Pre-finished Hardwood Flooring

[Dave Novak]

I'm about to have about 2600 ft of hardwood flooring installed. I've shopped around my smallish town a bit, and Bellawood from lumber liquidators price seems almost too good to be true. Google reviews seem to hate lumber liquidators, but it seems to be more because of their service than their product, although poor product reviews aren't too rare. Any 1st-hand experience? Any opinions on the best/hardest finished product out there? This is going to cost way too much to make a mistake on. Thanks in advance for you thoughts and opinions.

[Ken Platt]

It's been something like 13 years since I put in a couple rooms of floors in my house, but after my investigation I went with Mirage brand flooring.

https://www.miragefloors.com/ENG/

I looked around a fair bit; there are a large number of flooring companies in my area, so I was able to look at samples in person.

I did two rooms with MIrage, one in a birch, one in beech. The wood of the flooring was beautiful - and I mean woodworker's level beautiful - , and the boards well machined. The finish has held up reasonably well, but I do have multiple dogs, so that does take a toll over time.

I would use their product again in a heartbeat. It was a beautiful, quality product. Hope this helps a bit.

Ken

[Jamie Buxton]

A couple years ago, Lumber Liquidators got caught selling flooring that was illegal. It contained too much formaldehyde, which is a carcinogen. I don't remember the details, but it seemed that Lumber Liquidators deliberately broke the law, and sold knowingly sold toxic flooring, regardless of its effect on customers. The upshot for me was that Lumber Liquidators went on my black list of companies I don't trust, and wouldn't do business with.

[Dave Novak]

Helps a lot, thanks Guys.

[Ole Anderson]

Hardest flooring? Look to stranded bamboo, nearly twice as hard as oak. LL was the place to go for both my kitchen and my sons entire lower level.

[Dan Hulbert]

I've put down two floors from LL. Both turned out great. One caution, over buy. I seemed to have had a good number of rejects and short pieces. The last floor I put down was Majestic(?). Competetive with LL, sourced from a local dealer. Way fewer reject pieces. Floor holding well after 8 years of light use. It's in the master suite so does not get much traffic.

[James Waldron]

I laid all the floors in our 1700 sq ft condo in Florida with LL 3/4 in Koa with acrylic finish (Bellawood). After nine years, we can see a bit of sun bleaching in one area that's directly exposed and our son's Rottweiler has left a few scratches from playing fetch up and down a longish corridor. Otherwise, it's been great. Not much chanced of formaldehyde in solid wood or acrylic coatings. One or two boards with split tongue or grooves; no problem shorts.

I have no experience with their "engineered" flooring products. If there is or has been a formaldehyde problem, that's where it would be.

[Ralph Okonieski]

I purchased Brazlian walnut (i think it was) from LL and installed myself. I'm really disappointed in the flooring. It scratches extremely easy. We have no pets so the scratches are not from that.

[Dave Novak]

I'm sure this sounds like heresy on a forum like this, but I'm considering wood look tile now. Just shopping around I found sample floors, and it looked pretty darn good.