Don’t throw your money down the drain!
Hardwood Flooring Pitfalls:
Laminate Flooring
Laminate flooring is not real wood! Most times it is compressed cardboard, glued together, and then topped with a plastic picture of wood grain. It is advertised as wood flooring and many times is incredibly cheap...but remember, you are getting what you pay for. Laminate is not real wood.
Engineered Flooring
Engineered flooring is manufactured by gluing together several layers of plywood with the top layer being a layer of hard wood. There are some good sides to engineered floors. One of the most popular applications for engineered flooring is over concrete slabs. This is a good use of engineered flooring. In fact, after many years of neglecting the engineered market, we have finally found a product we can stand behind. We recommend that you use our line of engineered flooring for several reasons:
1.5/8” thick. Beware of 3/8” to 1/2” engineered products. They typically have very few strands of plywood and will not perform as well over time. Our 5/8” engineered flooring has 9 separate plywood layers all glued together to create a durable product.
2. Full 1/4” wear layer. Beware of 3/8” to 1/2” engineered products. They typically have a very thin wear layer, many times only 1/8” thick. The wear layer is the top layer of hardwood that receives the brunt of the wear over time. If this layer is thin, then the probability of the layer wearing and eventually showing the plywood underneath is pretty high. Once this happens, there is no cure other than ripping out the floor and starting over.
Tennessee Wood Flooring’s engineered hardwood flooring has a wear layer as thick as our 3/4” solid flooring and we will guarantee is for the same 10 years as our solid flooring.
3. We can apply all of our specialty finishes to our engineered flooring. So, you can finally have the creative flooring you want with an engineered product.
Warranties
At Tennessee Wood Flooring, we extend a 10 year warranty because we are certain our floors will last 15 years. If you run into a 50 warranty, your first research point should be to figure out of the company has even been in business for 50 years! Even 25 years is most probably not possible.
We have been manufacturing flooring for 20 years and stand behind our products 100%!!
Cheap Flooring
Cheap wood flooring. The old saying that you get what you pay for is true, especially when it comes to hardwood flooring. The reason being is that the national hardwood lumber association set the market price for lumber as a commodity. So, it makes sense to purchase directly from the manufacturer since the manufacturer pays essentially the same price for lumber. Most manufacturers produce similar products therefore, the final product differences are only pennies per square foot. So, when comparing apples to apples you should expect to pay similar price for similar product.
If you are thinking about purchasing from a manufacturer and you are able to find an internet service selling the exact same flooring cheaper, you should probable think twice before making your purchase. Lumber is a commodity. If it were generally cheaper to purchase from internet sites, than manufacturers would buy thousands of footage from internet sites in China. So, remember when purchasing hardwood flooring, you get exactly what you pay for.
One distinct difference is something we call the “Lot Pot”. Flooring is run in lots. In order to assure exact quality of stain and finish, manufacturers that guarantee an order comes from the same lot can assure their customers the highest quality in uniform color and finish. Many cheap deals on flooring are built by assembling many different lots of flooring and then selling them as single units. There is no way to guarantee uniform color and finish. BEWARE! Salvage lots and wholesale internet companies use “Lot Pot” technique to stock pile left over wood and resell it as though it was made to fit together. It will never compete with single lot flooring.
Tennessee Wood Flooring sells single run lots to assure you, the customer, a perfect matching floor!
Deposits
There are numerous reports of very low internet pricing with deposits required, along with a 4-6 week lead-time. These companies never had flooring nor intended to have hardwood flooring. They simply set up a site and take deposits from checks and credit cards. Credit card companies will easily issue new businesses credit card processing equipment and these scammers steal your deposit and give you the run around for a few weeks and then disappear with your money. These scammers surface again to repeat this vicious cycle over and over again.
At Tennessee Wood Flooring, require no deposit! It is a simple business principle that we follow: We are in business to make money for a great product. We take the risk. We don’t want your money until we earn it. Let us make the floor, then, before we ship we will ask you to pay.
Shipping
Shipping and freight has become a problem with scammers as well. If a manufacturer sends a sample, it typically means they have the item in stock and available to you, the customer. Be sure you purchase from a reputable company with an actual physical address and phone number. Buy direct from the manufacturer and we can give you an exact shipping price! In fact, we shop for the best rate we can find for our customers!
