Cheap Wood Flooring Tips

If you are looking at the possibility of laying hard wood flooring, then chances are you have figured out that by the time you have bought the wood and hired an installer, you are likely going to be spending $10+ per square foot.  While many can get sticker shock quickly, most will turn to other options looking for the best hardwood floors at the cheapest prices.  After all, we are only talking about wood here, right?  What is the big deal?

One of the first places that people will go to is the internet.  Given the fact that the internet will typically give the best deals on nearly anything you can imagine, you have to think that it would be a good place to find hardwood flooring.  There will be plenty of names that you are probably familiar with such as Anderson Wood or Bruce but you will also find that many flooring specialists online are nothing more than dropshippers.  And their product comes from places overseas like China on pallets.  The obvious problem with purchasing from online flooring companies is that you will be purchasing the product sight unseen (unless you consider a picture on a website to be representative of the floor you will get).

If you are going to go with purchasing wood floors online, you will need to do a little digging on the company that you are dealing with.  Are they reputable?  Are there any complaints about the product.  Additionally, a lot of times you can find review sites from people who have purchased the flooring and don’t mind giving their opinion on the product.

Are Big Box Retailers like Lumber Liquidators or Home Depot a place to find cheap, wood floors?

If you are completely new to buying flooring then the chances are your first place that you went to was a big box retailer like lowe’s or home depot or a flooring specialist store like Lumber Liquidators.  In all three of these places, you should be able to find deals.  Lumber Liquidators have discontinued hard wood for rock bottom prices but typically this is very limited in quantity.  Additionally, Lumber Liquidators also has their own line of flooring in which they can undercut some of the better and more expensive hardwood brands. Probably the best thing about purchasing hardwood floors from big name companies is that they usually do a fairly good job when problems occur.  If this is your first endeavor with wood flooring, then you will most likely have some issues and you will want to purchase from a business that will go out of their way explaining things to you.

Can you get by with a lower grade wood when choosing floors?

Like I said earlier, there are many who think that aside from characteristics associated with species of wood, all hard wood is the same.  Not true.  Wood comes in a variety of grades. (This is only if you are choosing solid wood, not engineered)

• #1 Common

• #2 Common

• Select

• Clear

What you choose will really depend on the look you are going for although the lower the grade, the cheaper the price.  This isn’t always the case though.  Check here for some creative tips to purchasing hardwood floors.

For instance, a clear grade oak wood will generally only come from heartwood with very few flaws found in the wood.  The general look of this would be that the hardwood would be more uniform in appearance.

Alternatively, #2 common wood will contain some natural variations from the actual tree and that comes from manufacturing the timber.  Typically, this grade of wood is used in homes where variation is actually wanted or desired.

How do I find the best and cheapest hardwood flooring for my home?

Unfortunately, there isn’t one place that you can find it.  The best advice I can give you is to take your time and look around.  Educate yourself as thoroughly as possible and understand that the “look” of the finish has very little to do with the quality of the wood.  If you can, take samples home and compare them to your decor to find the right style of hardwood that fits your life.  After all, we aren’t talking about buying a steak dinner;  we are talking about flooring that will likely stand for the life of your home.