A couple visited our showroom last fall, very excited about getting new hardwood floors installed in their family room to replace the carpeting they’d been living with.
They were a young couple, with young children, and they had both sets of parents coming to visit for Christmas. They knew how beautiful, warm, and cozy the hardwood flooring would look compared to their carpeting. They envisioned a good old-fashioned Christmas—the whole family gathered on their floor, around the Christmas tree.
They also knew our reputation as the highest-quality hardwood flooring company in the area, and that we’d do a beautiful job. They specifically wanted a Ralph’s floor.
That’s why it was so hard for us to have to explain that there was no way we could have them installed by Christmas because we were already booked for the rest of the year. It distressed me to tell them that the picture in their head wasn’t going to happen this Christmas, at least not with our help.
I completely identified with their vision and desperately wanted to be a part of making it a reality, but we had already made commitments to other customers, who also had their visions and dreams for hardwood flooring in their home.
I still remember the crestfallen looks on that couple’s faces. They were understanding but clearly disappointed. I was disappointed, too. Every time someone contacts us about doing a project for them, we see it as an opportunity to put a big smile on their face, and there’s nothing we love doing more. Because of the timing, we were going to miss out on that opportunity.
I’m happy to say that this couple waited until we could do the job for them. They wanted the floor in time for Christmas, but it was more important to them that Ralph’s do the job. We recently completed the work, and they were definitely smiling big at the results, so ultimately it all worked out.
But I still wish we could have met the timeframe they wanted. And, unfortunately, this wasn’t an isolated incident. Every year, we get numerous homeowners asking us, too late, to do work before winter. As always, we do everything possible to accommodate them, but sometimes we can’t.
Speaking for myself, when it’s summer in Wisconsin, the last thing I want to do is think about winter in Wisconsin. But when it comes to scheduling a job like a hardwood floor installation or refinishing, it’s best to plan ahead and give us a call now.
The holidays might not even be the source of your time pressure. You could simply be thinking about how much you don’t want to spend another winter looking at the same tired floors you stared at last winter during those days when the weather left you stuck inside.
You might be headed to the pool after you read this, but now’s the time to start thinking about the next long, cold winter if new hardwood floors are going to be a part of it.
Photo courtesy of Cassandra Frater
