Stairs & Trim in Houston, TX

We are a Richmond company, and our Houston work follows the roads out of Fort Bend County: the Southwest Freeway, Westpark, Bellaire Boulevard, Beltway 8 and I-10. That puts the west and southwest side squarely in our range and leaves places like Kingwood or Clear Lake to someone closer. Bellaire, West University Place, River Oaks and Spring Branch each have their own page. Here is how we think about the rest of our Houston, neighborhood by neighborhood.

Alief and Westchase. Alief was settled as a farm community in 1894, first called Dairy, and renamed in 1917 after its postmistress, Alief Magee. Floods in 1899 and the 1900 storm drove many early families out; later farmers grew rice in the floodplain. In 1970 Alief was mostly pasture. Between 1970 and 1985 its population roughly quadrupled, and Houston annexed most of it from 1977 through the 1980s. The Westchase District grew up in the 1970s on land sold by the Smith family. The result is a lot of housing from the 1970s and 1980s, and homes that age have usually been through more than one round of flooring. These jobs usually start with demolition: old tile, sheet vinyl or glued-down products, and the adhesive under them, come up so the slab can be checked and flattened. Luxury vinyl plank is the common finish, because it is waterproof, durable and forgiving over an older slab.

Sharpstown. Frank Sharp dedicated Sharpstown on March 13, 1955, and later expanded west of the Southwest Freeway with Sharpstown Country Club Estates, after donating a 300-foot strip for the freeway itself. Sharpstown Center, now PlazAmericas, was Houston's first air-conditioned enclosed mall. The housing is post-war bungalows, mid-century modern and traditional ranch houses, many on large lots. These are seventy-year-old slabs on Houston clay, which swells as it soaks up water and shrinks as it dries. Expect cracks, high spots and old patches. We grind, fill and level as needed, then use a crack isolation membrane under any tile.

Meyerland and Braeswood. George Meyer developed about 1,200 acres into Meyerland in 1955, and the streets around Godwin Park filled with ranch houses from the fifties and sixties. Brays Bayou is the defining fact of life here. It flooded Meyerland on Memorial Day 2015, and Harvey inundated the neighborhood again in 2017. After Harvey, many mid-century ranches in Meyerland and Braeswood Place became teardowns, replaced by two-story homes, while others were raised to stay out of harm's way, and new homes were being built several feet above the minimum flood elevation. Flooring here depends on which house you have. In an original slab-level house, the ground floor gets waterproof vinyl plank or porcelain tile. In a new or raised home, engineered hardwood and natural stone come back into the conversation.

Memorial Bend and the Energy Corridor. These neighborhoods sit downstream of Addicks and Barker, the reservoirs built in the 1940s to protect downtown. During Harvey the Corps of Engineers began controlled releases on August 28, 2017, knowing some downstream homes would flood, and releases later peaked above 13,000 cubic feet per second. Memorial Bend, about 350 homes with one of Houston's largest concentrations of 1950s modern houses, saw at least 19 residential demolition permits in the months after the storm. If your home is along Buffalo Bayou, plan the ground floor around water: waterproof plank or tile, with moisture-sensitive products upstairs.

Across every one of these neighborhoods, a few habits do not change. We test slab moisture before any wood-based floor goes in. We acclimate wood and laminate to Houston humidity. And we finish the edges with proper baseboard, quarter round and transitions.

We don't have a showroom on the Southwest Freeway. We bring the samples to your house, measure while we are there, and give you a free in-home estimate. If you are covering more than 1,000 square feet, ask about our current $500 offer.