Number One Hardwood Floors

This is the tale of two jobs. One excellent, one meh.
I have two identical apartment units. In each, Tai’s team finished a large hallway and central living area. The adjoining bedrooms were did not need refinishing. However, Tai’s team needed to match the stain. In one unit, they did a great job. In the second unit, they clearly didn’t even try. (see photos).
The sanding and finishing of the jobs Tai’s team does is great. Very few grooves or warps; and high quality finish.
Tai’s team did the second job while we were away. We assumed that since the first unit was done so well, we could trust them.
If you’re going to have them do similar color matching, be sure to inspect the color match yourself.

We chose Number One Hardwood Floors because of the reviews and because they had the best price and we are glad we did! They replaced the floors in our Master Bedroom and Guest Bedroom with pre-​engineered Tigerwood and they look fantastic. The contractor was prompt, courteous, professional and, best of all, they cleaned up after the job was completed. We would definitely use them again.
Number One is #1 with us!

Amazing work! Our floors were seen by 3 flooring companies/​general contractors: two wanted to rip them out and replace but #1 Hardwood Floors refinished them and they look fantastic! It saved my wife and I thousands of dollars and they look brand new! Use these guys, the person that did our home inspection referred them to us and I’m glad he did.

Tai did a fantastic job on my floors. He had previously done my parents’ floors, so I completely trusted his expertise and advice about what needed to be done. Because there were so many imperfections in the floors from the previous owner, he suggested that we go with a slightly darker stain. I’m moving from San Lorenzo to Vallejo and wanted the floors done before the move. He came out, gave me an estimate which came in much cheaper than the other two estimates I received from other contractors. He came to my San Lorenzo home and picked up a key, went out and did the work. Again, I completely trusted him because he had done my parents’ floors and they were beautiful. So basically the work was done sight, unseen. He called to tell me the work was done. I made the long haul out this evening, and I was pleasantly surprised. See for yourself. The floors were done in the time he said they would be completed. Just in time for the move this Saturday. Thank you Tai, I’m very pleased with the work you and your team did!!!

number one floors did a great job refinishing the original oak and fir floors in the 1914 house i renovated. i am enjoying them immensely. number one floors also put in a new oak floor in the (large) kitchen. it’s beautiful, and it took only a day — from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. what an artist the worker was! the best!

I’ve been working with Kem for more than 5 years. I’ve also recommended him to my clients without complaint. I prefer to work with licensed and bonded vendors, so he may not be the cheapest vendor ever, but in my opinion it is worth the extra cost for the piece of mind.
He and his team have refinished at least a dozen hardwood floors for me, in my capacity as a property manager and real estate agent. He has always been responsive and his prices are very reasonable.

I was thrilled with the job that this company did in bringing old stained and damaged oak flooring to smooth glossy perfection The workers were in and out in just a few days and all their suggestions for improving the floors were spot on.

I had the pleasure of working with Kem from Number One Hardwood Floors. He was very helpful, got the job done quick, gave me a great price, and the end product looked fantastic.
I was recommended to work with them from my Step Mother, and I will absolutely work with them again next time I need hardwood floor services.

Tai and his team were great. We had Bamboo installed on about 3000 sq ft and they were in and out in four days including demolition that entailed carpet removal and lots of ugly tile all over the place as well as sanding and cleanup. I love my new floors and can not recommend them enough! Thanks Number One Hardwood Floors.

Total flake.
Forgot about our appointment, lost my contact info.
Business basics clearly not a priority. NEXT!

They have redone the floors in many of my rental apartments. Beautiful results at reasonable prices.

i use Number 1 Hardwood for every single home that i sell. Tai does amazing work and I have never had an issue with any for the floors he has done. I do not even call another flooring company as Number one is so great to work with and does such beautiful work.

I would 100% recommend Tai and his team. They were efficient, clean, and extremely flexible with our schedule. They were working under a tight timeline– we purchased a home and had 1 week to refinish the hardwood floors and paint the entire house. They did an amazing job with the hardwood floors. Tai understood our tight timeline and brought in extra people to help with the job. They did 1900 square feet in 3 days!
Once they completed the job, they even gave us a gift to help clean the hardwood floors.
Thank you Tai and team for doing such a great job! The Scherman Family

We cannot help but give number one hardwood floors 5 stars. Their work was flawless. The men were prompt. The floors look better now then they did when they were new

Floors look amazing w some minor scratches on baseboards. Great prices, on time and flexible.

I can not believe the job they did in my house. I had them come out and install 400 sq ft of new wood and then sand, stain, and finish the floors. They turned out awful. The stain was not even, the floor felt like sandpaper, and they got stain all over my cabinets and mantel. I dealt with Tai’s brother because Tai was out of the county. He kept on lying to me about what went wrong with the floor and kept on saying we will come back and fix it. I had them come back and re do the job and it was still the same. When Tai came back I showed him the floor and that the product he charged me for, Bona Traffic, was not used. I would never recommend this company to anyone.

Wow, refinishing old hardwood floors is amazing! Our floors look terrific and Tai and his crew did a great job! Tai was recommended by my in-​laws and their floors look great. Also, there was tons of rot that they replaced, a disgusting amount of staining (house was 100 years old and the floors had never been refinshed) and holes from carpet that they filled.
Tai had great advice on stain color. We thought we’d have to go super dark because the floors were so damaged, but after sanding they looked good as new and we were able to stain a lighter color.

I could not recommend more NOT to use this company.
We wanted 90% of our floors refinished (we had done 2 rooms ourselves). The FIRST time they did it, they used the wrong poly to finish it off, got stain all over our walls, trim, doors, baseboards, marble tile floors in our bathrooms, kitchen cabinets, doorknobs — everywhere. They stained patches in the hardwood terribly so all the new wood stuck out like a sore thumb. They didn’t patch any nail holes. They didn’t clean off the floors before applying poly so the floors felt like sandpaper. There was also dust everywhere. They obviously didn’t clean at all.
We voiced our concerns and asked then to redo it. The second time they still got stain everywhere and this time got stain all over our Trex deck as well (ruining it). They also decided to paint our baseboards (we told them not to) and used the wrong color and got paint all over our floor and then put poly over it so we couldn’t even scrape it off. Oh, and they also clogged our toilet. And again, dust everywhere.
The floors we redid ourselves look 5 times better than the terrible job they did. We wanted to get «professionals» to do the rest of our home to save us time, but obviously we should have done the work ourselves because every room they did looks terrible. The price was cheap, but I guess you get what you pay for.

Summary:
Deep Grooves left in hardwood. (picture posted)
Black electrical tape left marks on walls. Had to repaint. (picture posted)
Floor polish left on windows to dry (picture posted)
Chemicals and a nail poured into my toilet
Took 2 extra days, thus more hotel cost
Used my personal towel as a cleaning rags
Details:
I hired Tai to refinish my maple hardwood floors. It took 3 days, as expected. When I arrive back home, Tai was cleaning my windows with a rag. I assumed he was cleaning the dust that had been left by the sander. I didn’t think much of it.
Later, I noticed:
1. The rag that Tai was had been using to clean my windows was my own hand towel from my bathroom. I really don’t know what gave him the idea that it was ok to take my towels and use them as cleaning rags.
2. There were visible grooves left in the hardwood. These were not there before and had been left from the sander during refinishing. (picture posted)
3. There was floor polish left on the windows where the meet the floor. It was left to dry and was very difficult to scrape off. (Picture posed)
4. There were a couple of small sections that were not refinished at all. The original, darker polish was still left un-​sanded.
5. Polish had been left to run over and dry on the sides of the floors. (picture posted)
I called Tai and told him that the floors had grooves in them. He sent someone to have a look the next day. The person he sent asked which sections needed to be redone. We looked over the floor and it became apparent that it was not just a limited portion that had been improperly sanded. It was everywhere.
I called Tai and told him that the entire floor was done improperly. He said that he would do whatever it took to fix it. I said that the floors had to be redone and he agreed to do it. He told me that the sander used was not the correct one and that is what caused the grooves.
This really frustrated me because he already knew this. Rather than telling me upfront that something had gone wrong, he decided to just pretend everything was fine and just wait to see if I complained.
We scheduled a time for the floors to be refinished, again. That day, I met with the person that arrived. He appeared to be a day laborer and only spoke a bit of English. I asked him if he had the correct sander this time. He told me that this was the same sander used the first time. He said that he was not able to get another sander. So I called Tai and told him. Tai insisted that the sander was a new, better one. So I gave my phone to the day laborer and asked him to talk to Tai. When they were done talking the day laborer said that if I didn’t want him to use this sander, then he would have to come back another day. I tried telling him that it wasn’t that I cared what sander he used, but that I wanted to make sure the job was done right. He didn’t seem to understand me and told me again that if I wanted him to use a different sander, then he would not be able to start work that day.
After a bit of back and forth, Tai’s brother showed up. He gave me a different explanation about why the grooves were left in the hardwood. He said that the sander had not been calibrated correctly the first time and that he had since had it calibrated. It was the same sander as the first time, but he would be able to make the floors smooth this time. Despite my better judgment, I decided to let them proceed with refinishing the floors, again.
I had to stay in a hotel for 2 extra days. So my overall cost was now getting much higher.
After the second time refinishing:
1. Most of the grooves left by the sander were gone. The floor sill had visible flaws in the sanding, but not nearly as bad as before.
2. There were milky chemicals poured into my toilet and also a rusted nail. I had to reach into the toilet and remove this myself.
3. Black electrical tape was used to tape up dust covers. (picture posted). This left black marks on my walls that I could not wash off. I had to repaint to rid of them. Again, increasing the total cost of this project.
4. There was still polish left on my windows where they meet the floors. I asked the day laborer to clean them off. He proceeded to scrap off about 25% of it and then asked, «[is that] ok»? I said, «no, there is still a lot of polish on the windows». So he then cleaned off about another 25% and asked again «[is that] ok». I said again, «no, there is a still a lot left». After a couple more times back and forth like this, he finally had gotten almost all of the polish off the windows, where it could be easily reached. But there was still a bit left that couldn’t be easily reached by hand. Rather than have him use a tool to reach the rest and risk him scratching my windows, I didn’t insist that he clean it all off.
Some Unilocal reviews are good, but my experience was horrible. Perhasp quality of work is determined why who Tai sends out. If so, then it is just a crap shoot.

We’ve used Number One for many years and have been very pleased with their workmanship, service, and prices. Kem has refinished five different hardwood floors for me including a house that had been a kennel for large dogs — each location turned out great and kept me going back to them.
They did a refinish at a preschool and were great about moving all the furniture and applying extra coats of finish to help deal with the damage inflicted by little kids. Their price was less than half of what the school paid a different company the previous year.
Recently, we had Tai install new hardwood floors in most of a large house. We got bids from three other contractors and Number One was certainly reasonable. The results are spectacular! They did an amazing job dealing with details like a brick wall which would have no baseboard, wooden heater vents, transitions, and flooring in the closets. They worked with my tight schedule and sent over great guys to do the work. Then, when the old fridge leaked and made the kitchen floor buckle, they came right out, fixed the damage, and barely charged me anything for the work.
Do yourself a favor and call Number One!