Flooring By Design

We are very pleased with this company. Good service, great product, Tosca laminate, good price.

The father/son team who did the fitting were fast, professional and very clean. If I need new flooring again, I would go to this company!

Excellent service and commitment from Flooring by Design! They assisted us with selecting the best floors to suit our rooms and the “look” we were going for. There was a delay from the manufacturer which they kept us kept us informed about and did everything they could to minimize the impact of the delay. The floors are beautiful, and were beautifully installed.

Right from the time I walked in the store the experience was great. The team were knowledgeable, understanding and reasonable. I did shop around and Trevor made the decision easy as he was able to meet my budget and my timeline.

The installer was on time, courteous and professional. The project was completed in a short time and the end results were awesome. The finer detail of cleaning up and not leaving me with the mess was much appreciated to.

I would recommend Flooring By Design for any project.

We looked at a couple different Hardwood companies in Barrie. It was hard to match the existing color and found something somewhat close at Flooring By Design (FBD). Dealing with Trevor was pleasurable. He is knowledgeable, professional and friendly. That was the opposite when the installers came in. It took them a couple of days to complete the job. After day one, it was hard to inspect the job as the place was filthy. Lots of dust, cut pieces etc... When I came home from work the second day, this is where I found the surprises. There were lots of boards (at least a dozen) where some little pieces were broken off (as per the pictures), one area they must of dropped a hammer or something heavy as there is a good dent, a strip of hardwood is buckled in the middle of the room, black marks on my freshly painted walls, look at how they cut the door casing. I wasn't really happy! They offered to come back and fix the problems (putty) but I declined as I didn't want them in my house again. I ended it up putting matching putty and washing the walls/doors. Was not a good experience and ended up having to pay full amount as apparently this was "the negotiated price". The thing is, when you negotiate a price, it is for a job well done.

UPDATED: Responding to the owner's response - the line of communication was wide open between both of us as she shared numerous emails. I advised him that I wasn't interested in having his team back to make the repairs (that shouldn't have happen in the first place). The board with the big dent in it is the 4th one from the wall where they started which meant, if they truly wanted to fix it properly, tear the whole floor, remove that board and restart. I'm pretty sure this is not what they would have done. They would have done what I did, add a matching filler. I changed the door casing myself as at this point in time, I wanted the job done right(reminder to look at the picture of how they cut the casing to make the hardwood fit). The owner mentions "Industry Standard", I wonder if it is a standard to email clients that write negative reviews and offer them money to remove the negative post? I'm not the only one also, see other reviews.

Solid hardwood floor - Remove existing tile & oak floors $8800

Dec 2017, FBD contract $8691.46. Remove ceramic floor around the kitchen cabinets, solid oak flooring before supply/install new solid hardwood floor. Includes remove/replace a fridge, a dishwasher, a toilet and a sink.

They do not accept payment by credit card over $3000.

FBD

“ Located in Barrie, our team of highly qualified flooring installers is friendly and diligent and maintains the highest standards of professionalism and cleanliness throughout installation.”

Not close… team arrived no tarps, no protection for kitchen cabinets, granite, marble entrance, adjacent carpet areas or duct vents. They didn’t sweep at days' end. Broken tiles, cement, empty boxes, wood with exposed nails and tools were left scattered overnight. Material loosely carried out in un-taped boxes scavenged from local dumpster, a total mess through our main hallway. They called our home a “construction site”.

Cleanliness was one issue, damage was extensive too. They damaged solid oak kitchen cabinets using a large crowbar, gouged portions of subfloors using an electric jackhammer. They forced a sink off a wall using a crowbar rather than remove 2 simple screws. They broke a refrigeration line, which ran water all night through our floor to the finished basement below. They said, “if you wanted the job to be done right, you should have removed the cabinets first”. We asked them to leave. Trevor had them complete the demo portion.

When they claimed the prep was complete, I pointed out it was not cleared enough, they left anyway. I was 8 hours the following day removing about 5 lbs. of bent nails, wire and debris ensuring the floor was ready for new hardwood.

Independent installers arrived to install the hardwood, (contract for other retailers). Darl & James arrived with professional tools, and planned out the installation. They cleaned up every night. They took care in the installation process.

They forgot to allow for the baseboard when installing the doorstop trim. I removed and re-installed half of what they installed. They do not re-install toilets or dishwasher plumbing although we were charged about $200 by FBD for this service.

Trevor credited the water line repair and the ceiling repair $250. The speaker has not been addressed yet. He added $260 for quarter round. I explained this was in error. Doorstop was and added $100 to our payment. Trevor insisted on the $260 charge.

Nothing provided regarding use/care, or warranty of our new hardwood or installation.

We noticed 2 large holes in our bathroom wall, making it impossible to re-attach the sink without replacing the wallboard in that area. This was deliberate by his team. I emailed Trevor, he never responded.

Within 2 weeks, a splinter came off a board, upon closer look more splinters are along this edge, and a crack. I sent a picture to Trevor and offered him to visit to view. Trevor replied he wouldn’t visit, “clearly it was damaged” (not true) and to fix it ourselves. I requested a rep to review this. Trevor refused. I called he wanted an extra charge to repair!

We are so disappointed having done business with Flooring by Design, the disregard for our home, damage to cabinetry, deliberate damage by his team, the $160 overcharge.

The withdrawal of warranty or after sale service.

Update: February email received from FBD.

“I will not send any more teams to work in your home”

If you remove this review, FBD will mail a $200 cheque.

$200 does not cover a wall repair, board replacements that have splintered, or the cost of a certified inspector to determine the cause of the hardwood problem.

Update March 24.

Darl and James performed the warranty on the splintered boards. They also removed some glue from the hardwood surface. We appreciate this finally taking place. FBD has also agreed to reimburse us for work not completed and repairs to damaged area to our wall.

This took 3 months, but finally our floor has been restored.

Update June 20, writing as many parts of the rebuttal below are not true.

I believe my update of March is very fair and gracious. I stand by my statements made in this review. Service/warranty was refused clearly by the owner. Pls see quote from FBD email above. It took 3 months for FBD to service our splintered floor. This was performed in a single return trip, (not trips). We appreciate that the floor is repaired, it should have been done immediately. I never promised that I would post pictures of our beautiful floor? Actually we now have other problems with the floor, and we regret replacing our 30 year solid oak with this solid acacia floor at all. If another rebuttal such as the one below is posted, I will post more pictures.

Never, never, never! $8000,00 mistake. No supervision of this work crew so floor colour was totally different from that promised. Have pictures to prove complaints were basically ignored with blank statement that it would not be corrected. Many more complaints but that is the most important.

I'm extremely happy with the sales staff, install team and quality of material provided by Flooring by Design. I'm a general contractor and new to the Barrie area (moving my company from Sutton) and have used this company on my first two home renovations and couldn't be happier. The sales staff had great product knowledge (I dealt with Peter) and in my line of work I rely heavily on quality as every renovation is my business card. The products supplied by this great boutique flooring store are far superior to the top three big box stores we are used to, but still priced competitively. In fact, installation prices were less expensive. The install team were very professional, experienced and worked clean. I'm looking forward to working with these guys in all my future renovations.

Purchased laminate flooring around a year ago, finished off room with oak trim. Trevor was excellent, and the product is great. In fact we have sold our home, and will be getting new flooring again from Trevor for our new home.

I would absolutely steer clear of Flooring by Design if you want great customer service and support. I was interested in vinyl tiling because I heard that it was warmer of the feet and durable. What Trevor from Flooring by Design failed to tell me is that it is only durable when it comes to water and spillage. When it comes to temperature changes and scratches, it is not the right product. When I contacted him after they installed the floor regarding it's durability and the quality of installation, he took no responsibility and just continued to refer me to the manufacturer. He didn't even bother to come look at the bulging, spacing, and excessive scratching, which I sent him photos of. They are 5 minutes away and although I am convinced the installation was done poorly, eventually he just ignored the communications between himself, the manufacturer and I. As a customer, I would have expected an expert opinion on the right product to install in my kitchen, and when things went awry, I would definitely have hoped for helpful customer service and concern for my investment. This was NOT a cheap product. I am so disappointed in the service I received from this company, and would absolutely not recommend them.