Recommendations for floor refinishing companies? (Huntington, Hicksville: rental, credit card, how much)

[totallyfrazzled]

My nephew is buying his first house and wants to have the oak floors refinished. Unfortunately the excellent company that I used for my house about 7 years ago is no longer in business. I've asked a few people but they either haven't had theirs done in years and years OR had horror stories to tell about the company they did use. So I'm hoping some people here have a few recommendations from fairly recent experience that I can pass along to him.

The floors are all oak and while they aren't in horrendous shape they could definitely look better than they currently do (the previous owners had a dog and some rooms show a lot of little scratches from doggy nails).

Also if anyone had their refinisher use the so-called "dustless" method of sanding, which I assume costs more than the standard way of doing it, did it really work as promised and result in a lot less dust? Or did you think the difference wasn't worth the extra cost?

p.s. If anyone has horror stories about a particular company, please Message me the name and details (because I know it's not allowed to post negative reviews here). I've already got a couple of names in a Rogue's Gallery but would appreciate knowing of any others that have earned that particular 'claim to fame'!

[hotkarl]

It's a crapshoot, and at the least will be very frustrating to find a quality AND trustworthy company. The problem is that everyone and their brother "does" floor refinishing. Really do your research, rule of thumb, is if they are willing to put some big bucks in advertising, they should be trustworthy and do a good job.
Not to say there are no quality guys in the Pennysaver or Craigslist, etc...I would just be very, very, careful. Ask around, bang on the neighbors door, the best thing obviously, is to actually see a companies work, but a personal referral from a previous customer is good too.

I do floors on the side for extra money once in a while, and it is not too difficult to learn and handle yourself, if you're a handy type of person. It'll only cost you the machine rental and materials. You can practice on the closet floor, or any area you think will not be seen.

Good luck!

[totallyfrazzled]

Thanks hotkarl, my nephew definitely doesn't want to go the 'Pennysaver/Craigslist' route. He wants a company that does floors full time, is licensed, insured, the whole 9 yards.

Unfortunately we can't help him because I have severe allergies (being anywhere near a floor sander would probably darn near kill me) and my SO has mobility problems so that's out. My nephew is your classic computer geek and works long hours at his job so it's not something he's about to try DIY'ing himself, I'm afraid.

We did ask around the few people we know in our neighborhood but didn't get any "good" names although a particular company in Huntington was mentioned a few times as being one to stay away from. They're not a Pennysaver company either so I guess you just never know. There are a few with large Yellow Pages ads and he'll call them but wants to also see if there were any good word of mouth referrals to smaller businesses.

[hotkarl]

Damn, looks like you got alot of homework to do. Good luck though.
Try to use a company that you can pay by credit card.
You know the obvious advantages to that.

[Lisamel]

I hope he has them finished before he moves in the house.
A friend of mine had hers done and they had to empty her entire house into a trailer. What a pain in the rear.

I'll ask her who did her floors.

[Ziggi813]

Paul at Shalom Flooring---I think they are located in suffolk county. He spent a lot of time with us before hand so we could pick the stain we really liked. He was dilligent and didn't get the stain on the floor moldings either which I was very concerned about. I would recommend them as we used them 7 or 8 months ago and our floors still look great and that is with 3 cats and 2 small kids!

Hope this helps.

[totallyfrazzled]

Originally Posted by Lisamel

I hope he has them finished before he moves in the house.

That's exactly his plan, to have the floors done about a week before he actually moves in (and after he repaints two of the rooms). He's going to make one of the bedrooms into a "computer room" and he has lots of other electronic stuff as well so there's no way he wants to risk exposing his precious 'toys' to all the mess that floor-sanding would create!

Thanks in advance from any info you get from your friend!

p.s. - Thanks Ziggi, I'll add Paul at Shalom Flooring to the list. I did google the name and there seem to be two locations, one comes up as being in Hicksville and the other as in Westbury.

[Ziggi813]

Originally Posted by totallyfrazzled

That's exactly his plan, to have the floors done about a week before he actually moves in (and after he repaints two of the rooms). He's going to make one of the bedrooms into a "computer room" and he has lots of other electronic stuff as well so there's no way he wants to risk exposing his precious 'toys' to all the mess that floor-sanding would create!

Thanks in advance from any info you get from your friend!

p.s. - Thanks Ziggi, I'll add Paul at Shalom Flooring to the list. I did google the name and there seem to be two locations, one comes up as being in Hicksville and the other as in Westbury.

yes, now I recall them being in hicksville. good luck

[andybuildz]

i've done a gazillion of my own floors for varies reasons. When I don't have the time to do my own I always all Inter County out of Huntington. I dealt with his father years ago and now his son runs the business. good prices great work. tell him Andy Clifford sent you,,,he;s done tons of work for me.
Thing is...you may not have to sand down the entire floor. YOu can do what is known as "screening" which basically is a screen that fits on a floor buffer. It takes down most al the poly finish up to the stain. That gets out a whole lot of the scratches if not all of them. then you simply recoat with a minimum of two good coats of poly although I always recommend three coats. WAY BETTER then two!
Keeps the saw dust way down being they're not cutting into the wood...just the finishes.
Check out my web site in my profile I may have pictures of a few floors I did in there.
andy

[totallyfrazzled]

Andy, thanks so much for that information! By the way, the "bad rep" Huntington-based company is not the one you mentioned.

I didn't know about the screening option. Is that something that my nephew should specifically ask for, or do you think it best that he just calls people in for estimates and then after he gets that quote say "And how much would it be if you just screened it and put on 3 coats of poly?"

Just out of curiosity: So the screening process doesn't take off the sealer coat? Because these floors aren't stained, they're just the natural usual oak color. Is the sealer used only because normally the sanding process goes down into the wood like you described?

I'd actually thought of asking my nephew if he just wanted to have the floors re-coated but I don't know if the floor companies even do just that. It would surely be less mess and less expensive. He called one company yesterday and gave them the list of room sizes and they ballparked it at between $3000 and $4000 which he was kind of shocked about. So was I, to be honest, but then I haven't had it done in so long that I had no real comparison. He said that adding up the room sizes that have the oak floors comes to 1275 sq ft plus the stairs going up to the second floor (treads only).

One of the people who bashed the place in Huntington from 4 years ago said she paid $4000 to have less than 1000 sq ft, plus the stair treads, refinished using the so-called "dustless" method. But she was really vehement that she thought they were a bunch of crooks.