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Rose1
Citizen
Username: Rose1
Post Number: 1
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - 11:47 am: | 
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My husband and I just bought a house in Maplewood and plan on closing in two and a half weeks. The inside of the house hasn't been touched in a long time, and we plan on taking down all of the wallpaper and repainting every room. Also, we will be refinishing the hardwood floors in three rooms that have been hidden with shag carpeting.
Does anyone have experience with World of Color, painters who also do floors? What about Rose Floors, Bryant Floors, Baldwin Floors or Christpherson Floors? Suggestions about water based seal vs. polyurethane?
Thanks so much! We are so excited to be moving into this community, and have appreciated all of the helpful hints on this site.
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NYC to Maplewood
Citizen
Username: Nyctomwood
Post Number: 15
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - 2:08 pm: |
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Rose - you and I could be twins! We're in exactly the same boat. We bought a house that hadn't been touched in the 12 years the previous owner's were living there. We had the floors done by European Flooring (Albaro?)973-783-8369. They did a fabulous job. I went with a water-based sealant and then a stain. I don't remember all the nuances, but I believe they suggested water over oil as oil tends to look more dull over time? We had carpeting on the stairs and hallway and one bedroom that they had to remove as well. Again, it all looks wonderful. It's like they're brand new floors.
I also had to have the whole house painted top to bottom. I got an estimate from both World of Color and Andrew Kieras. The original estimates came in almost identical from a cost standpoint, but I went with Andrew based on recommendations that he and his crew have a much finer attention to detail and do a real top-notch job. So far I have not been disappointed. The work they're doing is great, and they really take their time to do a proper job - they've ended up doing alot of caulking, molding repair, etc.. He even called me and asked if I wanted all the window locks changed as most of them were old and painted over. Needless to say, our estimate has gone up from the original, but I feel it's been worth it. His cell phone number is 908-906-7111.
Good luck with everything! |
mark halliday
Citizen
Username: Markhalliday
Post Number: 13
Registered: 11-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - 2:37 pm: |
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Hi, I'm a contractor in Maplewood and I've seen some recent work of World of Colors and they do a great job( and no, I have no affiliation with them). they just do solid reasonably priced work |
Sauna Queen
Citizen
Username: Goodneighbor
Post Number: 3
Registered: 4-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 - 9:38 pm: |
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They did alot of work for us. Best to hire them in the off season since they have different crews. Also do not get them to paint old plaster walls. They do not know how to repair these walls prior to painting. They do their best on new/raw surfaces. |
Project 37
Citizen
Username: Project37
Post Number: 3
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - 1:33 pm: |
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Hi,
Rose1's other half, here. Thanks for the helpful responses. Sauna Queen raised another point that we need to consider: we have two bulging areas in our plaster walls that need repair before painting. It's my understanding that there's no permanent fix - they'll settle and bulge out again eventually.
Anyone have any experience/recommendations regarding a suitable paint contractor that could handle that kind of work? Is it worth starting a separate thread?
Thanks!
Brian |
Oldstone
Citizen
Username: Rogers4317
Post Number: 614
Registered: 6-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - 6:56 pm: |
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you new guys should do searches on these questions because there are many, many threads on these topics.
ask dave, the moderator, how to do it if you have trouble. you won't be sorry ! good luck. |
Maplemom
Citizen
Username: Maplemom
Post Number: 179
Registered: 7-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 8, 2006 - 7:12 pm: |
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Albaro is a great (great prices, too)interior painter, excellent with plaster walls (he painted the interior of our entire 1903 house). Not a drop of paint on the woodwork...he is great with ceiling repair and is good with sheetrock work if you need it
917-219-0342 |
missmelissa
Citizen
Username: Mlmelcher
Post Number: 18
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 9, 2006 - 9:27 pm: |
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I have experience with both World of Colors and New Colors, which is the interior painting side of Rutgers Painting. I highly recommend New Colors. Alex, who gave us our estimate and has supervised the work, is fantastic to work with and their estimate process is crystal clear- you know exactly what is and is NOT included upfront (which became a nightmare with World of Colors).
New Colors has done a fantastic job including fixing several cracks in the plaster (and i watched how they did it- no tape- they removed the entire section and re-plastered) and every room looks perfect. The best was that they didn't rush the job. They took they time, worked HARD (8am to 10pm- we painted prior to moving in so we weren't living there) and came back one final day just to touch things up.
World of Colors left splatters of paint and unscrapped windows. They did come back when i asked them to, but they had to be asked. Private Line me if you'd like more info and my candid thoughts.
Good luck and welcome to the neighborhood!!
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ffof
Citizen
Username: Ffof
Post Number: 4552
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, March 10, 2006 - 8:45 am: |
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Regarding floors - I would use traditional oil based polyurethane over the water based finish. Water based has a cloudy finish. Regular polyurethane doesn't take that long to dry. Also you'll have to decide between gloss, semi-gloss and satin. The satin finish is the best unless you want a basketball court look.
Your plaster walls need to be knocked down where they are coming away from the lathe and new plaster needs to go up. Although, if it is an enormous section, dry wall can be put up in the bad area and then skim coated to blend in. You'll need to ask the painter about his experience with this. As I recall, I used World of Color once for my daughter's room where the plaster ceiling was cracking off. They put a huge sheet of dry wall over the whole ceiling and then put on new wood molding. They did a fine job, but like someone said above, the detail work was a bit lacking. They weren't into the prep needed for the old trim around the windows. |
Rose1
Citizen
Username: Rose1
Post Number: 2
Registered: 3-2006
| | Posted on Friday, March 10, 2006 - 4:31 pm: |
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Thanks everyone for all of the responses! I have gone ahead and scheduled estimates with European and Bryant Flooring companies, as well as both World of Colors and New Color. And the tip about searching was very helpful too; I was able to get plenty of ideas from others who posted over time.
NYC to Maplewood (AKA my twin), how long did it take, or is it taking, for you to get floors and painting all done? I am sure I will have a better sense of it once we meet with the people, but we close in two weeks, and aren't sure how long it is going to take to get all of the work done and how to plan on when we will be in the house. Of course, there are other things we are trying to coordinate as well, electric, garage issues, tree removal...you get the idea. And did you do floors first, or painting? Any thoughts on the order of things?
This whole process is a "learning experience", and I am having a good time figuring out all of the moving parts. It is a bit overwhelming to go from a tiny rental apartment in the city to a house that requires so much work. I never even thought about these types of things before, and I now feel like it is consuming my life. Sometimes the more information it is the more overwhelming it can feel, but it is exciting to imagine what the finished product will look like. :-)
Thanks again everyone! |
Euclidious
Citizen
Username: Euclidious
Post Number: 11
Registered: 2-2006
| | Posted on Friday, March 10, 2006 - 10:08 pm: |
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In the same boat here, just moved and doing everything top to bottom. I'm actually using World of Colors for the painting and floors and they are half way through. So far, so good and there was a lot prep work they had to do as the house hasn't been touched in years and was a bit of a mess. On the order, WOC recommended sanding and sealing the floors first, then covering the floors during the painting and then coming back to finish the floors. I went with that as neither doing the floors first nor the walls first is good (paint on floors, polyurethane on baseboards). For coordination, it's nice to use the same company if that's the order you decide to go in. We did our electric first as it can be messy and you'll want to paint the patches left afterward anyway. Good luck |
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