What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

[Mark42]

Going to install engineered hardwood flooring in my family room. Been looking at all the floor sites I can find using yahoo and google. The site I like the best is Hosking Hardwood. Before I order, can anyone recommend a flooring website that they have bought from?

Right now I am leaning toward an engineered hardwood floor by Kahrs. I like the Kahrs product because of the thick hardwood top layer, and because it can be glued down directly to concrete or floated over concrete. My concrete floor is 15 years old, has vapor barrier underneath, is above grade and drier than a bone in Arizona.

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.!!!

Thanks

Mark

 

[rogerwa]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

I ordered 800Sf of laminate from FastFloors a couple years back.. Everything went great. I did a lot of shopping around for this purchase and this was the best deal I could find.

I almost ordered from iFloors but cnaceled that because of the backorder they didn't tell me about.

 

[Mark42]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

I ended up placing my order with Fast Floors. The reason I switched from Hosking is that althought the prices were competative, Fast Floors had all the accessories (underlayment, glue, tools, matching bull nose, edge molding, etc) and their shipping is much less than Hosking, and they have a claim center.

BTW, the 13 cases of hardwood weigh over 600lbs. About 50lbs a case. Should be fun unloading the delivery truck and carrying it up to the house. Hope it's not snowing....

 

[rogerwa]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

I thought I was the only one crazy enough to order my floor off the internet..

But it worked out very well and I think I saved a bunch of money doing it..

 

[Boomyal]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

I'm curious. I keep seeing people with cartloads of flooring at Costco. Never really paid attention to the specifics. Costco usually carries good products at a good price. Anyone ever looked at flooring there?

 

[rogerwa]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

When I was doing the research for my flooring I remember this being discussed. At the time I beleive they were selling a laminate floor for like $.99/sq ft. It was not a really good flooring but I suppose for the right purpose it fit the bill.

It seems as if the products overall have gotten better and cheaper over the past few years since I have bought mine. Who knows, maybe they have upgraded.

You can now buy finished hardwood plank for $2.99 sq ft which is what I paid for a mid-level laminate 3-4 years ago.

 

[itwontletmein]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

i put the 99cent a ft stuff down so i had a floor during the rest of constuction on my house. the stuff is tuff. nothing stuck to it and no scratches so now i'm leaveing it on.and it looks good.

 

[Pony]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

We just put this stuff in the kitchen. Single board laminate made by Armstrong. It went in really easily without gluing. (except in the bathroom where you have to do it. ) Have ha it in for about 2 months, and it looks great. The whisper floor underneath makes it incredibly quiet.

 

[Boomyal]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

Looks real good Pony. What is your subfloor made of?

 

[Pony]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

The subfloor is just the standard subfloor.......we replaced the old one due to water damage.

On top of that we placed 1/4 luan on the floor in the dining room to even out the subfloors....

Then we layed the foam pad down......I'm not sure of the brand name, but its called whisper floor. Its some really good stuff.

 

[Mark42]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

My flooring came. Things worked out in spite of ourselves.

Delivery truck driver said he would be at my house at 5pm. My wife took daughter to panio lessons at 4:45, and should be right back with the SUV so we can load the truck into the suv and drive it up the ice/snow covered drivway.

Its 10* outside. Truck comes. I am looking for my coat, and of course, can't find it. I also notice my wife is not home. So I call her on her cell. She dropped off our daughter and WENT SHOPPING! So I tell her to get that SUV back home ASAP. And BTW, have you seen my winter coat? Yep, she IS WEARING IT!

Anyway, she gets home quick, I put on my coat, and we unload the delivery truck.

Flooring is undamaged (well, three pieces in one box have a corner mashed, no big deal, and I ordered about 20% overage just to be safe) and it gets stacked in the house.

All is well. Will install in a week or two.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

I bought the bamboo flooring at Costco. It looks awesome. The floor is around $1.85/sg ft and the glue to apply it to concrete ends up being around $1/sq foot. Plus, I returned all but one extra box back to Costco for a refund.

I have had quite a few friends that have not liked the engineered floors. One common complaint is what happens when the sharp edge of a metal chair or table does to it.

 

[Mark42]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

Bruce, don't confuse engineered flooring with laminate flooring.

Laminate flooring generally is a plastic coated photo laminated on pressboard or MDF. AKA Pergo flooring. A sharp scratch will remove the laminated photo.

Engineered flooring is hardwood flooring usually 3/8 inch thick glued to plywood. It can be sanded/refinised two to three times, just like traditional hardwood flooring. A deep scratch will still be in the hardwood and is easy to touch up.

The reason the engineered flooring has (usually) 3/8" thick hardwood top is because that is the thickness of conventional hard wood flooring from top to the tonge/groove. Once you sand off 3/8 of traditional hardwood, it needs to be replaced.

 

[Pony]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

Just for arguments sake.......

A GOOD quality laminate is very durable. We have put one ding in it and it is barely noticeable. That says a lot since it was from a hammer falling about 10 ft. We fixed it in about 2 minutes and now I can barely tell you where it is.

We went for the single board laminate specificaly so that if we dinged a piece up, we can just replace it with a new one.

I have seen some hardwood floors that really look beat up after only a year, so I very much hesitate to downplay the durability of the newer laminates.

BTW they make some really nice colored gels for fixing scratches in laminate floor. Its actually easier to repair than a wood floor. I have done both.

 

[Mark42]

Re: What is the best place to order laminate/hardwood flooring on the Net?

I'm not saying laminate is bad, its just that laminate and engineered are two different animals, and people sometimes treat them as the same product.