Do not purchase a hardwood floor until
the supplier has answered these
10 Questions

What is the Moisture Content of the Hardwood Flooring? What does the retailer recommend for Acclimation? What Grade is the Flooring? What is the Waste Factor of the Flooring? How Durable is the Finish? What is the Return Policy? What is the Structural and Surface Warranty? What is the average length of flooring per carton? Does the retailer have installers Certified by the National Wood Flooring Association? If there is a problem who do I call?

When you ask the retailer how long the flooring should sit in the home before laying, they should ask you a number of questions. Is it a newly built home? Are your heating system, HRV, and air conditioning operational? Is it a cottage? Do you have a basement, crawl space or is it on piers? Is the cottage heated in the winter?  If they don’t ask you any questions they obviously don’t realize how important it is.

Acclimation varies greatly from house to house, season to season.  It involves matching the moisture content of the new flooring to the environment it will be installed in.
 
You want the floor to be in the conditions that it will be in for the duration of its life, so putting it in a high humidity new home climate would not be healthy for the flooring no matter how long it was left there.  Newly built homes have excessive moisture from the drywall, paint, concrete, plywood and lumber etc.  If you leave a floor in a home with high humidity for two weeks, it will pick up the moisture in the home and will dry out later causing gaps between the boards.

At Gaylord Hardwood Flooring, you receive a humidistat to monitor your humidity prior to and after installation.  We communicate with the customer on how to control the humidity in their home so they will have a floor that looks beautiful today and for years to come.

Trying to compare hardwoods according to their grade can be confusing and misleading.  Comparisons between products are only accurate if you can compare the price of products that are of the same or similar quality.

Many hardwood flooring manufacturers have 3 or 4 different grades in their product line with the top grade being called Select & Better. Industry standards allows up to 5% defective pieces in this grade.  When you are paying for the best floor you can get, this is unacceptable.  At Gaylord’s we start out using a higher grade of lumber which produces longer straighter clearer pieces. In our top grade (Prime) we only put pieces in the boxes that are free from defects. The best way to see the grade of the floor is ask to open up a box and see.    

Most retailers will tell you to allow 10% for waste.  This would indicate that they are putting unusable flooring in the boxes. As mentioned before, industry standards allows up to 5% defective pieces in the boxes.

At Gaylord Hardwood Flooring, we start out with a higher grade of lumber, which produces flooring with a waste factor between 2 and 3% in our Prime Grade Material.  Your installer will not have to spend extra time sorting through pieces to see what is usable.

Durability of the finish is also a huge factor when purchasing a pre-finished hardwood floor.  Unfortunately, finishes can look the same but have no durability. 
Many imported floors have almost no durability – just 3 coats of finish applied.  The best way to test the finish is to rub the piece with a 150 grit sanding block.  You will quickly see how durable the finish is.  Test the adhesion by firmly pressing a coin against the finish. A good finish will dent but not come off.
The cost to re-sand and finish a floor is between $2 and $3 a square foot.  Choosing the best finish available is a wise decision.
At Gaylord Hardwood Flooring we finish our flooring with TEN coats of titanium oxide strengthened polyurethane using the latest in Nano technology.

Very few retailers actually have the flooring in stock.  Most retailers have to order the flooring from a distributor.  Many do not allow returns and the ones that do will charge a restocking fee that can be 25-35%.

At Gaylord Hardwood Flooring, we will give a full refund on any unopened cartons of stock items.

At Gaylord Hardwood Flooring the Structural Warranty refers to manufacturing defects of the pre-finished floor board.  To the original purchaser this is a lifetime warranty under normal use conditions.

The Surface Warranty refers to the guarantee on the product finish which is 25 years for the original owner under normal use conditions.

With Gaylord Hardwood Flooring, because we manufacture the floors, one phone call gets you to people who care and will solve any warranty issues you have.

When you purchase a floor from a store… that purchased from a distributor… who purchased from a manufacturer --- you tend to get a big run-around and not much satisfaction in dealing with your problem.  Considering that much of the hardwood flooring sold today in North America comes from Asia and South America, it is interesting to imagine how complex it is to fix any problems that arise.  This is why many warranties from stores or distributors are overly complicated.

In the event of a problem or concern you call us and we will deal with the situation in a prompt matter.

The length of boards in a floor is very important.  You do not want to have a large beautiful room with a choppy looking hardwood floor full of 1 and 2 foot pieces.  Besides a pleasing look, long lengths translate into an easier and quicker installation.  Ask the retailer if you can open the carton of flooring to have a look at the quality and lengths.  If they have confidence in the product, they should have no problem with that. 

Be sure to ask how long the cartons are.  Some imported flooring is in 3’and 4’ cartons.  You definitely do not get long lengths in short cartons.