I have previously had very favourable experiences in hiring contractors from HomeStars for work on my old house, and so contacted Acorn because they were "Best of the Best 2023" in the floor laying and refinishing category. I had previously been told by others in the flooring business that my wood floors were not salvageable, and would need to be replaced. As Acorn did both refinishing and replacement I thought it would be useful to have their opinion on the repair vs. replacement front.
Owner Ron came out and spent a couple of hours or more at my house conducting his assessment. He was obviously very knowledgeable about wood floor refinishing and replacement, as well as thorough, professional and engaging. Unlike others who had seen my floors, he assured me they were restorable, and told me why I should refinish them as opposed to replacing them (today you cannot replicate the quality of old growth fir boards, in their thickness, clarity and length). But as I had initially expressed an interest in replacing the floors, he promised me an estimate for both refinishing the existing floors and replacing the fir with red oak.
I have never received a more detailed written set of estimates from any contractor, and both the refinishing and replacement quotes seemed to me to be very reasonable. Honest is another word I'd use to describe Ron. What kind of businessman tries to talk you out of the more expensive job -- in this case the replacement one?
I decided to take Ron's advice and refinish the floors. He personally attended to the repair of the boards that needed to be done prior to the refinishing. And he accommodated me by arranging to have his refinishing crew do one side of the house one week, and the other side of the house the week following, in order to minimize the disruption associated with moving furniture. I have had to put up with a lot of drywall dust over the years that is associated with drywall work, and was not looking forward to dealing with wood dust from sanding, but it was negligible.
Ron remained accessible by phone during the job and returned after the refinishing work was complete in order to finish a few "unfinished symphonies" in my house that I had neglected over the years -- replacement of the backdoor threshold, trim around the fireplace hearth, etc. All greatly appreciated.
I am very pleased with my warm rejuvenated wood flooring result, which respects and honours the character of the original flooring of my old house.
Sandra, Ron's partner office manager, also warrants special mention for effectively processing the paper work involved in the job, keeping me in the loop around the project scheduling, answering my questions, and being unfailingly polite and friendly throughout.
In my experience, often the best trades work is done by an attentive small business, rather than the big players. Acorn is one of those small businesses, and as they have earned my trust, I will be having them return to do further work in the future.
