<p>Ok…I’m collecting estimates to have our 20 year old oak floors refinished. We hope to use a product called Street Shoe. One vendor recommended Bona, another water based finish. We won’t use oil based…lots of reasons.</p>
<p>But here is my issue. So far, I like ALL of the vendors, and their quotes are almost the same. </p>
<p>How do you actually choose…and how do you let the one NOT chosen know? </p>
<p>These folks were all recommended by friends.</p>
<p>I just did this. If you like them all, I wouldn’t know how to choose. I got 5 estimates and there were 2-3 that I lied. I chose one that fit my schedule best. As for letting them know, around here they are so busy that if you don’t ask them to do the job within a week or so, they assume you went with someone else.</p>
<p>ah thumper…doing the same next week with 65 year old oak floors. Do you have Angies List for reviews? both AL and my kitchen/bath installer highly recommended the same company. Estimate came in just as I imagined (refinish all, but also patching a square area where a floor grill/intake had been removed and add new shoe molding)</p>
<p>Still trying to decide stain color…going dark, but not sure how dark.</p>
<p>My recommendations both came from very picky friends! I didn’t need Angie’s a list to find vendors!</p>
<p>No stain here…we are going light. </p>
<p>I guess now I just have to wait for the written estimates.</p>
<p>I called seven people, and less than half returned my call. I called each a second time…still no return call. Guess those guys don’t want…or need my business! </p>
<p>So far I’ve been impressed with the guys doing the estimates. Very consistent…than able to answer all of my questions. </p>
<p>Do any of your choices use a “dustless” system? If so, please report back how successful that is. I need to have mine redone but have put it off due to the horrible mess when they were first installed/finished.</p>
<p>When they’re recommended by friends and you can see the results, especially how the finish actually lasts, you can choose based on convenience. Agree, these guys can be super busy, this time of year. </p>
<p>Ime, especially with small firms, they can work on several homes at the same time- finish your first coat, run off to sand the next client floor, then topcoat another’s, then back to you. I’d confirm how they plan to time the steps.</p>
<p>Look at your friends floors. Some people are a lot less picky than others.</p>
<p>I need to do this but can’t bear the thought of moving all the furniture out of the house including taking down all the curtains. Where are you storing all your furniture? Are you hiring movers to get your stuff in and out of your house? </p>
<p>We will move the stuff ourselves. We have lots of space. They will do our place in two stages…LR, kitchen/DR first…family room second. So we can move things around. We have a three car garage, and a huge front hall which isn’t getting done (tiled). We will probably hire a mover to move our piano…but that’s it. We do not have any large pieces of furniture that we can’t manage.</p>
<p>I’ve seen the friend’s floors already…very nice. And they are as picky as I would be.</p>
<p>We had ours redone three years ago and the vendor recommended a Bona product “Bona Traffic”. We have a large, typically enthusiastic, Golden Retriever who had scratched up the original finish with his nails. </p>
<p>Now, three years later, the floors look like new. Golden still runs around but no longer leaves any marks behind. Cannot recommend the Bona Traffic highly enough.</p>
<p>One cautionary note - the only damage in the house is where I made the mistake of not hiring a piano mover and in the process of moving the piano back, the floor was “compressed”. So there are a couple of divots due to the weight of the piano being concentrated on two castors for a few seconds. Dumb me… So hire the piano movers!!!</p>