I asked some questions about hardwood floors earlier this year. But I am a few months away from self-installing hardwood floors in my 820 square foot house, and am looking into them again. Today I looked at one of the local stores and found one really nice floor I like in my price range ($6 and under), and plan to check a few more out this week. But I was thinking about buying online. Does anyone have any experience buying from ifloor.com? I was googling around and found a few positive references to them on a few different message boards. Has anyone here bought hardwood (I am open to solid, engineered or bamboo) online, and how did it go? If anyone knows of a good site to buy from, I’d love to hear from you.
Thanks.
(If this is in the wrong section, more as you see fit)
I’ve suggested a move to IMHO (you seem to want more opinion than hard fact).
Unless you can be absolutely certain that what they ship is the same stuff you have personally inspected, no go. A sample is better than nothing, but says nothing about variation.
I noticed some products are square edge - and IIRC, those were laminates. The interlocking edges make for a reasonably flat install, even if the substrate is imperfect.
Square edges follow every little dip or bump.
Wood floor used to be default, and everybody knew at least the basics.
A Pro install is a thing of beauty - a DIY using the cheapest available product rarely is.
Of course that may not be typical, but it would make me want to look further. The big advantage of dealing with a local retailer is that you can go there and see the product, and if it does not meet expectations, you can go back and complain to a real person.
Interesting. I’ve never seen ratings, but you can go the LL store and pick the flooring yourself. I don’t know how they get a low rating unless they aren’t actually stocking the material.
I wonder about the name of that company. They try to make it sound like they’re selling surplus and discontinued stock. But with 300 stores all over the country, they must be selling new stock. (It’s like all of those “odd lot” stores. There are too many of them to be selling just surplus merchandise.)
Thanks for the replies. About Lumber Liquidators, I have one near me and I looked into them. But I have read too many complaints to risk buying hardwood from them.
Coincidentally, last night I was looking at Lumber Liquidators on line for laminate flooring.
I agree that ordering real wood flooring online, without inspecting the actual product to be delivered, is risky. I won’t even order laminate online before seeing an actual sample in-store.
Following to see if there’s any more clarification about LL…
The biggest thing with hardwood is to go with a quality manufacturer that uses properly seasoned wood and mills it to high standards. I would stick with North American or possibly European product. Too many cheap Chinese products out there.
You won’t likely notice milling deficiencies until you have layed a few rows and by then it is too late. Tapered or flared ends, cupping, poor mating T&G are all installation headaches that will result in an inferior floor and much suffering trying to install it straight. Same goes for finish quality. A few defective pieces are not unusual but none is better. Cutting those pieces out of your finished floor to glue in replacements just plain sucks.
If you can get product from a trusted manufacturer online maybe you will do OK. There is really something to be said for product you can inspect in person and has been sitting acclimatizing in your region for a few weeks already.
I’ve been reading reviews. Looks like they have their own brand called Bellawood which isn’t very good, they’ve delivered defective product to people, they suck at installation, and their prices are no longer better than other sources. So it sounds like you might still get a deal if you can pick up the flooring and install it yourself, but their reputation is seriously damaged.