Buyer beware. That is my takeaway suggestion after doing business with Longleaf Lumber. Be sure and do your own research before settling on the type of wood you want to use on your project. Do not trust their expertise. We selected reclaimed cherry wood that was milled from beams for our project. The stock itself is gorgeous, with mixed widths, deep color, and the perfect imperfections that moves many of us to use reclaimed lumber.
Luke Poirier was our salesperson. We made clear to him that the flooring was to be used in our kitchen, that we have a 40 lb. dog, and that the room is a high-traffic area in our home where we enter and exit the house and spend a great deal of time. He said that the wood would work well for our project. Immediately after installation the floors began to be marred by divots and scratches from normal wear and tear--a dog walking through, a dropped spoon, a dropped spice jar. Anything that falls or touches the floor beyond socked feet leaves a mark. We reported this to Luke and provided pictures to him to illustrate our claims. He was at a loss to explain why the wood was so soft and referred us to Alice Degennaro. She came to our house and was dismissive that the softness of the wood was the reason for it wearing so poorly and repeated that she considered cherry a hardwood and suited for kitchen floors. She noted our dog as being the culprit, and after we told her that we had disclosed our having a dog to Luke, she blamed the poor performance of their product on the installer.
We contacted our installer and he returned to the house. He was aghast at how horrible the floors looked and last week finished them again for us. Thirty-six hours after their completion, they are already showing signs of scratches and dings. We are one of those households that removes their shoes at the door. The damage is being done from three people and our dog walking around the room.
The floors were refinished with four coats of polyurethane plus another layer of finish from Bona for high traffic rooms. As a comparison, the installer refinished the adjacent room (oak flooring) during the initial installation in the kitchen. It was also done with four coats of polyurethane, and after 2 years, and similar use, they remain as pristine as they were on the day in which they were initially completed.
According to multiple sites on the Internet, the problem with our kitchen floors is that American Cherry should never be used as flooring in high traffic areas, and perhaps not used as flooring at all. It is soft. Engineered wood floors, that contain cherry wood, apparently wear well, and there are some reports that Brazilian cherry can be used on floors in low traffic areas. Had we thought to google "cherry hardwood floors," we would have known this and selected a different product. However, we trusted the judgement of LongLeaf staff, and quite frankly we should have been able to do so. This is both infuriating and a big disappointment.
LongLeaf could have made this up to us, and would probably have lost money in doing so. They could have offered to refund our money, they could have offered us different stock, or they could have offered us new stock and covered the cost of its installation. But no such offers were ever made. The poor performance of their product was due to it being too soft to be used for flooring, and their poor recommendation that we buy it. Buyer beware. read more
