Farrell Wills Wood Floors

All of my business inquiries come to my cell phone, whether it be text, email, or a phone call. It’s easy for me to pick up the call, or take an hour in the middle of the day to return it. If I can’t help a customer, I have referrals to other flooring contractors that I know do good work. I give the customers as much information as I can over the phone, including a price range for their project. My website explains our procedures, so anyone talking to me can read for themselves what they’re paying for when we do the job, and the services and details that go into the process.

I attend the seminars that our product distributors host from time to time. These are events where contractors can learn the newest ways to use flooring products, or learn about new products that have appeared on the market. The vegetable oil finishes from Rubio Monocoat are a good example of this. The company’s product is radically different from the traditional stain and multiple coat finishes. By attending their seminars, I’ve learned how to apply their one-coat finish, which has no chemical components at all. I also have arrangements with other local floor companies, where I work alongside their crews on jobs where they need more help. This has been beneficial for all of us; I learn how other companies operate, and they get the job done faster with the added labor.

I learned the trade from a handyman, who happened to do floors as one of his many skills. He knew enough to get me and my friend started in business, but we had a lot to learn about how to become professionals! It was a slow process, but we got better and better at turning out good-looking floors. We had to learn how to apply stains; we had to figure out how to lay out the lines on new installs, and how to do repairs. I got some help from more experienced floor people along the way, but most of what I learned was self-taught. Since then, I’ve had the chance to work with many floor professionals, and learn from their experiences with the trade. I got my license 31 years ago, but the ability to pass the license has little to do with how well one does the work. There’s a lot of trial-and-error involved in creating a successful business.

I've worked for both business owners and homeowners, and the occasional celebrity. I have been able to meet well-known authors, classical composers, and local newspaper writers whose work I admired. We've been out to the Gold Country, where the house was miles away from any neighbor. We work in the hills, and down in converted factories and warehouses.

We had four of us working in the Los Altos hills, doing an install and refinish on an entire upper floor. The house had 2 acres of landscaping and trees, and it was interesting architecture. We were there for a little over a week, and it was a job where things went smoothly, in a pleasant setting. The homeowners were happy with their stain color, after a lot of sample work.