Cleveland Flooring Contractors Cleveland, OH

Quality of hardwood floor repairs debated in Cleveland

COMPLAINT: Melody Hart, Cleveland Heights, Ohio

"I had Cleveland Hardwood Flooring Co. of Parma [Ohio] replace damaged boards and refinish my hardwood floors, but they did shoddy work.

"They seemed to be very nice and willing to make the repairs, but then they did it their way. Instead of replacing floorboards, they patched or puttied holes in them. They simply refinished over two big gouges in the wood in my entryway.

"When they varnished too quickly, it resulted in bubbles, and when they used spray varnish, it had a different, rough finish. They also left sawdust in the varnish, because they didn't clean up properly.

"Since then, they've come out several times to fix things, but nothing has really been fixed."

DESIRED RESOLUTION: "I want the floor fixed properly, or I will hire another contractor to repair the damage and complete the floors, deducting that from the cost. If the cost is more than what I owe them, then I demand they refund the difference."

COMPANY RESPONSE: Zoltan Onodi, contractor, Cleveland Hardwood Flooring Co.

"Unfortunately, we purchased expired polyurethane from our supplier, which is why bubbles appeared on the floor, so we did two re-coats at no charge. We're talking about 100-year-old floors, so we had good intentions about making the repairs as good as possible.

"I told her I was going to try to save as much of the original flooring as possible, because of the problem of matching old and new boards, and she said OK. The repairs looked nice, blending in perfectly. She used our blue tape to mark the original wood planks she wanted us to remove, which wasn't in the original estimate. We took out more than we should've, at no cost.

"The new wood was just not going to be as good. When we were done, she refused to pay, and she didn't return my calls. I was willing to take care of everything.

"Finally, her husband told me we have to go back and fix a few things. We will make them happy, but we need them to be reasonable."

STATUS: Stalemate

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