Swirsding’s Floor Service

Dale is a professional and master craftsman when it comes to floors. Easy to communicate with, honest and caring. I would highly recommend using him. He has a special touch when it comes to floors

Dale sanded and refinished my kitchen and breakfast room and also filled gaps and removed squeaks in the hallway and recoAted the floor. Though the kitchen is red oak and hall white oak, the stain was closely matched. The house was built in 1937, the floors look like new! Dale’s equipment was kept well organized after a day’s work, and was never in the way. Each day the house was left clean and orderly. I highly recommend Dale for all floor services.

Dale did an amazing job on our cork floors. The floors were 60+ years old and very faded and worn, but Dale brought them back to their original beauty. He is easy to work with, knows so much about his craft, and is a perfectionist. I can’t recommend him highly enough.

I highly recommend Dale. Really did a top notch job that months later we are still totally happy with. Earlier this year we had our old floor furnaces replaced with a forced air system. This left a giant hole in the middle of one hallway. Had Dale come out to take a look. He went over all the options to repair the floor and refinish the hallway — from least detailed to most costly. The bid he submitted was detailed and thorough. Even a little humorous, he named each option by car brand. In the end we went with the Lamboroghini. Once the work was agreed upon, he and his assistant were there, as promised, and when promised. They worked quickly and neatly and when they were done, the floor was beautiful! Seriously, we (like some of the other reviews here) were totally stoked about how wonderful the finished floor looked. Just like brand new. Dale clearly is a person who is very detailed oriented and takes pride and ownership in his work and just a nice guy to boot. Really happy to have found him and definitely use him again in the future when we refinish the rest of the floors in the house.

I recommend working with Dale highly. He gave a thorough initial explanation of options for our oak floors, and was unfazed by areas needing touch-​up and repair, including matching the color of new wood next to old. His focus and experience were evident. Dale was totally reliable about dates he started and then completed the job — very appreciated. Our floors look and feel great and are holding up beautifully.

Dale just recently refinished our floors in our 1923 home. The main reason I decided to go with Dale is that he is very particular and thorough. His attention to detail and unwillingness to cut corners. He is not the cheapest but he is hands down worth his value.
Our floors were challenged and needed lots of attention and he produced. I will continue to seek his services in the future.

Dale recently refinished my floors. The floors were in terrible shape — dark, scratched and incredibly dirty. They looked so bad that I’d feared a complete replacement would be necessary. Dale’s estimate was fair, and he stayed true to his estimate in terms of cost and time, even in the face of a few unforeseen issues. He was incredibly respectful of my time and my home, and did an absolutely fabulous job on my floors. Every person who enters my home comments on how incredible the floors look. I could not be more pleased!

We have used Dale twice (living floors first, stairs second) for the floors of our 1907 house. We were tremendously pleased both times. He does a great job, is very honest and always attentive to cost; indeed we basically had to «up sell» HIM to do some more extensive and expensive work on a few occasions. The work seems top quality, he is easy to work with, and he worked around our toddler’s nap schedule.
We were also very impressed by his clean-​up: Despite working on the main stairs over a two week period, there was never any visible sawdust at the end of every day. He even vacuumed the entry outside our house!
I would not hesitate to use him again, but I think we have run out of floor to refinish.

This truly is as good as it gets. My wife and I purchased a home with hardwood floors that had a lot of issues — hardwood was missing in some places, non-​professional finishing was done, parts of inlays were ripped out, etc. We called Dale to come and evaluate, and his breadth of knowledge was immediately apparent. My wife initially met with him and he was very passionate about floors and didn’t «man-​splain» when speaking with her. Our project was good sized — 6 rooms and a hallway with a stair, and he made a very reasonable bid.
There were a number of pet stains in places that I thought would never come out, and they’re all gone; the closets had mostly never had hardwood, which he was able to install to match; and the entry… the entry was covered in linoleum and when I removed it, I found a disaster of a floor that was beyond repair (see photo). Dale presented a number of options at various prices to fix the issue, and we decided to have him build an entirely new inlaid floor to match the 80 year old floor next to it. I’ve attached the photo — you can be the judge — it looks amazing. The only reason you’d know the new entry wasn’t original is that it looks a little better than the rest of the floors.
Dale has a real attention to detail — planing down doors that hit the floor, adding bull noses on the steps where necessary, etc. I’m an architect, and a wood worker, and I can vouch for the incredible care given to our floors. Dale not only earned the 5 stars, he exceeded them. His crew was very nice, and cleaned up after themselves, and seemed to be working all the time, even through the holidays.

I can’t speak to his craftsmanship, but I can speak to his lack of professionalism.
I called and left message stating that I would like some information regarding a couple scratches/​gouges in my hardwood floors. I specifically requested a call back to discuss options and ballpark price ranges.
A couple hours later I received a text saying the following:
«If you can find someone who can make gouges disappear, please let me know.
Dale Swirsding»
I was quite shocked to be insulted by a response to a general business inquiry. Not sure where this guy learned his customer service skills, but they could surely use a touch up!

Dale is so reliable and professional. His work is outstanding — our floors always look fabulous after he is done with them. We have used him multiple times — he has now refinished all the hardwood floors in our home. He works hard and communicates outstandingly, which is always one of my biggest requirements of a contractor. He produces great value for the cost, which is very reasonable.

I’d give him 6 stars if I could. I was so impressed with his professionalism, flexibility and the work he did! I called him on a Thursday, he came by the same afternoon, and did the work Fri. He came back at 10pm to add that final coat before my move in. Incredible! I would recommend Dale to anyone looking to refinish their floors!

Dale is great! We have worked a lot of contractors over the years and we have remodeled and maintained our 1930s Colonial, which has classic oak floors throughout. We’ve had the floors refinished before and it was messy, intrusive and took longer than the contractor anticipated. This was not the case with Dale who kept the house clean and did a great job of planning the project to minimize the disruption of our household. He is also very knowledgable and has a great affinity for wood floors. He also did not over sell us on some additional work we asked about. In addition to refinishing he did some patching that looks terrific. He’s also a really nice guy and pleasant to work with.

I agree with all of the glowing reviews about Dale and his truly skillful craftsmanship, his unbeatable work ethic and integrity, and his patient and articulate communication style. I feel very fortunate to have contacted and hired Dale to work on my wood floors. I tend to develop high expectations, and to have a lot of questions, and Dale was always informative and friendly with me. He’s a great guy, a real professional, and takes pride in his work. He’s honest and trustworthy, and does careful and beautiful work, while somehow managing to stay on schedule even when the work is complicated, or an unforeseen complication arises.
Moreover, I love the sense of calm that I felt with respect to Dale’s work. Whereas most contractors eventually stress me out, as I feel forced to crash-​course educate myself as much as possible, and I’m compelled to be around the house in order to oversee their «team» and avert them from cutting corners or doing something haphazardly, Dale is the opposite. That is so refreshing and valuable to me. He was on the same team as me, from start to finish, ensuring that the work would come out beautifully. I didn’t have to ask him to be careful, because he is careful and thoughtful by nature. Outstanding.

Dale Swirsding did an excellent job refinishing floors in 2 rooms of my house. Over the last 30 years in this house I had experiences with 2 other floor refinishers in Berkeley, before Dale. One was bad, the other was good but not nearly this good. Dale is the best I’ve seen, excellent on all accounts. Visit his website, everything it says there is true. Top-​notch work, and Dale is a pleasure to work with.

We used Dale a year ago to refinish the floors in our LR and DR. He’s a craftsman, takes pride in his work, communicates thoroughly (at times too thoroughly) and wants to exceed your expectations. We had holes to fill, damaged floorboards to replace, and others that just needed sanding and finishing. The floors are beautiful a year later.
We got a lower quote from another contractor, and could have used a big firm, but we like the idea that the same person who gives you a quote is the person who will do the work. If you just want to spruce up an investment property to sell, go for Joe Lowball, but if you want a job done really well, call Dale.

I heartily recommend Dale Swirsding. He does great work at a fair price, he knows his stuff, and he is very professional and a pleasure to work with.
I called Dale based on his Unilocal and Berkeley Parents Network reviews, because the house we just bought has wood floors throughout that were in pretty good shape, but were somewhat worn and scratched. We figured we’d have them recoated while the house was still empty, so that they could last longer before we’d have to have them refinished.
Dale came out within a day to provide an estimate, and then was able to fit us in fairly quickly. He did the job for a very fair price, and did beautiful work, including putting a double coat of finish on the high traffic areas such as the kitchen, and on some of the scratches.
He’s easy to work with, showed up with his assistant at the time he’d said, left the place clean and tidy when he was done, and communicated clearly about what he’d found, why he was doing each step, and how and when we could start using the house. He even provided a list of wood floor care tips after he was done.
I learned from the various folks I’d talked to that if Murphy’s Oil Soap or wax had been used on the floor, there would be problems just doing a recoat, because the finish wouldn’t stick. Some indicated that that might require a full refinish. Dale used a washing process to remove any Murphy’s that might be on the floor, before doing the screen and recoat process, and it worked great.
I will be calling Dale again in just a bit, to do the floors when I put my old house on the market.

We had our floors refinished about 7 years ago by a local company and they did a great job. Last year we renovated the kitchen but did not refinish the floors. During construction there were gouges made by the contractors and one small area needed replacement or a fill-​in. The company we had do the floors wouldn’t do a job for less than $ 1,600. We considered having the entire room refinished but decided we needed to find a less costly solution. Then I found Dale Swersding. He did some cosmetic work on the damaged area with great results and charged a fraction of what it would have cost us with the original company. He was very accommodating, fit us in within a few days, got here right on time and did a great job. He will be our go-​to person for floor repairs and refinishing. He’s very good at what he does and is nice to deal with.

I called Swirsding’s Floor Service for help refinishing the oak floors in my grandmother’s Berkeley home. My grandmother is a spry 90 years old and, being a farm girl from Kansas, she has opinions about things. She LOVED the service she received from Dale and LOVED the results. What more could you ask for? Personal confirmation when he both contacted my grandmother and upon completion of his work. Dale really took service to the next level by coping with both my grandmother and me. I appreciated the time he spent on the job and the patience he had with a 90 year old woman’s opinions. I think the floors look amazing and was happy they were done on schedule. EXCELLENT WORK for an excellent value!
I wish we had used Swirsding’s Floor Service when we remodeled five years ago. I will definitely call him for future needs and highly recommend him to anyone.

One of the biggest head-​shaking moments you’ll ever have in home ownership is when you discover hidden underneath that 70’s lime green shag carpet a beautiful mahogany floor that some drug-​addled nitwit decided would be better off carpeted over. It’s a happy surprise, especially when it turns out that the hideous carpet has been protecting that awesome floor all these years.
I suppose at some level it’s understandable because carpet just requires vacuuming every once in a while but a hardwood floor really does require some thought and care. So if you’re lazy and don’t care what’s underfoot, maybe you’d prefer to keep that lime green shag. But if you have some hardwood flooring to maintain, Dale Swirsding is an excellent choice.
I’ve had Dale out for a number of projects. He’s the guy who gives you the estimate and comes out to do the work. He does meticulous work and is very honest. I had one job where other floor people wanted to completely sand down to bare wood and refinish, but Dale convinced me that all the floor needed was a light top sand and a recoat. The result was great and doing it his way saved me big bucks.
He has also replaced damaged boards in some of my floors. One of them was an 80 year old oak floor, originally put in with the house. You would never know that the replaced boards weren’t part of the original floor.
Craftsmen like Dale are rare. He could easily expand his business by hiring some help, but he’d prefer to focus on maintaining high quality by doing the work himself. I first discovered him on the Berkeley Parents Network, which is kind of like Unilocal,only without the restaurant reviews and drink-​fueled crotch grabbing.