Shaw Engineered Flooring

[Lou Ferrarini]

Does anyone here have any experience with Shaw Engineered "Simplelock" Flooring? We are contemplating using this, It is a 9/16" floating installation which locks together. If you have used this or know someone that has, I would appreciate any comments, good or bad.

Thanks

[Joe Chritz]

I have used several brands of floating floor.

Some very good, some not so good.

I haven't used that model of Shaw but the stuff by Shaw I have put down was pretty good stuff.

You do get what you pay for in laminate floors it seems.

Joe

[Lou Ferrarini]

Thanks Joe,

BTW, This is not laminate, it is Engineered Hardwood Flooring with Brazillian Cherry as the surface layer.

[Jeff Kerr]

I have this floor in my house today. Quality is decent. I was not happy with the installer from the BORG but that has nothing to do with the material.

It has been on my kitchen and laundry floor for about 2.5 years. Held up fine. If I did it all over again I would opt for a full thickness t&g floor like a Bruce or similar. Several of my friends have them and I like the looks better.

All that said, Shaw is a quality company. Their parent company is Berkshire Hathaway. Warren Buffet only buys the best of companies.

[Jason Roehl]

I've seen a number of engineered hardwood floors. I'm just plain not impressed. The bottom line is that you have a veneer of the good wood over the top of plywood, some of it is softwood, too, which makes the veneer that much easier to ding/dent/scratch. Often, the finish is not very good, either. Cheap up front, not cheap in the long run. I'm becoming more and more convinced that even at $8-10/s.f. installed and finished, unfinished hardwood flooring is the way to go. There are finishes now that can last 20-25 years, and a 3/4" floor can be refinished 4-5 times. That's a 100 year service life if maintained. Engineered and laminate might make it 10.

I even saw an engineered floor that wasn't even done being installed when the homeowner's Weimeraner (dog) ran through and locked up all fours--gouging the floor in progress for several feet. Later on, the installers pushed the fridge in place--gouging the floor again (that part they replaced on their dime).

I almost forgot to add--any prefinished wood product will at least have micro-bevel edges, which trap dirt. An on-site sanding and finishing results in a sealed floor that does not have grooves to trap dirt'n'stuff.