We found SCV Floorsmith through a flyer brought to the front door of a house we had just bought. The house was empty and was having interior paint done at the time. The guy that came to the door (found out later that it was Ben) was really nice, not pushy at all. He and the owner Nick work out of their showroom right down the road from us, seriously maybe 1/2 mile away.
The house had really amazing tile from Spain throughout the downstairs which we wanted to keep for sure, along with sort of gnarly but still workable carpet on the stairs and throughout the whole upstairs. We thought wow, it'd be really nice to get rid of the carpet and have ANY other type of flooring installed by these guys- but we were already into a decent amount of money for paint plus which we had other renovations planned so we didn't think we could really justify replacing the carpet.
Not long after that though, not wanting to give up on the idea of losing the carpet and all of its germs- I called Nick just to see if there was something available that would work with what we could spend. He came over the very next afternoon to do some measurements and talk to us. We found there were some options that cost less than we expected. He had some samples in his car that looked great with our paint color and he invited us to his showroom to see more.
This was on Tuesday and Tim and I couldn't go to the showroom together until Saturday- and fortunately or unfortunately, by Saturday the the new paint was even further underway and it made the carpet look super old and even more nasty. We knew we wanted to get flooring installed-it was just a matter of which type and how to cover it with what we could spend.
Ben and Nick are friendly and polite, easy to talk to and very enthusiastic about their products. They spent a good amount of time talking to us about differences in types of flooring and installations. We ended up with a really cool hand-distressed hardwood we had seen when Nick first came over and he said they could get started with the installation that same week and finish up roughly a week later.
We also talked that day about using carpet vs hardwood on the stairs- there is a set of 14 stairs in the house that get wider and longer in different angles as you get closer to the bottom. Using hardwood on stairs is definitely more expensive because of the labor involved and additional material required to finish off the fronts of them. We also used a contrasting shade of the same hand-distressed hardwood on the vertical part of the stairs. These stairs were way more difficult than if they had just been the same size all the way down but the guys installing the flooring completely knew what they were doing.
The end result is amazing and totally worth the extra cost. The team of 5 installers (Efren, Tony, Boni, Chuck, and Tony) worked together really well and were obviously experienced at what they did. Everything from removing and carting away the old carpet/pads- to sanding/preparing the subfloor -to the actual cutting of the hardwood to lengths for the install and laying it into the rooms and stairs -was so smooth and organized. They worked hard and kept things clean and definitely seemed to think of it as a craft, not just a job.
They also ripped out the old short baseboards and installed new taller baseboards throughout the whole upstairs, even in the bathrooms which weren't included when we first talked about baseboards -and managed to finish up all of this in time for the paint team to come back in and caulk/fill and paint the baseboards before we moved in.
This is not the least expensive place you can go for floors. We know it isn't, although we didn't talk to anyone else in person or have them come out- but this floor is amazing, the high quality of the workmanship/installation is impossible to describe and it was worth spending more in cost for the stairs and also because they could jump into the job right away like they did. It was the right choice to cut back on the other stuff we had planned in order to get this product installed so well and so quickly. No question we are crazy about these floors, way more than we could've ever imagined, and the stairs are like art.
These are things that should be considered when choosing a vendor of any type- be aware that you should work off of the longer end of the timeframe quoted if you are trying to time a move or other renovations around the completion of any type of work- be sure to get an all-in price including sales tax and any addons or discounts whenever you are getting quotes for any type of work- and be aware that this company discourages the use of credit cards because the fee cuts into their margin, so get this sorted out up front if you want to use a credit card to get airline miles.
These guys will totally take care of you-they want you to be happy with the finished result and will really do whatever it takes to give a nice experience. Highly recommended for sure. read more