this I certainly would be reluctant to hire Mr. Williamson or recommend him.  In the end he paid more than the original claim as he had to pay court costs plus interest.  It was an experience we would never want to go through again with a workman.  We also have lost trust in workmen and feel that we would need to watch over any people hire to do work.
We both felt that Mr. Williamson, who had an attorney for both hearings (we didn't have legal representation and just told what happened and showed photos of the damage) was very unprofessional.

I had carpeting covering my hardwood floors for over 40 years.  Bryan and his assistant moved all the furniture, picked up and removed the carpet, cleaned and polished the floors and replaced the furniture.  They took great care in my belongings.  I highly recommend them and will definitely use them again when I have my bedroom carpet removed.

This provider has sanded and prepared two different wood floors for us in the past and the crews were professional, polite, and did an excellent job.

We moved into a house where we found old pine floors under some wall to wall carpet that had to go.  We were concerned the wood was too far gone as it was very scratched and paint and glue was dripped all over it.  This company was very up front about what they do and what to expect.  They were very honest and even suggested I might want to go with a compete reflooring.  But I decided to go w this sandless process and I was pleasantly surprised by the results.  While there are some areas that are beyond refinishing and need replaced the majority of the floors now look great.

His name is Jim Williamson. He’s the most economical and professional floor finisher that I am aware of.  The one that sticks out the most with my experience is that he does very hard to restore wood floors to the best condition that you might expect. He just does a very good job and it’s economical.

Very well. Jim explained what he does, how he does it and went through the property with me in less than 15 minutes. He provided a start date and a timeframe of completion, all of which he was able to conform to. He also helped to move in a refrigerator. After completion of the work he allowed me to go through the job site to point out any possible issues. I did and he touched up 2 spots based on my feedback.

Jim Williamson missed our first appointment. When I called him the next day, he met me at the house within a few hours. On the day he was to start work, he told me he would be there between 8 and 8:30 AM. When he didn't show I called him at 8:45 and said he was finishing another job and would be done in about an hour and a half. He finally arrived after 2:00 in the afternoon and got started on the sanding. He kept disagreeing with me about the stain color. I wanted a dark stain. I showed him a door in the house and told him to get as close as he could to that color. I was out of town for a short time and when I came back, the stain was too light. I asked him to darken it and he said, "Well, if you really want to fool with it." Yes, I did want to "fool" with it. I later checked on the job and noticed that the stain had been applied across the grain of the wood in some areas instead of with the grain. It created a noticeable pattern on the wood. I called and asked him about it but he said he would look at it the next day. He did not ever call me back about the issue and instead, sealed over top of it. The day after that, I noticed that in every room in the house there were multiple scratch marks in the wood from the sanding machines and the stain was noticeably several shades darker for an inch or two around near the base boards throughout the house. Also, most of the 1700 square feet of hardwood had wood dust, brush bristles, bubbles and other material stuck underneath 2 coats of polyurethane. When I brought all of this to his attention he said he could just buff out all the rough spots and could sand the edges near the wall and re-stain them. Earlier in the job he had talked about having to redo an entire floor if something didn't turn out right. When I brought this up to him he said that "it is different when you are doing this at the edge of the floor near the wall versus in the middle of the floor. " This explanation did not seem right to me. He said he was going to lift the brass spindle covers on the stair railing and sand, stain and seal under them and then nail them back in place. He did not do this and instead, he got stain and sealer on the original 85 year old brass and the sanding was done so poorly in this area that divots in the wood are visible between the spindles. In order to patch radiator holes in the floor he said he would take wood from a closet to make the patches so they would match the rest of the floor, then use new wood in the closets. He skipped this step and just used noticeably lighter wood to make the patches. I decided to end the job right then and there because i did not trust him to repair the damage that he had caused. Later I had found that some of his workers had been smoking in the house and had used one of my radiator covers as an ash tray. I asked Jim for my money back and he refused saying that the amount or work left to do was negligible compared to what I still owed him. I had already paid him $2700.00 and we had agreed on $3600.00 for a complete job. I have had 4 other flooring companies look at the floors and all of them say that complete re-sanding and staining is the only way to get a satisfactory result and that Jim's suggested method would be unsuccessful. All of these floor professionals are really surprised at the poor quality of work that Jim Williamson did. So now I have to start all over again and pay another company to do the whole job again, plus I am out the $2,700 I paid for a completely unacceptable job including some areas of the floor that were just plain damaged. I invited my kitchen contractor to inspect the floors and he happened to be present for my discussion with Jim Williamson. The kitchen contractor said he would never recommend "The Sandman" again. I am still working on getting my money back.

They did a beautiful job and they were easy to deal with. They put some new hardwood flooring in to match the existing floor and you wouldn?t be able to pick out the differences. Sometimes it was difficult to get in touch with Mr. Williamson, but the workmen were great when they were in the house.

We had just bought a house and had some time before the move to make some improvements to the floors. Jim was recommended by our realtor and was easy to get hold of on his phone. The next day he came over to give a quote and explained the benefits and drawbacks with using oil vs. water-based products on the floors. Within a couple of days the job was started and was completed within a week. The result was beautiful. The floors were left in a light honey color rather than the dark original stain. It brightened up the rooms. The sanding process generates a lot of dust. While Jim and his crew did a good cleaning job, we still had to swiffer wipe the walls etc. to get rid of all the dust. It's part of the process. Would definitely use him again.

The end result was good and the price was fair, but the initial work was disappointing. As far as the finish was concerned, swirl marks were very noticeable, meaning that sufficient dry time was not provided before recoating. Several places had bubbling and at one spot the polyurethane had been puddled and allowed to dry (it's still there). Aside from the finish, my garage was left unlocked and the workers were smoking in my house. After speaking to Jim, they returned and applied a 4th coat, and the floors now look good. Regardless, this should not have been necessary and the work should have been done right the first time with responsible and diligent employees.

They came while we were on vaction. Cleaned up beautifully, the floors look brand new. They are ten year old floors. They applied three coats varnish and one of sealer. They followed up with me during the week to make sure the haouse was secure and the job was completed. This is the thrid time I have used their service. Jim also offered to paint the risers on the stairs and they look great.

The crew was punctual and very professioal and polite. The work site was left in immaculate condition. The entire project took two days and included 3 coats of polyurethane.

Jim and his crew arrived as scheduled and had the work -- floor refinishing on three floors -- done in about five days. This included all the repairs and two sets of stairs to do as well. Not easy. It looks and feels spectacular. My only disappointment was that we had had the place painted, and this job left a significant number of marks on the walls. I expected them on the baseboards, but there were many at waist level. I also found the crew members (not Jim himself) putting things -- big machines, sanding attachments, etc. -- on newly painted surfaces like shelves with little regard for the results. But in the end, the floors look great.

They were very good they have lasted pretty good, they were very professional and they were very clean and neat. They are also very cheap and reasonable.

The first two coats of finish left bubble bumps that were not smoothed out well enough before the final finish was applied leaving noticeable rough areas. Also, the steps were not sanded well enough and the bull head on each step is rather rough and will have to be touched up. The initial quote was for $1280.00 but when he wanted a check for the second half of the job I didn't have the original quote with me and he re-estimated the job to end up with a balance of $1700.00. I made him aware of the difference and he agreed with no hassle to pay the difference back to me in cash. Overall, I feel the floors could use one more coat of finish but I don't want to push it. He could have done a better job but I feel he pushes his workers to go too fast not paying attention to detail. Jim Williamson is an honest man but I would not use his services again.

Jim was prompt and polite. The job was completed in 10 days, longer than usual due to high humidity. The floors look great and we've had many compliments. It took several weeks for him to come back and complete additional work he promised on three doorway thresholds, and these were not completed in the manner promised, but he didn't charge us for it either.