OT - Hardwood Flooring

:shock: My wife and I have decided to replace the linoleum flooring in kitchen/back hallway of our 10 yr. old home. We've decided on solid hardwood flooring, possibly hickory.

The biggest question is this: On the low end of the price spectrum, we first visited Lumber Liquidators, whose dedicated line of solid wood flooring appears to be Bellawood. They do sell other lines, along with engineered wood and laminates, but Bellawood (at least in their samples), appears to be their most attractive.

Today, we visited another flooring store in our area (near Milwaukee, WI) and checked out their offerings. They offered a selection from many more brands than LL, everything seemed of high quality, but their floor and installation prices were quite a bit higher. For instance, the flooring store we visited today had prices that were roughly about 2 bucks more per sq. ft. on the flooring and a buck more on the installation than lumber Liquidators.

After doing a search on google for Bellawood and Lumber Liquidators (they appear to be closely tied), it seems that I've found many more negative reviews than positive. Complaints seem to center around very poor customer service from LL and some consistency problems on the Bellawood products. Many mention a high waste factor.

Is this just another case of you get what you pay for? We're leaning towards the independent flooring store, but perhaps there is some type of happy medium out there where we can get a decent product with a good install that won't break the bank. Any comments or suggestions appreciated.

The house we had in Indiana we put
pergo in the dining room. Looked great
and wore a lot better than the hardwood
where we are living now.

Far from an expert here - but I've done a dozen or so floors. Only one pre-finished though. So - just giving my non-expert opinion.


Haven't used bellawood, but I've heard good things about the brand. However I believe that within any company's line they'll have higher and lower grade products.

When you pay a lot less for flooring, it's either real thin, or you're typically getting the "seconds" - you'll find inconsistency in color, lots of short lengths, and in the worst case, mismatched widths.

(that's not to suggest that lumber liquidators only sells seconds - I've been very happy with the stuff I've bought there.)

As for customer service, it's like any national chain - a LOT depends on the local management. Every store is different. I've got one near me and I'd actually rank them very high with service. The guys know flooring and I'd recommend them.

A kitchen's kind of a unique area for hardwood - in most other rooms, you tend to cover the floor with an area rug and/or furniture. So, worse case scenario you get some less than perfect areas, it's not the end of the world.

If it were me, for a high traffic, wide open visible space like a kitchen, and you're not talking huge footage to raise the price too high - I'd spend a little extra to be sure you're getting top quality stuff.

More than anything, you want something that's going to handle the foot traffic. Especially if you've got an exterior door in the kitchen.

We put in Bellawood Brazilian Cherry in our house about 4 years ago, no problems so far. I ordered special spiral cut nails to use in addition to the floor stapler. Only complaint with Bellawood I thought it had alot of the shorter pieces than I would have liked, also need to check the longer pieces for not having a twist or curve to them. Doing the floor myself was not difficult, I rented the floor nailer and had my own compressor. Hard part was being sure the first course was perfectly straight. After that just a lot of labor.

Maybe a location thing, I used Red Oak, maybe a southern thing, stained it walnut and would not ask for anything better. For sure, get the nail-er for hard wood, will save you lots work.

We put down the 3/4 inch Bruce hardwood flooring (tongue and groove) in the kitchen in 1991 and it is still looks very attractive. Even though it's called HARD wood, it can be easily damaged. The refrigerator wheels, when rolled , will leave indentations, so we learned to be careful in moving it around. Animal claws will also leave marks and scratches. Moreover, I've dropped the odd plate or glass dish over the years and not one has broken on that floor.We also had water damage in a corner that sat for a long time un-noticed and the wood eventually swelled and stained. But that was easily repaired by just cutting out the damaged area and replacing with extra pieces that were saved from the original install.
That is a huge advantage with the tongue and groove material. It is easy to repair. I also got some matching repair compound from Bruce and any gouges again can be filled and repaired.
It's attractive, easy on the feet (unlike ceramic), easily repaired and maintained, but will fade under UV near windows (like most other flooring). 22 years and counting and we're still pleased with it.

They use red oak up here in the north also, my whole house, except the kitchen and bathrooms is red oak, put in when the house was built in 1976. I don't think it's ever been refinished, but most of it was carpeted over. I tore all the carpet out except the going up the steps, wife's afraid steps will be to slippery.!!

The suggestions above to stay away from the low priced flooring should be heeded...especially in the kitchen. Of course that is just my opinion. Our kitchen is the only floor in our house that is sheet goods, every other room is hardwood... We've got several kinds of oak, walnut and even one room and a closet in pine. Never a regret !! Go with the best you can afford. Figure about 10% waste if you use top quality and a bit higher percentage with the cheaper brands due to twists, split tongues or grooves or unsightly knots.

'Might not be within your realm of things to do, but I literally went to the woods, cut my own shag bark hickory trees down, hauled the logs to a saw mill to be sawn, then hauled the sawn hickory lumber to the mill where it was dried, milled and planed. 'Most beautiful wood flooring I've ever seen.....AND it came right off MY farm and I did it! I installed myself also.

The Bellawood is their brand; they own it. The difference, besides the grade of woods, is the aluminum oxide coating. It's hard. Really hard. I've installed hardwood flooring with this coating. It is worth every penny to keep your work lasting longer than a poly finish.
Dave

Thanks for all the thoughts and ideas. Sounds like some mixed replies so far, we're leaning towards the pricier stuff right now, but that could change.

Most of the pricier stuff seems to come in 3/4" thickness. Was wondering if that ever caused a problem with anyone with the transition in heights from the next room(s) over. The carpet side of the hardwood wouldn't be bad, but I'm worried about the jump up to 3/4" from the tile and linoleum borders. I realize they make those transition pcs though, it must work for everyone else.

We may shop at least one more store, maybe we can find a middle ground on price and still get decent quality. Oak is actually one of the less expensive woods, a lot of people go for it. We have oak for all of our cabinets, etc. and were looking for a little contrast, hence our tentative choice on hickory. It's a little harder, lighter in color, and interesting in that it has a lot of knots and different colored boards. We would go for the natural color with no stain.

We've decided to go with a regular flooring store vs. Lumber Liquidator. Turns out one of my neighbors knows one of the owners of the flooring store. Nice guy and he gave me a good deal. Actually took quite a bit off the flooring and install price. We met the guy who is doing the installation also. He was in the process of finishing up another wood floor just a few miles from us and he came over to measure. He is one of those guys where you can tell he will do a quality install. He took about 30-40 minutes to go over every detail and answered every question I had. I even asked him about the different wood flooring companies. We are going with 3/4" natural hickory. After talking with him and the owner, we switched from a manufacturer that apparently is Chinese made to an American Company. The manufacturer is Shaw and it sounds like it is made in Tennessee.

Lumber Liquidators may have done a great job, but with the time these folks took with me, I'm feeling good about this decision.