So many great things I have to say about Southern Hardwood Floors. To start, Jesse answered my quote right away and he worked within our budget. He started and ended his job on time while communicating the entire time. great price, quality, and on time, what more could you ask for? read more

We contacted Southern Hardwood Floors and requested a consult and quote to refinish our hardwood floors that included repairing and replacing some damaged areas. Jesse promptly responded and arrived as scheduled to review the project. Jesse did a thorough examination and made several recommendations. He submitted a quote within 24 hours which we accepted. He gave us a start date and we paid our deposit. We decided to add the front stairwell to the project which he agreed to do and submitted a revised estimate which, again, we accepted. Jesse arrived on the agreed to start date on time and immediately went to work. Jesse went above and beyond our expectations. The floors are beautiful and we are very happy with the results to the extent that we recommended Jesse to our neighbors who have decided to contract with Jesse after seeing our completed project. I strongly recommend Jesse and Southern Hardwood floors. read more

You won't find a better guy. I give you my word. He's hard working, no nonsense, and was meticulous when it came to the "small stuff." I would never call myself a carpenter, but I have worked with some great ones. He's one of the great ones. I framed houses for four years and during that time we did a little bit of everything, including trim work and flooring. I took one look at the floors of the house we'd just purchased and realized they needed professional attention. They were so bad that the sellers had just decided to cover them up with fake wood, vinyl plank. Jesse put new flooring in the master bedroom, and then he worked his magic on all that neglected and abandoned wood in the rest of the house, most of which probably hadn't seen the light of day in at least 50 years. The detail he puts into his work truly brings out the beauty of the floors. They look like art! read more

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We just updated our home's stairs and upstairs hallway from carpet to hardwood. I cannot begin to describe what an experience it was to see the transition! Jesse Ayers of Southern Hardwood Floors installed the most beautiful work of art I have ever seen. Jesse was meticulous, energetic, a perfectionist and always on time. He worked long hours and kept us on a schedule (he arrived at 0800 and ended after 1600) - I was exhausted keeping up with his pace. The deal was I would do all the painting and left the tough and very detailed job of installing the wood to Jesse. It took me all day to paint 65 stair spindles and in a week I will paint the baseboard and stair trim (waiting for stain and seal to settle). It was a great project to work on during this time of social distancing. read more

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Absolutely the BEST! Attention to detail, professionalism, craftsmanship, and hard work! You can't go wrong with Jesse. Get on his schedule now, your home will love you for it. read more

This is not the review I thought that I would be writing for Jesse and his company, Southern Hardwood Floors. I was so excited when I found Jesse and thought we had found a diamond in the rough. We thought all of his work was beautiful in pictures and all our communication had been professional and prompt. Jesse was very knowledgeable and answered all our questions. We signed our contract and paid our 50% deposit with Jesse on 11/10/2020. Our job was to include installation of new floors in our kitchen and sanding and refinishing the entire first floor of our home as well as stairs and railings. Since this was in conjunction with a kitchen remodel we worked closely with the cabinet installer and countertop fabricator to secure dates to minimize the disruption expected from a job of this nature. Wood floors were delivered 1/3 as promised to acclimate to our home. Cabinet tear out was scheduled on Friday 1/15/2021 and Jesse was to start install the following Monday. The following is a timeline of the events that transpired: Friday 1/15- Bad news, his kids' sitter and her daughter tested positive for COVID so he is getting tested and on quarantine. I wished him well and asked that he keep us posted. By the end of the day we have no kitchen except a fridge and microwave. Plywood floors in the kitchen as we had already torn out the tile in preparation for kitchen tear out. All our furniture had already been moved out of the first floor with the exception of a sofa and our computer desk. Tuesday 1/19- He provided updates that his family took test for COVID and are awaiting results. If negative he wants to come the end of the week if we are ok with it. Responded that is a good plan and happy to hear they are well. Thursday 1/21- He text that his test was negative but wife was positive and he needs to wait out his 2 weeks which would be next Thursday. I responded that we were ok with the delay. Friday 1/29- I text Jesse for an update. He stated that he started to feel sick the prior Saturday and tested positive on Sunday. I responded that we were so sorry, hope he recovers soon, and asked if they needed anything. Tuesday 2/9- I reached out to inquire the status of dates for this job and updated him that cabinets are ready to be installed. He apologized for the delay, stated he is still feeling weak, not working this week. He also advised that he has a customer next week who "has already cleared their house out and booked an Airbnb. So I'm kindof stuck knocking out that job for them. Could I start your house Monday the 22nd? I'll compensate you at the end of the job for the delays if that helps." I explained that we too have been all moved out since January 15th and stated that "I understand the circumstances but it's just frustrating." I further explained that my frustration is not only that we have had a 5 week delay but are now being bumped for someone else. He apologized, stated that he has had an employee that just no showed him and hasn't been back and can't find anyone who wants to work right now. He further stated that he could send my deposit back and we can figure out balance at the end of the job. Within 7 minutes I responded that we chose him a long time ago for the job and have faith that he will come through and we never questioned him having our deposit. I further stated "Your work is beautiful and I want my floors to be perfect. I'm very frustrated right now and our family is sick of living like this but I'm really trying to be understanding." Then I received an email that a partial refund was received. We are assuming he deducted the cost of the wood that was acclimating in our home since 1/3/2021. We do not have an invoice to show the cost of this wood. When I asked why he refunded the deposit he stated "Just wanted to make sure you knew I wasn't doing anything with your money. I can just rebill at end of the job." So where does the problem come in. Jesse then never responded to any attempts to reach him by text or phone from 2/16 on once I attempted to confirm our start date. We attempted to reach him from numerous different numbers. We left numerous messages. He never showed for our install on 2/22/2021 after a 5 week delay. We have been left in an unbelievable situation as most installers are booked out for at least 4-6 weeks if not more. Our cabinet installer and countertop fabricator have been highly inconvenienced. We are exhausted and beyond stressed from not having a kitchen to feed our family and living in a complete disaster zone for 5 weeks and now expecting at least that much longer. I can't fathom how a company can sign a contract with someone and completely disregard their end of the agreement. We were patient and kind and never deserved this outcome. If you carefully review other reviews, you will definitely see this pattern of practice. He had us fooled. I wish I read other reviews more carefully. Please be careful when thinking of choosing this company. read more

Southern Hardwood Floors (previously known as Custom Hardwood Floors): If you're reading this review, you're probably wondering what type of service you can expect with Southern Hardwood Floors. From my personal experience as a customer, I would advise you to save yourself the trouble and look elsewhere! First, be aware that if you're looking up license info on this company, there isn't one as of April 2018. Really wish I would have looked this up before hiring this company. (visit dpor.virginia.gov or call Chesapeake business license office). If you search Better Business Bureau, Southern Hardwood Floors is linked to Professional Custom Remodels since it is in the same storefront, so look up both names. Not only did the owner have to RE-DO the entire sanding and staining process, taking twice as long as expected, but it didn't even turn out to be the planned color/shade... AND he never moved our furniture back in place as promised! The first time around, he admittedly used the wrong type of finish which in his words "ruined the color and it dried blotchy everywhere." After spending thousands of dollars and time away from our home on two separate weeks so he could work on the floors, I was appalled at how unprofessionally he ended the job. After finishing the stain, he urgently asked for the final payment - which we gave him. The furniture was supposed to be put in place that day, but he said he'd like the floors to cure a few more days. We NEVER heard from him again. We called and texted him many times. No response. We ended up hiring someone to help move all the furniture back into place. He also made a mess that he didn't clean up: knocked over paint in our garage and left our yard with a giant, muddy rut from his pick-up truck. He promised to fix those also and never followed-up on his promise. I used his services because I saw our neighbor had used him. I later found out that our realtor had previously used him several times and had stopped referring business to him, because she could never get him to finish the last 10% of the job! Since posting a review, I've also met another person who took him to court and won. Save yourself the trouble and just look elsewhere. read more

We used Southern Hardwood Floors based on a recommendation from a coworker. She couldn't have been more right! Jesse was great to work with! He didn't bat an eye at a last minute change and even finished ahead of schedule. We will definitely e using him again when we're ready to finish our other rooms! Highly recommend! read more

I had several companies come out to give a bid on removing some carpet and installing hardwood to match the other adjoining rooms on the first floor of our new home. I was on a time crunch as I was wanting to have the work completed before we moved into our new home and I was working to get the project started right before Christmas, making it even more difficult. The other companies were proving difficult to get ahold of, very expensive, and really didn't seem like they knew what they were doing (couldn't properly identify the wood in the other rooms to match, etc.). The painter we had working at the house gave us the number for Southern Hardwood floors and they had someone out right away to take a look when I called. He immediately identified the wood and stain color that would be needed and was available to start and finish within my very limited time frame. When talking about the stain color I made the comment that it was too bad that I was having to spend much money adding the wood floors to the new rooms that would have to match the existing wood stain in the other rooms as I did not like the existing color. He asked why I didn't just have the other rooms refinished and have them all stained the color I wanted but I didn't think we could afford it. His estimate came in so reasonable that I was actually able to do that, though! I also was able to have some tile by our back door removed and wood flooring installed there to match as well for just a little extra. During the removal of that tile he discovered some rotted wood AND a huge ant infestation in the floor. We were living three hours away at the time so it was stressful to receive that news! He provided a reasonable quote to replace the rotted wood and also took care of the ant problem for no extra charge. Such a relief! He did an amazing job helping me select just the right stain color and guided me in choosing the right finish as well (I did not want super glossy floors). He was great about sending pictures of the progress and keeping me updated since I was living so far away and couldn't come in person to see. I absolutely love how my floors turned out. The color is gorgeous and the finish is perfect. We had a little hiccup with some of the trim that was installed being different than what I had requested but he took care of the problem. My only other complaint was that he DID move the fridge and sand the floors under it but did not stain that spot to match...just moved the fridge back in place and stained/finished around it. We might not have ever even noticed that but we had a power surge at the house that fried a bunch of our appliances right as we were moving in...including the fridge. The unfinished floor became an issue because the old fridge was oversized and was no longer made by Maytag (21 cubic feet) so we either had to purchase a smaller Maytag fridge and the unfinished floor would be exposed or purchase a larger but lesser quality brand fridge. We ended up getting a larger but lesser quality fridge to make sure the unfinished floor was covered. These issues are the only reason I could not give 5 stars but overall I am VERY pleased with my floors and would not hesitate to hire Southern Hardwood Floors for future projects. read more

We had called and made a few appts to meet Jesse to see if he could help us with our floor. Today was yet again another no show and when trying to communicate no response, very bad way to do business. After seeing reviews it was a godsend we did not meet. Run do not walk and beware. read more

Just had my hardwood floors in my new home refinished by Southern Hardwood Floors. Everything was explained to me during my free estimate and Jesse answered all my questions that I had. The process was hassle free and I was kept informed the entire time. My floors were old and dingy looking when I bought my home, and now they look beyond amazing. I can't say enough about how impressed I am. The whole look of my home has improved. I am so thankful I chose Southern Hardwood Floors to take care of my hardwood. I highly recommend them if you want quality work! read more

Southern Hardwood is easily my "go to" flooring contractor! He's sanded and stained the floors of 2 houses for me and is about to complete a third. His work quality is amazing; a 3 foot repair on a 100 year old pine floor was even flawless! Do yourself a favor and have SHF quote your project...you will not be disappointed! read more

If you are looking for professional and reliable service don't waste your time with Southern Hardwood Floor. We reached out to them after seeing multiple photos of his work online and one of our friends considering using them for her floors. After a last minute reschedule for the initial consult visit, he finally came by and took all the measurements and everything seemed to be going smoothly and we were very excited to get our floors done. We scheduled to go to the showroom to pick out the floors and he rescheduled. The day of our new appointment he texted that he couldn't meet us as scheduled and that he needed to reschedule AGAIN. After multiple calls and texts he never responded to us at all. So save yourselves the headache and disappointment and go with the real professionals. We ended up using Beach Hardwood Floors, they were VERY professional and reliable. Our floors are done and look AMAZING!!! Brad and the entire crew are top notch professionals and will be happy to assist you in all of your flooring needs. read more