If your looking for a hardwood floors with character........at an amazing price, you found it!! If you are looking for perfection and the pristine floor for your million dollar cabin/house, you best go elsewhere and pay for it. No sense trying to cheap out and then bitching about it when it doesn't look like typical premier flooring.
We got some 3/4" red oak natural in 3.25" width. Many of the boards are short and have character defects. I say character because they are natural wood defects and they add a unique character you won't find on most homes (we had no machinery or unnatural defects in our batch). PERFECT for a mountain cabin!! My wife is picky and she loved the worm/pin holes, knot marks, color and grain variations and overall natural character of the wood. All the character "defects" were finished and nothing was janky or raw wood!! We bought an extra 20% fearing "throw outs" and after one 200 sqft room we had 3...........THREE SHORT boards which we used for cut pieces in the closet. We ended up with about 5 linear feet of scrap from the first bedroom just from end cutting. We will be taking several boxes back and saving even more money!!!!!
For $1.59 per sqft (on sale) we are thrilled compared to the quotes from all the big floor companies in the $5-$9 per sqft range where all the boards looked the same. Does anyone know what is trending in home decor? Does anyone watch HGTV? Even on Mountain Men Eustace sold his wormy holed boards for more $$ than a regular, 1st quality board because of the unique character and people want that!! Wake up and kick boring, popular floors to the curb!! Our cabin is FULL of 1st quality oak floors from back in the day and while they are really nice, it all looks the same.
Want to save MORE money? Watch 3-4 Youtube videos, buy a $100 Harbor Freight floor nailer, several $15 a box (1,000) floor staples and install it yourself. If you can measure, pop a few chalk lines and swing a mallet, you can do this. This mid 50'ish couple did and while we were surely slower than the professionals, we saved $5 per sqft or $1,000 for the one bedroom/closet we did. Also, doing it yourself you allows you to inspect every board, place short or less desirable boards under beds, in closets or for use as starter/cut boards. We personally used many of the boards with "defects" (character) in more visible spots line the room entry because they were so unique, or the color was so vibrant and variegated.
In all fairness we did go to the Murphy store since our cabin is close by so we got to talk to them and look at, touch, and inspect the various products and quality grades. We chose cabin grade and are VERY satisfied. The short boards do take a bit more time to install and will use more staples but for the price (and beautiful uniqueness)............no whining is necessary!!
In my opinion you need to evaluate price, character and quality. This place has price and quality down pat. Character is more subjective so you best take a good look first to see if it suits your style or project. read more
