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marialisa's avatar

Has anyone ever had a bad experience with any 3/4" solid hardwood flooring?

Asked by marialisa (464points) June 12th, 2011

Has anyone had a bad experience with LumberLiquidators, Bellawood or Bruce flooring? Any problems at all?
I am looking into a quality yet low cost solid hardwood and am wondering who to go with.

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6 Answers

WestRiverrat's avatar

I went with Owl Laminate flooring. I am happy with it and it came with a 25 year guarantee.

It is simple enough to install that you could easily do it yourself.

Cruiser's avatar

I installed Bruce in my first house and nothing comes close to the feel and look of real hardwood floors. Best part is they are not perfect as you will get expansion and contraction of the wood and that adds to the character or real hardwood floors that laminates will never emulate.

The new house I just moved into has real hardwood throughout the entire first floor and it is lovely! :)

woodcutter's avatar

Real wood hardwood flooring is not as prevalent unless it is in a really high end home or a really ,really old one. At least that’s what I’m seeing in new construction in my area. Builders use the laminate stuff and it looks pretty good, but then again we don’t see many homes with basements and wood subfloors, mostly concrete slab foundations you can’t nail wood floors to.

Judi's avatar

Best prices I’ve found are at floor.com. We have bought and put in several floors from them. (Hubby is a contractor.) Get the samples then take a screwdriver to them to see what’s toughest. We are in the process of doing our whole house except the bathrooms on bamboo. It is looking georgous!!
@woodcutter, you can glue it to concrete slabs. The glue isn’t cheap but you can get the solid wood for a relatively affordable price and it is solid and doesn’t show scratches like the laminate does. It also doesn’t make that awful clickity clickety sound like the floated floors they’re putting down.

woodcutter's avatar

@Judi The wood flooring that I’m familiar with is a tongue and groove system. The nails are driven on an angle through the tongue edge into the subfloor and the other side (the groove) is trapped by the tongue on the next piece. The nails are at angles to force the board down and into the previous board. I’m skeptical glue is going to work nearly that well.

Judi's avatar

You would be surprised. The floor we are putting down is also young and groove, only instead of nailing it down we glue it with a product designed for gluing it to concrete . When it dries it is like rubber. It is not only a glue, it is also a moisture barrier.

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