Compare Brazilian Cherry Hardwood Flooring

Buyers Beware - Compare TFW Brazilian Cherry Hardwood Flooring

We've assembled a comprehensive list of things you should consider while comparing Brazilian cherry flooring in the marketplace. This should help you assess true value and save you a lot of headache later. An educated buyer is a happy buyer.

  1. Is the other brand authentic? Our Certified Brazilian Cherry is actually from Brazil!  Genuine Brazilian Jatoba is, we think, the finest solid hardwood flooring material you can buy. Our certified and responsibly harvested Brazilian Cherry Flooring is dried, milled, and then shipped to us here in the USA directly from the mill. Either this flooring sells as unfinished flooring according to grade, or it is shipped to our finishing facility to be turned into our prized pre-finished flooring.  Much of what is sold as Brazilian Cherry isn’t.  Make sure you buy from someone reputable that will certify in writing that you are getting genuine Brazilian Cherry.
  1. How long are the longest pieces? Bigger is sometimes better, or in this case longer is better.  We package true 1-7 ft length planks in each bundle or carton. There is always at least two 7 foot-long boards in each carton. This means you get a quicker installation with fewer joints in the finished floor. Each carton is truly a random length selection with a good mix of lengths rather than the dubious practice of stuffing the box with “shorts” as many competitors do.
  1. How sharp are their saws? TFW processes all its hardwood flooring material using higher precision milling with sharper blades and higher tolerance equipment. - Use of 95% or more of all boards is typical and the material fits together just right for a clean installation. It costs more to keep the equipment sharp since it means equipment downtime for maintenance, but the superior product is worth it according to our strong flooring contractor following. All hardwood flooring is dried, sawn, and milled to US standards too.  This means a tighter fit and easier matching should you ever have to replace portions of your flooring.
  1. Is the flooring tightly packaged? Tight packaging and banding - Helps insure that flooring arrives in expected condition undamaged from shuffling around on the pallet.
  1. How thick is the finish on prefinished flooring? 1.2mm of higher quality finishes on all of our prefinished hardwood flooring.  Compare with other products such as Bella Wood with 1.00 mm of a lower quality finish and a 50-year warranty.
  1. Is their flooring finished in the USA? We process our prefinished solid hardwood flooring here in the USA to strict quality standards.  It’s then carefully packaged and delivered throughout the country to one of our 108 locations. The benefit of this is the material is more stable and less likely to experience climatic stress or physical abuse in transit from abroad.
  1. How does the finish really look up close? Orange peel is great on oranges, but we have no use for it on our flooring.  Once you know what to look for you can hold the flooring panels at an angle to the light and clearly assess the quality of the coated finish. Fact is, most substandard flooring is sold to unsuspecting consumers because they simply don’t know what to look for. It’s a numbers game to the big flooring guys and the big discounters who will not hesitate to sacrifice durability or finish quality in exchange for a small percentage of unhappy customers or stock returned. We play no such games at theFloorWarehouse.com. Superior durability and finish is what we are about without exception…compare for yourself, you’ll see.
  1. How consistent are the individual cartons? Consistent packaging is one of our trademarks. Each bundle or carton packaged as the next one with similar color and lengths. You spend a lot less time randomizing your flooring for installation and you have a useful dependable mix in each new carton you open.
  1. Do they have what you want right now? TFW has more and better quality inventory on hand. We buy a lot of wood but we concentrate on only the best varieties.  You benefit in two key ways: First, you are getting the “pick of the litter” because our buying power gives us preferential treatment as one of the nation’s largest exotic wood flooring importers.
  1. Do they have a location near you (and why it matters)? Having more locations than most of our competitors - ensures the lowest possible delivered prices by having material nearer to you the customer.  Also, the material has a chance to acclimatize to your region’s temperature and humidity making for a more stable product to install.
  1. What grading standard is used? Higher grading standards insures consistency of natural wood color from board to board. We use strict US wood flooring association grading standards for all hardwood flooring. Most of our competitors sell our Select grade as their Clear. Make sure your supplier is not being too liberal with their grading standards. One thing to look for is suppliers simply making up their own terminology, which is nothing more than a means of masking the true grade for comparison. Clear, Select, #1 Common, and #2 Common are the grades to look for. Clear is as good as it gets in solid hardwood flooring.
  1. When can you get your flooring? Your flooring purchase is usually available to ship within 48 hours of purchase - not 2 to 4 weeks as with most companies. And, if you are near one of our 108 locations throughout the country, you can usually pick up your material during business hours same day.
  1. Do you have a selection of grades and widths? At TFW, a large variety of flooring grades and widths are available, where most other brands of solid flooring have limited grades and widths. By focusing our attention on just a few varieties of hardwood flooring, we are able to offer more selection in a given species, such as Brazilian Cherry (Jatoba). Sometimes, a project calls for a more natural or rougher look.  Or maybe wider 5 inch planks are needed rather than 3 inch ones.
  1. Where is the flooring made (and why it matters)? TFW Brazilian Cherry is not made in China or anywhere in Asia - Most Chinese or Asian made flooring is 18mm thick, not 19.05mm (full 3/4" thick). The truth is that much of the Asian imported wood is inconsistent.  That should bother you if you are looking for a tight result and easier installation.  Also, if you ever have to match up boards later, well, good luck in your search. US milling standards are not wishy-washy in the least and they exist for consistency and assurance.  Besides, that extra millimeter is meat for resurfacing someday if you need it.
  1. How long are the longest pieces? Ours are 72" Most imported wood hardwood flooring, especially from Asia, is only 1' to 3' long even though they package it in a 6 or 7 foot-long box.  Shorter pieces mean more time and labor to install and the completed floor is more jointed. On the other hand, the seller buys more low-cost “shorts”, stuffs them in a big box, and makes more money off the uneducated consumer.  Of course, professional installers know about this practice, but the typical do-it-yourself homeowner doesn’t.
  1. Is the prefinished flooring ture Clear grade? Select and Better grade, not Clear grade, is used for most Asian based prefinished hardwood flooring.  If the time comes to refinish your floor someday, you might be negatively surprised at the flaws disguised by the finish when you sand it. You will never experience this with TFW Brazilian Cherry Flooring since we use certified Clear grade flooring (as defined by US flooring trade association standards). In case you didn’t know, Clear grade is as good as it gets in solid hardwood flooring. It has the least natural flaws in the wood flooring. The ranking, from most flaws to least, is #2 Common, #1 Common, Select, and Clear.  These are the officially recognized grades of wood flooring. If your supplier calls it anything else, well, it should make you wonder.
  1. Is it flooring that professionals would buy? That’s right.  When you get right down to it, there aren’t that many true flooring professionals that do custom solid hardwood flooring in Brazilian cherry.  If you talk to one, we can almost guarantee they'd buy or recommend our hardwood flooring material.
  1. What is the overall value? Solid Hardwood Flooring from theFloorWarehouse.com is simply a better value.  Our low overhead business model is the result of years of quality product with no-frills operating.  How do we do it?  Well, we don’t waste a lot of money on expensive institutional advertising.  Our egos do just fine without that.  Also, we pass along operating savings by not accepting credit cards and credit purchases.  We’re not saying we won’t take plastic someday, but right now it saves us money, which saves you money. Finally, we don’t keep extended hours and we generally keep weekend hours down too. Overtime adds up and it would mean more cost to pass along, or else a cut in quality to make up the difference. So, you end up with a little inconvenience, but the benefits far outweigh the negatives because you’re getting the best possible product for the best possible price directly from the source.

 

 

Thank you for your interest in Brazilian Cherry hardwood flooring. Moreover, thank you for considering TheFloorWarehouse.com as your source for the finest solid hardwood flooring at true wholesale direct pricing.  If you have any other questions or if we can help you in any way please call TOLL FREE 1-800-717-0441 or contact us at www.TheFloorWarehouse.com.