I've been reluctant to post anything regarding the services received from Ocotillo, but it's been about 3 weeks since my installation job was completed and I'm still finding things that I need to fix, touch up or clean. If you have the time, take a read, but if you're busy shopping the other thousands of flooring companies in AZ, then just know this; the flooring in my home LOOKS great, but the fact that I had to caulk certain areas myself, retack the carpet myself, that they pulled up, repaint my walls that were covered in dirt, dings, and scratches, remove tile they failed to remove, and clean up all the saw dust shavings in back yard that were left behind after they were finally done cutting all the planks, I will not be using Ocotillo for any further job.
The long version:
I used Ocotillo as they were Floor and Decor's contracted flooring installer. Upon receiving the quote for demo and install (which was almost double Empire), I was told by the sales guy that I could shave the price down by demoing myself and basically prepping the area for install (which would have saved me roughly $1600). I had a few friends and family planning to come out to help with the demo job so I could save some cash and apply it to other aspects of my remodel. A week before the install date, I get a call from Ocotillo's office personnel asking if I would like to start the job the following day (6 days early). I replied with "No, because I have some people coming out to help me demo this weekend and we will not be ready for your crew to start the install until the previously agreed upon start date." There was a moment of silence and the phone was passed to another woman who was ADAMANT on me having Ocotillo do the demo work, I'm assuming because that's an extra $1600 in their pockets. After going back and forth I finally surrendered and agreed to have Ocotillo do the demo.
Fast Forward to demo day, the tile removal crew show up and start ripping up the tile. Prior to them starting I asked if they would be covering my kitchen cabinets, as I had just refinished and repainted them a couple days prior, they said yes. THEY DID NOT and after they were "done" removing the tile, I found a Rodin amount of gouges, dust, dings, and scratches. As I continued examine their removal work I noticed they didn't remove any tricky pieces tile (under the toiled, behind the dishwasher, in the closets, etc.)
The following day, the installer shows up and is going through all the items I bought for the job (Ocotillo provides you with a materials shopping list in which you have to go and retrieve everything required to complete your job). As he's going through the items, he puts a 1/4 of the material to the side and says, "I know I won't be need any of this." Thankfully Floor and Decor has a great return policy, but I was now stuck with loading all this into my car and taking all back to Floor and Decor to return.
As the job progressed, the installers used my backyard as their saw station, getting saw dust everywhere, which was no big deal to me as I assumed they were going to clean it up at the end of the work day. Days passed and the saw dust continued to build up out back and then IT RAINED and all the dust stuck like glue to everything (patio, grills, yard, EVERYTHING). As they were finally coming to an end and packing up their truck, the installer said "it's all done, sorry about the backyard, I can't clean it up because it rained."
ONLY 2 stars, because the floor itself looks great but all the extra work I had to do to get everything back in order, being sold on "saving money by self-demoing," and feel pressured to adjust my schedule made it an extremely poor experience. read more