I would only recommend going with Van's if you have a simple project (like a single room without appliances). I trusted John and his team to redo my entire house, and while my floors do look nice, it was an extremely frustrating process.
When we initially did the walkthrough of the house, we were told by John that they could move all our appliances with no problems and start in the rooms we requested. So we moved all of our stuff in preparation. On the first day of demo, John's installers told us that they would need us to change our plan and move all of our stuff that night to a different room. I am not sure why John was not able to know of and tell us this before we dismantled multiple rooms.
On the second day when they started laying down the floors, there was a miscommunication between John and his installers and they didn't include underlayment that we paid for. So we were set back a day and on the following day they had to rip up all the work and redo that floor with the underlayment. We also voiced some concerns about the floors being uneven when they were placed. Certain places were very noticeably unleveled. We told John about this and he told his installer. His installer came to me very frustrated that we would question his work and expertise. I was not happy being put in a situation where I could not freely voice my concerns without backlash. The installer ended up going back and doing a better job releveling the subfloor, but I was disappointed that I needed to tell them to do that in the first place. I would expect the job to be done right by a professional without my input.
Another problem with this whole project is the fact that they broke our washer and dryer. At one point they reinstalled it with a crushed vent and it was extremely wobbly, which they tried to convince me that it was already like that even though I know for a fact it wasn't. When we requested they remedy the situation by paying for the removal, reinstallation of a new unit, and paying a fair amount for the damage unit John stated that "by law" we had to let him try and fix it, so we did. He also told us if he couldn't fix it he would "be responsible". However, when he relayed the story to his wife, he alleged that he warned us about moving the washer and dryer and that he was not responsible for any risks. I had to explain to his wife that he never said such a thing to us and that it was him that pressed his installers, clearly hesitant to do the job, to move it. They ended up fixing the wobbliness and replaced the vent, but after so much rocking of this old stacked washer dryer unit (hearing loud noises and visible damage to our drywall around it makes it clear that it was banged against the walls a few times) when we tested it out, it was leaking and the dryer wouldn't get hot. John then tried to change the story and say he only meant he was responsible for the vent when he said he was responsible. He also used the cost of parts and paying his installer to come back and try and fix it as his way of saying he already put so much money into this thing that he was done having the machine be his responsibility.
The biggest problem I had was that he was not able to be straightforward at the beginning of the project to simply tell me he cannot move my washer and dryer, which would have been acceptable. I put no pressure for him or his installers to move it. He did not warn me that there would be any risks. And at the end of it all, he refunded us a mere $200, when our replacement washer and dryer will cost us much, much more. We have been left without a washer and dryer for 3 weeks now because of this. I also had to pay someone to fix my dishwasher because they messed that up too.
Overall, the floors look nice but I do not appreciate being gaslit about the situation and all the false stories. The lack of organization from John and his team and the disrespect that was shown to me does not make me feel comfortable recommending this company to anyone looking to redo an entire house. read more
