Tulip Hardwood Floors

We had oak floors, finished on site in our home installed throughout except for the bathrooms. They did a pretty good job, but my rating is reduced due to dubious ethics, and some incompetency.
The estimator under estimated the amount of wood we’d need, and had to order more mid project. They charged us more for the extra wood. After initially telling me that the wood should be sitting in the house for a couple of weeks to acclimate to the mosture level prior to installation, they had to install the extra wood the day it arrived to keep on their schedule. When I questioned this l was told it was not necessary to have wood in the house to acclimate. In the quote, the application of stain and polyurethane was included in the price, and then when it was time to settle up, considerable cost was added in for this!
The head installer asked me which way I wanted the planks to run in one room and I asked him if I could let him know the next day. He said okay but when I came the next day to tell them horizontally, they had already installed them vertically. Extra cost charged to us for us to compensate for changing it. Overall cost came to 20% more than quoted.

My job was small, new floors in the master bedroom and removal of pet stains in another room. The new floors came in and were wonderful. We both forgot about the pet stain work and ten months later I remembered and reminded Tulip. No worries, they were on it and despite my need to reschedule several times for a tiny job, they accommodated, came out and did it. Pet stains gone, floors look great! Staff was always courteous and professional. I would definitely use them again.

They did a terrible job on our floors. They did our floors three times and each time there were bubbles and marks on the floor. At one point they started sanding without putting up any plastic to protect the other rooms. I stopped them and point this out. One guy started putting them up while the other guy started standing once again before they were put up. Their work was very poor. They said that they would do them again but it was three strikes and you’re out!

The floors that Tulip put in our house were a highlight of our remodel. The workmanship was flawless and the attention to detail exceptional– which was a welcome relief given other aspects of our remodel. The workers were professional, courteous, showed up when they said they would, they were excellent craftsmen, and the whole organization clearly took pride in their work.
Tulip installed face-​nailed oak in several rooms (both new and old construction), and performed repairs to holes in our existing doug-​fir subfloor. In addition, our remodel included removing 120 year old 1×8 douglas-​fir sheathing and replacing with plywood. Avi suggested using the old sheathing as flooring instead of taking it to the dump. I thought it was a great idea and after many weekends removing boards, and Tulip’s expert installation, I’m glad I followed Avi’s advice!
Avi worked with us to helped us choose sustainable /​FSC options, since that was important to us. He also walked us through all the various material and finish choices and advantages of the various types.
Excellent experience. Highly recommend to anyone considering work on floors.

I’m very sorry to have to write this review as we initially had some good experiences with this company. They installed a wood floor in our home in 2012. Within 18 months, the heating vent covers which were made of wood, began to fall apart. The glue in the construction of the vent covers seems to have been dried out by the heat coming out of the vents. When the first two vents fell apart we contacted Tulip and they sent replacements. Then a month or so ago, one fell apart while being walked on by a guest (a very petite and thin guest). This guest fell through the vent as the vent cover collapsed. She was injured and traumatized by the unexpected accident. We could have been liable for a serious disability.
I contacted Avi the owner of Tulip and explained what had happened and that this was the third vent cover that had fallen apart. I really expected him to apologize profusely and work hard to make things right, but instead he implied that we had caused all the different vents to fail somehow and that this was something that had never happened before. He didn’t offer to replace them or help in any way. He suggested we buy metal vent covers but did not offer to cover the cost of them. As it turns out, Tulip put in non-​standard sized vent holes so it is impossible to find a metal cover to be bought easily. To this date we have a huge hole in our floor where the most recent vent cover failed. I have it covered with plywood and really don’t know what to do. Given that Avi refuses to claim any responsibility for the issue, and he didn’t set up the sizes to be replaceable we are at a loss as to what to do. I am very disappointed with the reliability of this company’s workmanship and would strongly suggest not doing business with them. This is not how to do business.

We did a renovation a couple years ago and used Tulip to install and refinish floors. My father accidentally scratched up the new floor last fall with his chair, and I called to ask Tulip to give us the color of the floor so we would touch up the scratch. They refuse to give colors out. It seems they would rather back their customers into a corner than earn their trade on the basis of their service and work. This unethical behavior guarantees they will not get our business when we finish the rest of the floors in the house. I recommend you insist on getting the formula for the color of your floors before you hire *anyone* to finish them for you unless you too want to be held hostage.

Tulip did an absolutely amazing job refinishing our hardwood floors, repairing problem areas, and installing a new floor in a bedroom. The way they blended the new floor with the old is simply beautiful and indistinguishable; just what we wanted. Their team was very respectful and accommodating and the result is stunning. Definitely recommending them to all my friends without reservation.

Tulip removed our hardwood floors from a prior bad install, then did a beautiful job of installing nail down of one inch yellow oak hardwood. They sanded our uneven subfloor, then expertly laid out the new flooring, sanded, stained, and coated. The installers told us when they would arrive, came right on time, and worked continuously until the job was completed. They also cleaned up at the end of each day. We could not be happier with the job they did.
Mark Velez was our contact. He made sure the project was done to our specifications and satisfaction. We’ll be contacting Tulip for our next flooring job and recommending them to our friends.

The arrogance of the latest Berkeley housing upswing has clearly hit Tulip bad.
Here’s what you get from Tulip after paying them $ 3,308 for a full-​house sanding and finishing in 2006 — the height of the last bubble — when you ask them to replace a few partially stained floor boards.
Go somewhere else. We have a $ 3,000 minimum but there are other places that will do that job.
Rationale: resurfacing the stained boards would so terribly discolor them as to be incompatible with the rest of the house. So Tulip generously offered to resurface the entire floor for full price.
No problem. We’ll move all our furniture and belongings out and stay in a hotel so you can get the full value of your priceless service.
This is ridiculous. Our floor has multiple shades, the boards date back to 1953 and are by no means uniform in size, shape or pigmentation.
The technorati etc. have apparently provided Tulip so much business that they can turn away their otherwise loyal and erstwhile high-​paying customers.
Yeah, we’ll go somewhere else. And we won’t be calling you when this latest bubble bursts.

We’ve worked with Tulip a couple times before, but we’re finally done with them.
The straw that broke our back was when we recently had a customer who wanted a bedroom, stairs, and downstairs office redone in new oak flooring. Mark Velez was our contact and he was okay to work with at first; not great, but okay. One part of the job was to blend the top of the old stairs in with the new work. The rest of the house has walnut dowels so the contract called out specifically to blend the new in with the old: «Supply install sand and finish 12 stair treads and upper landing to match floor. Upper landing to have walnut dowels and match existing top floor.» When the job was complete, though, the new upper landing did not have any walnut dowels and thus did not match the existing top floor. It’s right there in black and white and they failed to do it. When I called Mark about it he was annoyed. He explained that walnut dowels are only used on end joints (true) because they were historically used to hide the fasteners and since the installers didn’t install the top landing with any end joints, there was no need for the dowels. The problem here is that the installers didn’t look at the original contract and Mark, as job supervisor, didn’t point it out to them to make sure it was done correctly. Further, when talking to Mark about this it was clear that he didn’t want to install the dowels as specified in the contract that he wrote up. He was audibly annoyed and at one point I could hear him talking to someone else about «dealing with this walnut dowel bullshit.»
Another issue with the install came when moisture was discovered in the downstairs office area. Mark was less than helpful in recommending a solution for this and basically said we should contact someone else. While moisture mitigation isn’t the area of expertise of a flooring contractor, it’s something they should definitely be familiar with. Even if they aren’t, I think the attitude should be one of helping the customer instead of abandoning them after the carpet demo has been done.
After the moisture hiccup they stopped work on the bottom landing of the stairs for fear of moisture migrating to that area. We gave them the go ahead to finish installation in that area, but it took two months and many many calls to get them back out to install just 20 square feet of flooring.
The bottom line is that the front office is horrible. Calls aren’t returned reliably and jobsite supervision is lacking — at least in the case of Mark Velez. When there are hiccups (as there usually are in construction), things aren’t dealt with well. The attitude is one of annoyance rather than problem solving. The installers are good to work with and are clearly what is keeping this place productive. I’d give the installers and finishers 4 stars. I’d give the customer service and administration 0 stars.

Tulip absolutely lives up to their reputation, and their prices are reasonable for the level of quality they provide.
We hired them to refinish and stain 2,000 sq/​ft of flooring in our new home. They worked longer hours to keep our deadline (we had to be out of our apartment by a certain day), despite delays on our end in closing the home.
Ger showed us color samples on our actual floor, so we would see exactly what the final product would look like. He helped us choose a color and provided advice on how much maintenance and wear each color might show.
Highly recommended. They floors are stunning. Everyone who visits comments on them.

Tulip floors installed reclaimed distressed hardwood floors. They are beautiful to look at, lovely to walk on and hold up to our two large dogs. This was a large job taking place over several weeks. We tried several finishes until we found the perfect one. Communication and response are excellent. I would use Tulip floors again.

Tulip was great. The crew was very courteous, clean and knowledgeable.
Their pricing is spot on, and the quality of what we received is fantastic. The crew showed up on time, walked me through three different finish options and got the job done earlier than expected.
Would I recommend them? Yes.
Would I use them again? Oh yes.
Will I use them again? Surely.
Thanks again you guys for doing a killer job!

After our flooring job was completed last year we felt compelled to report our experience after emailing the owner in December 2012. We wanted to give him an opportunity to reply but there was no response.
On one of the final days of the job our estimator, Scott, came to our home to check the progress and was talking with the flooring technician while my wife was working in the other room. Apparently he didn’t know she was there when she overheard him remark that he found it unbelievable that we would consent to pay the amount he estimated, and added that if we wanted to throw our money away then he would be more than happy to take it. He seemed quite surprised to see my wife when she came out of the room. We found his comments offensive, and it left us distrustful of any future work with Tulip.
On top of that, every time we found a problem or damage that was left on the stairs by the installer, Scott said he had to come back and look at it, take photos, go back to the office and get back to us when he was ready to pronounce judgment on resolving the problem. Then, after his offensive remarks, we asked him to add one very small additional service to the job in the hope that he’d be compliant because he knows he created an awkward situation. Instead he said he had to charge us for the work and blamed the front office, which he said is tracking every minute of the workers’ time. So, what happens? We never hear about it again and in the end one of their employees fulfilled the very minor request for us without Scott’s involvement. To top it off we find that there are separations in some of the miter joints that were not properly filled and finished.
We have no problem with people getting as much money as they can for the work they do or the services they provide, but we didn’t appreciate feeling exploited, like complete suckers.
Hopefully this serves as a lesson that estimates can be arbitrary and capricious, with no basis in structured assessment beyond how much can be extracted, and that reputations can be fabricated as well as earned.

Tulip Hardwood Floors did a fantastic job refinishing our upstairs hardwood flooring and installing new hardwood flooring on our ground floor and stair case. They were matching an existing log-​cabin border with walnut feature strip in rift and quartered white oak. 1920’s craftsmanship matched in 2013!
Mark, the estimator/​project manager and Tony the foreman were great to work with and very professional. They have a large showroom where we were fortunate to see exactly what they proposed and evaluate alternatives. They started on schedule, showed up for work at the same time each day and required little to no direction.
I managed about $ 1.5 billion in construction over 30 years and Tulip Hardwood Flooring is without a doubt in the top 1% of all the contractors that I have worked with. Their price is competitive with other quality installers.

We had a disappointing experience while attempting to work with Tulip. We recently closed on a new house (how exciting, right?!) and our one big investment was to switch from carpets to a hardwood floor.
Last week, we met with 4 different vendors to solicit bids. In each case, we received a prospective contract in less than 48 hours of our meeting. We made it clear that there was some urgency (we were motivated to move into our new home) but we had some flexibility to give us the best chance to get a floor we’d love for the next quarter century.
For Tulip, we worked with Mark V. Our first impression was that they had a high attention to detail since Mark requested that we send him an email with all our thoughts/​preferences ahead of our first meeting. Great, we sent him as many details as we had so that our time in person would be more productive.
We met last Friday when we did the walk through of the house and further refined our preferences. It was a productive conversation, but he suggested that we go into their warehouse in Berkeley on Saturday to lock in on our selection. He explicitly stated that we would have their estimate first thing on Monday morning.
So on Saturday, we spent an hour with their color specialist in their warehouse. He had 11+ years experience with Tulip and he was quite knowledgeable in helping define exactly what we wanted (wood, grade, prefab vs sand & place, color/​stain, etc). Their specialist promised that we could have custom samples on Monday, or Tuesday at the latest.
We eagerly awaited for the estimate on Monday. Unfortunately, we didn’t hear anything.
After waiting most of Tuesday, we finally reached back out to Mark to request their estimate so we could make a decision. He promised that we’d have their estimate the next day (wednesday) and also custom samples.
Well… wednesday passed with no word from Mark or Tulip. Then Thursday slipped by with no word from them. And now Friday is done and calls to them go directly to their voicemail since it’s after 5pm on a Friday.
It’s frustrating to think we were ready to invest $ 25 — $ 30k+ on a brand new hardwood floor for our home sweet home. But instead we wasted an entire week that we could’ve started with one of our other vendors. And worse, they’ve made almost no attempt to make us feel like a wanted customer.

We had our hardwood floors refinished by Tulip Floors and could not have chosen a better flooring contractor. Of all that we interviewed, Tulip impressed us the most, despite being the most expensive. «you get what you pay for» and this is indeed the truth. It is worth the extra to go with the best. Our floors are stunning.

We recently Hired them to do a floor job for us to clean up after another sub-​Contractor that messed up the job. Their price was 50 percent higher than any one else, They told Us, it was because they are Using high-​tech Equipment, to sand and finish their works. And Dust containment system they used was top of the line!
The quality is perfect!!! Our Customer is very happy!!!
I’m the Owner of Montclair Construction And I highly recommend Tulip Hardwood Floors.
If you have a picky customer, That wants a number one job done call these people!

Tried to do a custom order. Went in person and called twice to ask about pricing but never got a call back. So I can’t tell you how there prices are or how the transaction experience was! Pacific Floors had it in stock with no need to special order.

Such a beautiful store! My husband and I were jazzed to find and buy a hardwood floor from this store. Sales rep was friendly and spent some time with us. However, we visited twice and called once over a one month period only to never get a call back. We were waiting for store samples and I am surprised there was no communication on their end at all what-​so-​ever. The call we put in was a friendly call to let them know we would love a call back and hadn’t ever received communication. Still nothing. Luckily, my husband and I found a great floor elsewhere. I don’t know how they are with others — this was just our experience.