Mark Grgurovic Hardwood Floors

A hundred people have rated Mark Grgurovic Hardwood Floors on Houzz, and the average sits at a flat 5.0. The sub-scores are the more telling part: work quality 5.0, communication 4.9, value 4.8 — value the softest of the three, which is usually where a shop that isn't the cheapest bid gives up a little ground. The company describes itself as family-owned and says it has been making wood floors for more than 40 years, working out of 695 Massachusetts Ave in North Andover. What it does is narrow on purpose: installation, refinishing, sanding, staining, repair. Hardwood as the whole business, not flooring bolted onto a remodeling outfit. Twenty-two projects are posted, and Houzz has handed the business nine awards and two badges. The listed price band runs from $800 to $60,000, which is wide enough to cover patching one room and flooring an entire house. Settle early which end your job sits at and what the number includes — sanding, stain, and how many coats of finish are where hardwood quotes quietly diverge. One caution about the picture itself: all of it comes from a single platform. A hundred ratings is real volume, but they are all on Houzz, and Massachusetts does not require floor-covering-only contractors to carry home improvement contractor registration, so there is no registry entry to check either. Ask for a certificate of insurance and a couple of recent addresses you can go and look at. If you want hardwood done by people who only do hardwood, this is that kind of shop. Get the scope, the finish product and the price in writing before the sanders come out.