concrete flooring contractor (Cathye?)
About a year ago, Cathye posted in this thread about flooring (http://www.eichlernetwork.com/chatterbox_lounge/viewtopic.php?t=999&high...) that she found a concrete contractor that would also do removal of the old gunk, and a few people were interested in doing the same.
A year later, I'm wondering how it went, and if you could pass on the name of that contractor as well, I'm now thinking about tearing up the wretched cheap berber that came with the house, and taking it down to the concrete.
thanks, fxlarry [larryncelia at gmail dot com]
Hi Larry:
It was not a contcrete contractor - just a regular General Contractor with a background in interior design, that we used to do our floors. We had him install 13x13" light colored ceramic tile throughout the entire house - bedrooms and all.
Like I mentioned previously, it was difficult to find someone that would agree to prep the floors correctly, but prepping was not the core competency - it was remodeling kitchens, baths, and doing floors. The company we used may still be around but I have checked and the CG's license expired several years ago. When we used him, his crew was comprised of political refugees from Bosnia and they were doing several jobs in our neighborhood, so we grabbed them while we had the chance. In retrospect, I never thought to check into status of licenses or insurance and he may have had neither. I cannot say.
Later, another neighbor used them for flooring and the crew was entirely different - from south of the border and did not speak English at all - not that the Bosnians' english was that good. The job came out "OK" - but then ours was not 100% perfect either. We got an incredibly cheap price; expert advice on tile selection from the GC due to his design experience; but little touches, like removing all the wood trim and replacing it after - were not done in all the rooms, so there are little imperfections here and there-mainly in the way the tile and grout match up agains a couple of the walls (wider grout lines than normal) but heck. I never complained as we were greatful to have someone so affordable and pleasant to work with at the time and I figured it was nt fair to hold them to the highest possible standard given the price we paid. The layout and grout work were really well done and everthing is even both vertically and horizontally with the excetpions previously mentioned. They used thinset to level the floors first and they used a special kind that was designed to be laid over radiant heat. They were in and out within a week.
If you want to find somebody to just tear down what you have to the bare concrete and do nothing more, I would say it may be more difficult if licensing and insurance are important, since there isn't much revenue in such a job. Maybe a local handyman type or something. If, OTOH, you are looking for a good flooring company to install something once the floors have been properly prepped, that's another matter and you should be able to locate someone by going to a brand name local business with Eichler experience. (E.g., Not Home Depot or any place looking to do things on the cheap.)
At the time, it was the first major job we had done (after foam roofing, which had gone off without a hitch as we used a company with a great reputation long before they began advertising on this site), so it never occurred to us to check into licensing and insurance, though I can't imagine why not. It just makes good sense but we were newbies at the home ownership thing.
If you are looking for a company to refinish your concrete flooring - which by definition would have to include removing what is on top if it - I can recommend someone that we used to do our patio and who does exceptional work on interior concrete and has done some homes in our area; Or if you are looking for a really good tiler - I can recommend the guy that did our hall bath. He was fantastic and he was raised in the tile business-he would do the tear out I expect, given what a perfectionist he is.
Let me know more about the specifics of what you are looking for and then I can email you some information.
Regards,
Cathye
I am having all my floors tiled. I bought 2 five gallon containers of bean.e.doo and did not need it......didn't even open the containers, therefore I would like to sell them for half what it cost me. Please contact me if you are interested.
[email protected]
