Unfinished oak seller

Hello I plan to install new floors and decided to go with unfinished white oak, 5″ or 6″ planks. I got 3 quotes and as many differing opinions on what is better. One seller said that buying from Somerset or Graf is better than, say, Weaber. Another said that it only pertains to pre-finished flooring and the mill makes no difference. Does anyone have a view on this? Also, PC Hardwood Flooring gave me a good price on 1-10′ planks. They assuaged my concerns about percentage of 1′ planks saying these are very few. Has anyone worked with PC Hardwood and is their unfinished oak a decent quality? Do they stand by their product and how is their customer service after delivery? Thank you all for your input. As always, it’s much appreciated. ps. Their samples of pre-finished Graf hardwoods are beautiful.

katdov

in Flooring 9 years and 5 months ago

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katdov | 9 years and 5 months ago

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@thetinkerswagon – thank you. That is precisely what I was asking and am grateful for your input. I never dreamt of questioning what professionals are saying, but when one seller tells you the mill is important and another one says it isn’t, you start to question, because they have an interest. I think I will go with PC Hardwood and Select planks since their price is best. Many many thanks!!!

thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 5 months ago

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just so you know, when we buy lumber in this business, we really have no idea where (what mill) it is coming from. we look at grading. Sometimes we look at region. For instance, a lot of birch plywood was coming in from China some years back. the plys had voids in them which made them undesirable. as soon as stuff started coming in from Canada again, we began taking it without even looking at it. another reason we may ask where wood is coming from is if it is a special order and it is coming from the west coast, they may not ship the order until they have a lot of it – in other words they wait to fill a rail car and that adds time. I really cannot think of reasons to question the mill unless it were far away. I ordered some Merbau flooring some time back – and that came from a mill in the mid west and it was 6 weeks to get it. some real flooring professionals who are in this everyday may actual question the mills. Let’s see if that is the case. Steve

thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 5 months ago

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your question alludes back to what I am saying about grading. I may be sticking my neck out in saying it, but flooring is “fungible” so long as it is within that grade. if the grading is select, it should not matter who you go to so long as the grading standard is set by the same grading association. It is kind of like buying 91 octane gasoline; do i care if it is Exxon or Sunoco or BP? Not really. I have never worried about where the flooring came from so long as it had the NMFA stamp on it and was to my grade – and was bought from those mentioned dealers so I know if it sat in their warehouse for a while, the climate was controlled. another thing about grading lumber. sometimes the lumber may be a lower grade but may just have more knots in it. if we know we will be cutting wood into smaller pieces and know we can work around knots, we buy the lower grade. Be aware that the lower grade can spell other things with oak flooring – it can mean mineral deposits which is the bluing we sometimes see in oak. You are wise to go with select, but if you were going to need a lot of small stuff someplace, I may choose No. 1\. You may wish to check out the (National Floor Manufacturers Association) NFMA website. Steve

katdov | 9 years and 5 months ago

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@thetinkerswagon, @johnnio – thanks for that info and props to PC Hardwood. I am getting select, 1-10′. Or are you saying I should get 6-10′ only? I figured the planks will need to be cut anyway at some point, so I can do with some smalls in there. My main concern was with the mill – whether it makes any difference for unfinished wood if it’s from Somerset, Weaber or Lewis or some other unknown mill? Thanks again.

germaineson73 | 9 years and 5 months ago

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Remember this. Flooring is sold according to quality. You can by a premium grade flooring that has a greater number of smalls, pieces that are less than 2 feet long or pay a premium price for bundles that have reduced amounts of smalls. Buyer beware, you get what you pay for. Call this guy, Jim Weatherby, 908 966-0462\. His specialty is hardwood. He is honest and a very good flooring contractor. Jersey City John

thetinkerswagon | 9 years and 5 months ago

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PC Hardwood is an upstanding retailer and we have used them a dozen or so times in the past 10 years. Another place we use is New York Flooring on 124 Street. and Hall flooring in New Hyde Park (I have not been there in 15 years but believe they are still around). all flooring should be rated by the NWFMA. If the manufacturer stamps it, then they should be following the grading set forth by NWFMA. the ratings are Clear, Select, No 1, No 2 with clear being the best. they also rate the flooring as to milled size. what all of this means is that floor rated as select from one company should be the same in quality and size as floor rated select at another company. I have never had a problem with any of the suppliers above that required any call back. Steve