Just like you, I like a good deal. I strive for good deals in running my hardwood flooring business as well as in my personal life. It is what helps keep our costs low for our Indiana hardwood flooring clients and helps our finances at home. We are all also aware of the maxim: “you get what you pay for“. This saying is especially true in regards to wood flooring and wood flooring products.
Why is “discount hardwood flooring” such a highly searched term? Everyone wants a “good” deal. But truly, what constitutes good? Most of the time, we’re hoping to pay as little as we can for the best product we can – and there’s nothing wrong with that. But how do you know if it is the best product? Consider this with me for a moment: Why isn’t the most highly searched term “Quality hardwood flooring”? Maybe it’s because we assume that we can get quality for less- and hope to find a bargain doing it.
Why not discount hardwood flooring?
I have 15 years now in the wood flooring industry-and as of yet- have never seen the terms “discount” and “quality” go hand-in-hand. Here are a few reasons why discount hardwood flooring isn’t a good deal both over the short and long term:
Increased manufacturing defects
All hardwood is not the same. Since we want to provide only the best for our clients, we only purchase the best hardwood flooring for them. We learned this lesson the hard way and I want to share this experience to save you the time and expense.
A contractor bought some discount engineered hardwood and asked us install it. The milling of the discount engineered hardwood was so bad, that we couldn’t even get the joints to line up from board to board. After two days of trying (gluing, pounding, prying, stomping on etc.), we gave up. It could not be done. He took back what hadn’t been opened but he not only lost money in supplies but also lost hours of our time trying to install “discount hardwood flooring”.
So my experienced suggestion for those DIY folks and those who are hiring professionals, do not chose “discount hardwood flooring“; you will be risking time and money for poor quality.
Inferior Finish
Discount hardwood flooring comes with discount (i.e. cheap) finish. Unfortunately it looks good on arrival but that will not last longer than a few years. Too soon it will start wearing extremely poorly: the traffic lanes will start to show, water spots will be unable to be removed, your chair legs will have eaten through the finish, and gray areas will have shown up. Not pretty and sadly, we see it ALL the time.
Discount hardwood flooring = more expensive long-term
The typical cost for using discount hardwood flooring over a 15 year period is up to 1.5 times the cost of installing a quality hardwood flooring. Homeowners typically say “we’re only going to be here a few years” and they don’t install quality hardwood. But the problem is that a large percentage of those same homeowners have to refinish those floors when they move out because the cheap hardwood has worn so poorly that the house will no longer show well.They could have avoided that if they had simply invested in the right product the first time, and unfortunately in the end they spent more money than if they had installed a quality hardwood floor the first time.
Discount Hardwood Refinishing
The same goes true for hardwood floor refinishing. You get what you pay for in the end. During estimates, we have potential clients say: “Company X will do it for less”. Hmmm…go for it I say. You’ll regret it. We have had to fix many projects that were first done by others for less.
Superior products, manufacturing, skill, processes and products always lead to a higher initial investment in anything you do. And normally, that investment leads to a lower total cost of ownership. That inverse is absolutely true regarding discount hardwood flooring.
Final thoughts on discount wood flooring
There is a plaque in the waiting room at our local mechanics shop that states this:
The bitterness of poor quality remains long
after the sweetness of low prices are forgotten
We desire to provide the highest quality service at the best possible price for our hardwood flooring clients. We are proud to tell you that we are not the cheapest hardwood flooring company inIndiana, and proud to supply our customers with quality hardwood flooring and hardwood flooring processes.