NAPA Floor Company

18-Aug-12
martina c

My experience with Napa Floor Company was HORRIFIC! If there was a minus value in the ratings, I would have checked it. In fact, if they were the last hardwood floor company in the Bay Area, I would rather skip hardwood floors and have neon yellow carpet with purple stripes installed.

Initially, my impression of the president and his assistant were that they would probably be professional, honorable and do a good job. As the floor work began, my opinion drastically changed. I have never felt the need to write a negative review before. I guess I had never had a truly memorable negative experience with any flooring contractor before working with Napa Floor Company.

I would not recommend Napa Floor Company to anyone. There are multiple areas of dark circular spots of stain on the hardwood floors, floor vents are bulging, some floor vents do not work, and an extremely light floor plank was installed in the living room in the middle of my dark hardwood floor. After the floors were installed, we noticed extensive dings and scrapes on the walls in almost every room. These walls had to be patched and painted. After Napa Floor Company sanded the hardwood floors, we had thick layers of dark brown dust on virtually all the flat surfaces and walls of the house. We were left to do a major clean up.

When we signed the contract for the hardwood floors, we were confident that the contract was clearly for a COMPLETED hardwood floor project. Once work started, we learned otherwise. While I consider the written contract with this contractor to be very detailed, it was apparently not detailed enough. The contract included the total price, square footage, list of the hardwood floor locations, quality of wood, plank width, type of wood, type of moisture barrier, name of the stain and number and type of finishing coats. The number of stair treads and risers was even specified. Once the contract was signed, multiple special request and other work items began to surface. Napa Floor Company left huge gaps in the hardwood floors in multiple locations. ........ Oh I get it ....... if I don't want large gaps in my hardwood floor in the kitchen and stair landings that is a SPECIAL request. Who was supposed to cover the hardwood floor gaps with floor trim? Obviously, not the flooring company. I see.....The floor trim was included in the doors and sliders locations ONLY. We were charged additional labor and materials to cover all the other floor gaps. I guess I should have known to add the location of EVERY piece of trim in the contract to avoid additional charges.

When the floors arrived, we were informed that if we wanted the floor planks to run in the same direction than we would be charged several hours of additional labor in sanding. In hind sight, I guess we also should have known to add the DIRECTION of ALL the planks in the contract to avoid additional charges. It was one charge after another. I wish that I had added something like........ All special requests and all other work shall be approved in WRITING AND SIGNED BY THE OWNERS prior to the work being started. This sentence might have saved us a lot of time and aggravation in dealing with this contractor.

The total on the contract for approximately 1,525 sq. feet of wood flooring was well over $24,000. This amount was by far not the lowest bid for our floor project. Regardless, Napa Floor Company sued for an ADDITIONAL $325 dollars. Really!!!! Was there not enough profit already? It seems to me that they do not care anything about customer service, return business or future referrals.

The floor stairs were also a huge problem. Even though the stairs were paid for promptly, it took a long time for NFC to install the stairs treads. The floor prep work was started in the beginning of June and the stair treads were not installed until late November. Unfortunately, we could not get to the second floor without the stair treads. At one point, we gave up on ever seeing the stair treads and asked for a credit. Finally, we (the owners) had to install temporary wood stair treads. The wood stairs allowed us to move into our house safely with my little girl and to be able to gain the County Building Department's blessing to move into our own residence. In the end, the stair treads creak so badly that we will need to hire another floor company to sand and re install some of the stair treads.

There are a multitude of other issues with this contractor that I will not include here. It has now been well over one year and hardwood floors are still not completed. That's OK with me because I would never have them in my house again. Let me update my previous statement. ...... If Napa Floor Company was the last hardwood floor company in the Bay Area, I would rather have neon yellow carpet with purple stripes AND LARGE PINK POKY DOTS.