For years I have been wanting to get my floor sanded and varnished. Jens wouldn't allow it. Too much stress for parkinson's. Now that Jens has moved out, I decided to do it at the end of 2023. Of course my bike accident put a stop to everything. But now in the early part of 2024, I contacted a floor company. One of the biggest and best companies in DK. Several of my neighbors have used their service. So I know the end results and I was willing to pay the higher than average price to get top job results.
The rep from the company came to look at my floor and he gave me an offer. It was way higher than I thought it would be. I managed to talk him down to a more reasonable price. Still it was higher than average but I knew what I would get for my money.
I had to get everything out of the apartment. What I thought would take a few days, ended up taking 3 weeks. Of course in that 3 weeks, I did spend a lot of time in the nursing home visiting Jens. In the 3 weeks, I packed 30 moving boxes, 5 suit cases, unscrewed 4 IKEA closets, 2 IKEA book cases, 1 home-made hall closet, 1 home-made office closet and a partridge in a pear tree. I also got rid of my falling apart pleather sofa, got rid of my 2-man bed, got rid of my cheap discount dining set, and I got rid of my washer and dryer. It's a small apartment. Not including the bathroom, it's roughly 68m2 / 732sq. ft. of wooden floor space. It's also shocking what you can collect and squeeze into such a tiny space.
I finally got everything all packed and cleared for the floormen to come in and get the job done. I handed them the keys and they were to complete the job by the next day. That was surprising to hear that they could do it that fast. In just 2 days the floor would be sanded and and varnished 3 times. The floor needed 5 days to dry before I could move back into my apt.
One week later I opened the door and walked in to inspect. It looked great. Then I noticed a big mistake. The entire edge of the floor was like Velcro. I couldn't see the problem but I could easily feel the problem. I knew that when it would come time to taking a dust mop to the floor, the dust from the mop would stick to the Velcro edge. I called the rep of the company. He came out to check the floor. He apologized and said he would have his men get right on it.
To make a really long and sad situation short, I will just say it took the company 5 times to get it somewhat correct. The first mistake was the Velcro edge, the 2nd mistake was the thousand of bubbles and all the dust and fuzz they varnished into the floor, the 3rd mistake was thousands of rainbow scratches all over the floor, The 4th mistake was full circle scratches all over the floor and 2 different kinds of varnish. The 5th time is was much better but still lots of dust particles in the varnish. After 6 weeks, I just could not do more. The dust that they varnished into the floor and the missing spots of varnish was just something I am going to have to live with.
In the end, I would rather have paid more to get what my neighbors got but when all was said and done I paid 6.250,- danish crowns, down from the original offer of 16.500,- (but 14.300,- on the agreed offer).
....I paid $900, down from the original offer of $2,400 (but $2,080 on the agreed offer). That's the price in dollars today as I write. The rate goes up and down daily. So it could be either more or less by 50 - 80 dollars.
My mom, sister, and buddy helped me to gain the courage to demand a lower price. I see now that I still paid too much but this was the first time that I had to deal with something like this. My sister and my buddy do these kinds of negotiations on a daily/weekly basis. I was really happy to have them encourage me on how to get at least 50% off. All 3 of them were saying go for even less. I see now that I should have. But hey - through all of this, I learned that I can be demanding.
Anyway..... I got it done and I want to put all the troubles behind me. That's one reason why this blog is so short. There really is a lot more to the story but this is more than enough for now. Now it is time to move on and get a new sofa, dining set, and dryer. The washer and bed have already arrived. My neighbor is going to install the washer and dryer for me when the dryer arrives on the 9th.
In the middle of my floor nightmare, other neighbors take a completely different approach. They remove and install a totally new floor. Probably 3 to 4 times the price for everything. This may be what I buy myself for my 75th birthday present. One of the neighbors was installing a brand new floor. In the parking garage, they had piled up the old floor to take to the dump. Here are some pix of their old floor. This is what I have in my apartment. I am assuming after all the sanding and repair work, I have just a sliver of veneer left.
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