I'm satisfied with the way the floor turned out. The whole border design thing turned out pointless, but it didn't have to. I explain below; sorry it's a bit of a long story, but I'm keeping it as brief as I can.
Overall, I've been both happy with and disappointed by Garage Experts. The couple who own/run it (Alex and Mindy) are extremely friendly and easy to talk to, but they are very inconsistent, forget things they've agreed to, and don't seem to communicate important things with each other.
After the first botched job on Monday, Alex came over. He suggested using our black+white+blue chips all over but a black base border and charcoal base center. We made it clear we wanted NO gray chips. We're trying to finish our move by Sunday, so we're in a hurry. He said without border they could rush to get it done Tuesday, but with the border would be Wednesday. We opted for with-border and Wednesday.
Tuesday morning they sent a photo of the chip mix they were planning to use, which contained lots of gray, despite that we made it very clear we wanted zero gray chips included. They said they'd take them out altogether, and I assumed they'd be working on the garage that day. To our chagrin, we got to the house that evening only to discover they hadn't been there at all.
Wednesday morning they started by putting in the black border area. I got a call from Mindy that they were concerned the charcoal center would blend too much with the black border and you wouldn't be able to see a difference. I asked to go lighter than charcoal for the center so the border would stand out more. She said they would.
Cut to Wednesday afternoon. When I got there they were about to start painting the center area and it looked like they were still using the "charcoal" base coat (at least according to the label on the paint bucket).
I asked if it'd be all done the same day, Wednesday, and Alex casually informed it'd be done Thursday, as if we had never discussed it being done by Wednesday.
Then I asked about our overhead storage rack which was scheduled to be installed the next day, Thursday. Alex seemed like he'd totally forgotten about it and informed they would install it Friday, which meant pushing it back a day without any notice or prior discussion.
Thursday morning I got a call that the final clear coat was going on and someone needed to come over to give them a check, despite that I'd told them previously I work until later afternoon. I asked what the total price would be (hoping they'd give me any discount for all the trouble), but was simply told "It's the same." I had to remind that we were paying $50 extra for the fancy chips that failed, so at the very least the price should be $50 lower. I was told they'd get back to me and haven't heard back since. That was this morning.
As far as the actual flooring work goes, what we have looks incredibly nice. The quality of the work is really impressive. Aesthetically, it looks really bold and different from all our neighbors, which we like, but we are quite disappointed the center charcoal area was made so dark, yielding an almost invisible black border. That may be our fault because we pushed so hard to avoid grays, but it may also be their fault if they used the original charcoal instead of adjusting down to something lighter. (I'm not overly concerned with fault at this point because it's done and set in stone, so to speak.)
TLDR version:
It's frustrating that they forget many things you discuss with them or don't relay messages between one another. They say they'll do something then don't do it or say they won't do something then do do it. BUT -- they are very nice to talk to and their floors turn out really beautifully. You just have to stay on top of them to ensure they remember the plan.
If you look closely, you can see the black border on the right.
