A long overdue review!…read more
Cesar (Rosendo) and his team (Douglas, Eric, and Kevin) installed our Mirage custom ordered white oak R&Q engineered hardwood floors (ordered through Nara Tile in Dublin) last summer, in total, approximately 2400 sqft of flooring plus stairs in our very lived-in house.
He was one of the installers that Nara Tile recommended, and Cesar came out quickly to measure our space and provide a quote.
We had two other estimates done (at all-in-one stores that sold the product and could install with either their own contractors or subcontractors).
Cesar's labor quote was competitive with the larger/high volume store (that could use unknown to us subcontractors) and both his and the high volume store's quotes were significantly less expensive than the boutique/smaller shop (that said they only install with their own people).
The two other stores sent sales people to do the measurements, so immediately Cesar was able to differentiate himself from the two other quotes by pointing out areas in our home that we should pay special attention to (for example, direction of flooring, transitions to tiled areas, and his experience with board lengths in the product we had chosen).
When I told him about the two other measurements I had done and which shops they were (there was a 300 sqft measurement discrepancy between those first two quotes), it turns out that he previously worked for the boutique shop as an installer. I was able to find his name mentioned in reviews at that other shop (all glowing reviews). He didn't volunteer this information randomly; it was only after I mentioned the names of the shops that he smiled and said he used to work there and that their installers do really high quality work.
Since he gave me a good impression of his expertise and I was able to see a few more reviews on his work at the other shop, we felt more confident to go with him for our install as opposed to going with a completely unknown installer through the high volume store, or the significantly more expensive boutique store.
Installation was about two weeks for the floors and a separate three days for the stairs (since we had to reorder the stair noses due to the manufacturer sending non R&Q stair noses). Cesar was on-site every day (not always for the whole day, but for the first few days he was there bright and early with his guys). The team always tidied up at the end of each day, were not disruptive (as much as can be possible with installing floors), and they also helped move large furniture around.
We looked at some boards together so he could get a sense of how much "character" from our boxes we were comfortable with, and Cesar was able to make those decisions perfectly (amassing a small pile of rejected boards for us to keep separately).
In terms of communication, Cesar is a natural communicator. He was never defensive or dismissive to our questions or concerns. He always explained things in a way that was easy to understand, and happy to show us different options if we were unsure about which way we would prefer. He was extremely patient with us when we were not sure about a decision. He did not even ask us to write a review for him.
During install, we had to ask to redo one part of a narrow hallway because we didn't like the length of boards selected and his team was able to rectify quickly, and there was a gouge in one of the installed boards that occurred at some point near the end of install, which Cesar was able to patch with some kind of wax sorcery.
It's been over a year since install, and everything is holding up great. The patched spot is solid, so without a doubt, we will have Cesar come back out and repair all the damage that my kids have inflicted upon our beautiful floors in our high traffic areas
We cannot recommend Cesar strongly enough.
Attached are pictures of the stairs, and some in progress pictures of the floors. (Part of the reason why this review is a year late is I kept waiting until my home was tidier so I could take some nice photos that do their work justice... but it's over a year later and it doesn't look like I'm going to make that happen, so I figured a review with incomplete photos is better than no review at all )