Is Lowe's a good place to buy/install wood floors? (house, buying)

[Moorhen3]

I know you cyber friends are quite knowledgeable and was wondering if you'd agree that Lowe's has good prices on engineered wood floors or would you recommend someone else. Thanks ya'll for any info!

[caroldixit]

Ummm...it depends...when you think about Wood floor cost, do not forget to factor in cost of Mouldings - Quarter Rounds, Trims, etc which are expensive. Here is what I did:
1. Identified a good BRANDED wood floor of required mm thickness at HD
2. Got hold of a contractor and asked him to provide measurements & estimates for material
3. Went to different stores (Lowes, HD, LumberLiquidators, etc) and worked out the total material cost - wood floor + moulding with each. Remember I was buying a branded floor and hence was comparing apples-to-apples.
4. Key considerations were (a) sufficient in-stock availability and (b) ability to return unopened/unused material
5. I finally went with a store (believe it was Floor & Decor) off 635 and Royal which provided lowest rates. My contractor recommended this store as well.

Hope this helped.

Carol

[TurtleCreek80]

Try calling Ben Ashmore. He has been doing the floors for my entire extended family for 25+ years and is the cheapest reputable person out there. My mom once asked why he hadn't raised his prices in years and his general answer was "I make enough money at these prices."

[preppyglam]

I was going to tell you to compare, like Caroldixit did. Then, I was going to tell you to at least get estimates from locals. The big box stores do such a great job of marketing that they are the low-cost leaders and that they can install with no sweat. In my experience as a designer, go with someone who does floors for a living- they know the most and have seen everything (if they have been around a bit, anyway). A lot of times, the mom-and-pop operation will come in with lower bids than big boxes. And I would rather give the work to a local outfit. But make sure they are licensed, bonded, insured and check up on their references.

I should also state that I am not from TX nor do I live there (yet! ha!), so maybe the install teams and prices ARE significantly better at big boxes there...not sure on that. But here in CA, they are almost always higher than a local crew and they don't really carry a wide variety of product, either. Your choices are very limited...and there is some amazing product out there!

Good luck with your wood floors. They are an investment, but so worth it in both resale value and beauty.

[Squirl]

I know someone who does a good job if you want to DM me, I'll provide the name.

[getmeoutofhere]

I just had floors installed. Was not impressed by Lowes from the start, so we ended up going with Peeks. They were really good.

[Moorhen3]

Thank you all soooo much!!! It helps a lot to get everyone's experience on this cause obviously we want to make sure we don't pay too much.
We plan on installing it in our dining room and about half of the living room; although who knows, I may just convince dh to do all of the living room. We're hoping that with our tax refund we'll have enough.

[loves2read]

you might also check out web site called gardenweb.com
the home forum
there is forum for flooring and the building a house forum or the remodeling forum all would have info about what floor brands you might want to consider
you can post a query if you want some specific info about types of flooring/brands--
contractors, flooring people, homeowners all post there-