Last night, a fellow ww'er and myself were chatting about the costs of
hardwood flooring. What it came down to essentially was that the
retail costs of hardwood flooring seemed to be very high. $6 a square
foot for 3/4 white oak for example works out to $8 a bf while retail
that lumber will cost less than half that. Based on our very rough
calculations and the retail prices we see around, manufacturers seem
to be making a lot of money out of flooring, even assuming that retail
markups are in the 60 - 75% range. Are we wrong about this?

This, of course, got us wondering if anybody on here has made their
own flooring from rough and how it worked out.

J.

"Jimbo" wrote:

Last night, a fellow ww'er and myself were chatting about the costs
of
hardwood flooring.
snip

For a manufactured product, if raw material cost gets much above 20%,
as a business, you are in trouble.

Lew

"Jimbo" wrote in message
...
Last night, a fellow ww'er and myself were chatting about the costs of
hardwood flooring. What it came down to essentially was that the
retail costs of hardwood flooring seemed to be very high. $6 a square
foot for 3/4 white oak for example works out to $8 a bf while retail
that lumber will cost less than half that. Based on our very rough
calculations and the retail prices we see around, manufacturers seem
to be making a lot of money out of flooring, even assuming that retail
markups are in the 60 - 75% range. Are we wrong about this?

This, of course, got us wondering if anybody on here has made their
own flooring from rough and how it worked out.

J.

Was at the local borg picking up the last of their 3 1/4" wide (red & white)
oak flooring. Even pre-finished, it was only $2.97 per sq ft. Only $6 per
sq ft price range I saw was for the more exotic stuff. Where were you
pricing this?

jc

Joe wrote:

Was at the local borg picking up the last of their 3 1/4" wide (red & white)
oak flooring. Even pre-finished, it was only $2.97 per sq ft. Only $6 per
sq ft price range I saw was for the more exotic stuff. Where were you
pricing this?

Careful with borg flooring. The local one had a sale on some
prefinished birch.

It had zero warranty on the finish, and I could make permanent
impressions in the wood just by running my fingernail across it.

No thanks...

Chris

On Jan 8, 5:01 pm, Chris Friesen wrote:
Joe wrote:
Was at the local borg picking up the last of their 3 1/4" wide (red & white)
oak flooring. Even pre-finished, it was only $2.97 per sq ft. Only $6 per
sq ft price range I saw was for the more exotic stuff. Where were you
pricing this?

Careful with borg flooring. The local one had a sale on some
prefinished birch.

It had zero warranty on the finish, and I could make permanent
impressions in the wood just by running my fingernail across it.

No thanks...

Chris

On the Janko scale, Birich is 1260 compared to Red Oak at 1290, White
Oak 1360 and Bamboo at 1800. Sounds like pretty poor stuff.

"Chris Friesen" wrote in message
...
Joe wrote:

Was at the local borg picking up the last of their 3 1/4" wide (red &
white) oak flooring. Even pre-finished, it was only $2.97 per sq ft.
Only $6 per sq ft price range I saw was for the more exotic stuff. Where
were you pricing this?

Careful with borg flooring. The local one had a sale on some prefinished
birch.

It had zero warranty on the finish, and I could make permanent impressions
in the wood just by running my fingernail across it.

No thanks...

Chris

I would be careful of *any* flooring with no warranty, borg or not.

were you making impressions in the wood or in the finish? That'd be a
mighty impressive (if that's the word) fingernail to dent birch.

jc

Joe wrote:

were you making impressions in the wood or in the finish? That'd be a
mighty impressive (if that's the word) fingernail to dent birch.

In the wood. My suspicion is that it isn't "real" birch, but some
chinese wood that looks similar but is much softer.

Chris

"Jimbo" wrote in message
...
Last night, a fellow ww'er and myself were chatting about the costs of
hardwood flooring. What it came down to essentially was that the
retail costs of hardwood flooring seemed to be very high. $6 a square
foot for 3/4 white oak for example works out to $8 a bf while retail
that lumber will cost less than half that. Based on our very rough
calculations and the retail prices we see around, manufacturers seem
to be making a lot of money out of flooring, even assuming that retail
markups are in the 60 - 75% range. Are we wrong about this?

This, of course, got us wondering if anybody on here has made their
own flooring from rough and how it worked out.

J.

If that is installed with a finish, that sounds cheap.

"Jimbo" wrote in message
...

On the Janko scale, Birich is 1260 compared to Red Oak at 1290, White
Oak 1360 and Bamboo at 1800. Sounds like pretty poor stuff.

I just picked up a couple of B&D Workmates at an attractive price, I was
surprised to see that the wooden portions are now made of bamboo. The fit
on these was kind of poor, I had to drill a couple of holes to get some
parts to assemble properly. Low price = low quality I suppose.

Chris Friesen wrote:

Careful with borg flooring. The local one had a sale on some
prefinished birch.

It had zero warranty on the finish, and I could make permanent
impressions in the wood just by running my fingernail across it.

I'm no cheerleader for BORGs, but over the summer, I bought genuine
Bruce, prefinished solid 3/4" oak flooring, with a 25 year residential
warranty, from Home Depot for $2.39 sq/ft.

My floor has exactly the same warranty as the same product selling at
twice the price elsewhere.

I'd be careful, but there are decent deals to be had.

Jimbo wrote:

On the Janko scale, Birich is 1260 compared to Red Oak at 1290, White
Oak 1360 and Bamboo at 1800. Sounds like pretty poor stuff.

That's interesting, as the bamboo flooring I've seen hasn't worn
anywhere near as well as everyday red oak.

On Jan 9, 6:15 am, B A R R Y wrote:
Jimbo wrote:

On the Janko scale, Birich is 1260 compared to Red Oak at 1290, White
Oak 1360 and Bamboo at 1800. Sounds like pretty poor stuff.

That's interesting, as the bamboo flooring I've seen hasn't worn
anywhere near as well as everyday red oak.

That value for the bamboo is for the non-'carbonized' bamboo. The
chocolate brown stuff has been steamed to change the color and that
process significantly reduces the hardness of the material. Which is
why I went for the natural color in a Phillipines-harvested bamboo
which is noticeably darker than other bamboos. Course, they all
darken with exposure to light.

D'ohBoy

D'ohBoy wrote:
On Jan 9, 6:15 am, B A R R Y wrote:
Jimbo wrote:

On the Janko scale, Birich is 1260 compared to Red Oak at 1290, White
Oak 1360 and Bamboo at 1800. Sounds like pretty poor stuff.
That's interesting, as the bamboo flooring I've seen hasn't worn
anywhere near as well as everyday red oak.

That value for the bamboo is for the non-'carbonized' bamboo. The
chocolate brown stuff has been steamed to change the color and that
process significantly reduces the hardness of the material.

Interesting...

The dented and creased floors I've seen are all carbonized.

Thanks for the info!

On Jan 9, 7:14 am, B A R R Y wrote:
Chris Friesen wrote:

Careful with borg flooring. The local one had a sale on some
prefinished birch.

It had zero warranty on the finish, and I could make permanent
impressions in the wood just by running my fingernail across it.

I'm no cheerleader for BORGs, but over the summer, I bought genuine
Bruce, prefinished solid 3/4" oak flooring, with a 25 year residential
warranty, from Home Depot for $2.39 sq/ft.

My floor has exactly the same warranty as the same product selling at
twice the price elsewhere.

I'd be careful, but there are decent deals to be had.

If you happen to have 300 - 400 sq. feet left over, I'd be happy to
take it off your hands

Barry,

We bought 45 cases of the same Bruce flooring from HD for $2.55/sq' .
Pretty good stuff!

I put it down in the master bedroom, hallway, dining room, kitchen and
foyer. I had 5 cases left over that I was going to take bck. LOML
says...why dont we just get 3 more cases and you can do the lining room as
well...:-( ...sigh....

Skip
www.ShopFileR.com


"B A R R Y" wrote in message
t...
Chris Friesen wrote:

Careful with borg flooring. The local one had a sale on some prefinished
birch.

It had zero warranty on the finish, and I could make permanent
impressions in the wood just by running my fingernail across it.

I'm no cheerleader for BORGs, but over the summer, I bought genuine Bruce,
prefinished solid 3/4" oak flooring, with a 25 year residential warranty,
from Home Depot for $2.39 sq/ft.

My floor has exactly the same warranty as the same product selling at
twice the price elsewhere.

I'd be careful, but there are decent deals to be had.

"Skip Williams" wrote in message
.. .
Barry,

We bought 45 cases of the same Bruce flooring from HD for $2.55/sq' .
Pretty good stuff!

I put it down in the master bedroom, hallway, dining room, kitchen and
foyer. I had 5 cases left over that I was going to take bck. LOML
says...why dont we just get 3 more cases and you can do the lining room as
well...:-( ...sigh....

Skip

Good luck if it was the 3 1/4" marsh. Bruce is no longer making it . I
know I bought up the last of it in my area.

jc

Jimbo wrote:

If you happen to have 300 - 400 sq. feet left over, I'd be happy to
take it off your hands

Get this...

I returned 10 boxes in October, and I had lost the receipt.

After apologizing that they couldn't refund the sales tax and my refund
would be on a gift card, they refunded it @ $2.99 sq.ft. ;^)

Skip Williams wrote:
Barry,

We bought 45 cases of the same Bruce flooring from HD for $2.55/sq' .
Pretty good stuff!

I'm very happy with it. VERY low waste in each box. Nice, straight
stuff, with only a few ugly boards that were still usable for closets.
We've had a few OOPS! moments since installation, and the finish is fine.

I did the downstairs with unfinished stock, which I sanded and finished,
and had a far greater waste percentage. I paid MORE for the unfinished
stock than I did for the finished Bruce!

D'ohBoy wrote:
On Jan 9, 6:15 am, B A R R Y wrote:

Jimbo wrote:


On the Janko scale, Birich is 1260 compared to Red Oak at 1290, White
Oak 1360 and Bamboo at 1800. Sounds like pretty poor stuff.

That's interesting, as the bamboo flooring I've seen hasn't worn
anywhere near as well as everyday red oak.


That value for the bamboo is for the non-'carbonized' bamboo. The
chocolate brown stuff has been steamed to change the color and that
process significantly reduces the hardness of the material. Which is
why I went for the natural color in a Phillipines-harvested bamboo
which is noticeably darker than other bamboos. Course, they all
darken with exposure to light.

D'ohBoy

Strand woven Bamboo 3200
Natural Bamboo (represents one species) 1380
Carbonized Bamboo (represents one species) 1180

The hardness of bamboo also depends on when (years maturity) the bamboo
is harvested and what species of bamboo is used.

For comparing:
Cumaru / Brazilian Teak 3540
White Oak 1360
Red Oak (Northern) 1290
Black Walnut 1010

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA