Hardwood Stairs Recommendation

We're interested in replacing the carpet on our stairs with hardwood (preferrably single piece oak treads and risers).

Can anyone recommend any of the local retailers (Abbey Carpet, Floors USA, etc.) and what was your personal experience with them in terms of quality, workmanship, price, and customer service. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

We had hardwood installed on both sets of our stairs (main floor leading to basement and main floor leading to upper level) this past summer. They were finished on site. We used Abbey Carpet in Sterling (ask for Fred Soltani). I believe we paid approx. $1,500 per flight of stairs (including installation, staining to match our existing hardwood floors, finishing, etc.). We have full treads - not strips. We couldn't be happier. No more dirty, ground in stained carpet to deal with. Looks beautiful as well. Easy to clean and maintain. Only caution is that they are slicker (compared to carpeting) so our dogs have to take their time going up and down.

 

We just had both sets of stairs and the entire 3rd floor done in hardwood. We used Image Flooring Center http://imageinteriordesign.com/ and Phil was the person we worked with. They did an excellent job and I can't say enough good things about them and the quality work they did. Right now they are installing carpet in my parents house for them.

 

lindpro/clwjl5,

Thanks for the replies. I actually got my first quote from Abbey and initially thought they came in real high. Since then I've gotten quotes from Lowe's, original contractor that did our LR/DR when house was built, and most recently the newly opened Floors and Decor Design Center in Ashbrooke Commons (near Harris Teeter on Ashburn Village Blvd).

lindpro...how many total steps on each of your staircases. Ours is U-shaped with 10 steps and 4 half pies when the stairs does a 180degree turn. This is for each staircase. Just trying to get a comparison based on the price you mentioned. Can you doublecheck price and number of steps? Would appreciate it.

clwjl5...did you do full treads and risers or strips/planks? I will take a look at Image Flooring Center.

 

We have weird stairs as well. At the top of the staircase from the 1st to 2nd floor it turns a strange way. Anyway to answer your question we have the entire staircase in hardwood, the top part where you walk and the inside part that you see when you walk up. Sorry, I am not sure of the proper terminology but I believe it is riser and treads. We had to do strips because the wood we had in our kitchen and family room which is what we were matching came in strips. We have both staircases done this way and it looks great. I absolutely love the hardwood and wish I hadn't waited so long to do them.

 

Our stairs that lead down to the basement total 10 with no landing. The stairs that lead to the upper level total 12 with one 3.5' X 3.5' landing. Can't be more specific on the price since we had other work done at the same time/on the same bill and it was not itemized (850 square feet of WilsonArt Estate Plus laminate installed in basement, 150 square feet of carpeting also installed in basement and Bruce Hardwood laid in upper level hallway). However, I remember Abbey stating that each flight of stairs would cost around $1,500 and $1,800 respectively. We have used this particular salesman at Abbey for over 10 years (and in 2 homes) so we may have gotten a particularly good deal due to our "relationship" with him. I do know that the strips/planks cost less than the full treads and that the strips/planks are noiser than the full treads especially in the winter when the strips/planks may contract due to the colder weather.

 

lindpro and clwjl5,

Thanks! Your contribution and information sharing on this thread has been invaluable in my quest for upgrading to quality hardwood stairs at an affordable/resonable price. It has provided me some more valued opinion(s) and will greatly help me decide on which retailer to give my $$ to.

BTW...I have called Phil and he will be by next Monday to estimate the work. I also don't know the gentlemen I spoke to last time at Abbey, but he seemed very knowledgeable and gave me an estimate based on the builder floor plan layout I brought with me. Maybe they've done enough work that a measurement appointment was not needed. But I will pay them a visit again and make sure I speak to Fred.

 

Okay... so the hardwood floors
We are looking to replace the ugly carpet in our library with hardwood. Man, I would love to rip out all of the carpet in this house but wow, dream on...

I think I will call this Abbey Carpet Place in Sterling and also the Images interior Design on RedRum Drive and have them come out and take a look...

With both businesses were you satisfied with the workers that came out and did the work? that is always a big headache now. You get these workers that can't speak a word of English and they are not very personable or hardworking.

 

All of our hardwood and laminate flooring has been installed through Abbey Carpet in Sterling. Mr. Kim and/or his crew installs this type of flooring for Abbey. He and his crew are hardworking, quick, quiet, take few breaks and clean up well at the end of each day as well as at the end of the job. Their English speaking skills are weak but they seem to understand English fairly well. We didn't care about their English speaking skills or whether they were personable as we hired them to do a job not socialize with us. Bottom line, the job was done correctly the first time and in a timely manner.

 

We were very pleased with Image Flooring Center they did a great job and have been very responsive to us. We had no trouble communicating with the installers they were very pleasant and took the time to explain different things with us. I would highly recommend them. They did both staircases and the entire 3rd floor in four days. Plus since they had to lay each piece individually they had to go up both flights of stairs to do their cutting. They worked really hard and did a great job.

 

I had a completely different experience with Image Flooring Center and in particular with Phil. He quoted a price to us from our floor plan and we agreed on the price. After we persuaded him to walk through our home the price jumped several thousands dollars based solely on the stairs. Apparently he didn't know how difficult they would be from the floor plan.
That was the first issue. The second issue was when the installers came to put the floors in. Phil told us they would start on a Wed and be done by the weekend so that we could move in the very next week. The floors weren't done until the following Wed and we had to delay our move (and hired movers) one day so they could finish.
3rd issue was the workmanship. Not sure if the poor workmanship was due to my constant pressure of when the heck the job was going to be complete but the quality was unacceptable and we made them come back several weeks later to fix uneven steps, staircase spindles, etc. etc.
I can go on and on but overall we would not recommend Phil and Image Flooring to anyone!

 

chief,

Sorry to hear about your troubles. I do find that Phil is sometimes not as responsive as I would like, but maybe they are busy as well. Just curious, what kind of stairs did you put in? Did they use strips/planks or single oak treads and risers? And what brand flooring did you go with? After all the trouble, can you tell us at least if they fix the issues to your complete satisfaction. Thanks in advance.

 

My wife and I were extremely upset and frustrated with the entire process and it started of course with the price. We settled on Mirage, Maple hardwoods with a lighter tone. We floored our entire 2nd floor and the whole stair case using treads and risers.
I forgot to mention something in my first post, not only did the price increase by 2Gs after he saw the stairs and how difficult they would be, he also increased the price again when he didn't order enough wood based on the floor plan. This came on the 2nd day of installation, Phil calls and says he’s coming up short on wood and will have to order another 100 sq feet of wood. But he cut me a "great" deal because of this (his) mistake, only charged me an additional 750. I couldn’t for the life of me understand how the customer was at fault for the lack of wood in which he calculated from the builder’s floor plan and in which he didn’t want to take the time to drive the 2 miles and measure the home for himself. At any rate, I complied and agreed to pay the 750 thinking they would to an excellent job and be out of our home in “one or two days at the most”
After the project was complete (5 days later) my wife and I were so upset and frustrated that we almost didn't even bother giving these guys the opportunity to come back and fix the issues we weren't satisfied with. However, after much deliberation and thoughts of lawsuits, we called Phil back and had him inspect the work his installers had done and he agreed, it was not acceptable. The installers came back, replaced the spindles, fixed the un-level pieces and painted the crown molding around the stair case that had been ripped off. Even after the repairs, we continue to see numerous nail holes all round the stair case and un-parallel spindles and just plain shotty workmanship. We're just relieved the ordeal is over with. The 2nd level hardwood installation was great with no major issues (few small things but that is to be expected, I guess) but the stair case is a different story.
All in all, the hardwood flooring and ordeal we went through was not worth the money.

 

Thanks Chief, I can understand your pain now. I'm a little hesitant now with the workmanship. Sounds like you're very happy with the product upstairs though. It also sounds like your staircase setup was a little tricky for the installers. We're just having the carpet taken up and replaced with oak treads and risers, with a light stain and polyurethane coat on top. No spindles or railing to deal with with on our particular project. How is the treads/risers portion of your stairs? Is it cut with a tight fit to the sides, and do you see nail holes on these parts or other portions of your staircase. Thanks again.

 

Chief,

Sounds like you had the complete opposite experience we had. It has been about 8 weeks since they installed our floors and stairs. We had a couple of items they needed to fix but it wasn't anything major (just forgot the wood trim in a couple of spots).

I would still recommend them since we didn't have any issues with workmanship or price.

 

The staircase definitely was the issue. The 2nd floor looked really good and we're overall very pleased with the workmanship there. This staircase was difficult with the spindles, hand rail, three landings, tough angles so I can somewhat understand the price increase once he took the time to expect our home. It just felt like these guys gave up, they were pressed for time and (another example) quickly tried to replace the spindles with the same ones they ripped out which had cracks all the way down them. I will give them credit though, they did come back and purchase all new spindles at Home Depot and reinstalled them and attempted to fix some of the major/obvious errors.
The bottom line-the quality of work those guys put into the staircase didn't match the quantity of my check to them.