You’re sitting on your couch trying to binge watch your new favorite TV show, when a commercial for Shaw Hardwood comes and goes.
Now you can’t seem to focus.
Your ugly carpet in the background keeps drawing your attention away from your show. So, you grab you phone and start searching the internet for some beautiful hardwood flooring.
When you come upon the Home Depot website, you find Shaw Hardwood flooring. Not only are there multiple options for different texture, width, finish, and character; there are also between three and five color options for each type of flooring in engineered and solid wood flooring.
I don’t know about you, but I’m already overwhelmed.
Now you decided you want to go in and check out a free sample. This is where I hope you decide to read our blog on FloorCritics first before you head to the store.
Home Depot does not carry any samples of the flooring. This is a huge drawback for me because I want to touch and feel my product before I spend a chunk of my savings on it.
Not being able to head into the store and see the product for myself, I turned to the internet to research & create a one stop shop review for all advice about Shaw Hardwood.
Here are some things you can expect to read about:
- So Many Options, So Few In-Store Samples
- Engineered vs Solid Hardwood
- Where Can I Find Shaw Flooring?
- Learning from The Past
- The Final Verdict
So Many Options, So Few Samples
All of the options on the Shaw Flooring website are overwhelming. Not only did they have engineered hardwood, but they had solid wood, tile, carpet, laminate, and even vinyl.
In this article, I will only be talking about the engineered hardwood and the solid hardwood. Even then, there are a plethora of options on the website.
When looking through the website I found that they will provide you with two free samples on the house. Who doesn’t love free stuff? After that, the samples are $4.99 per sample.
Not sure if you want to go with the engineered hardwood or the solid hardwood? This would be a great time to order one of each and see which one you like better.
If you do decide on the engineered or the engineered Pro hardwood you will find the only seller is Home Depot. They do not carry samples of the products.
Heading into the store to see other brands to determine which characteristics you like may help you narrow down your choices for your free samples.
If you decided to go with the solid hardwood, you can search on the website for dealers in your area that carry the specific products you like. Depending on the store, they may have samples available at the store, or you may have to still order them, but I would give your local dealer a call before ordering any off of the website because they may be able to save you some money.
Is Engineered Better Than the Real Deal?
When searching on the website you will find that they have many different types of flooring.
A few of these types include engineered and solid wood flooring When looking at pictures it is extremely difficult to tell the difference between solid hardwood and engineered hardwood.
However, if you scroll around on their page they give you some advice to be able to tell the difference and determine which choice will be best for your project.
The biggest factor in choosing which type of flooring you should use depends on where you are going to install the flooring. For someone looking to install hardwood in an area that may have more moisture, such as a basement, kitchen, or on a concrete subfloor, they should to go with the engineered hardwood.
The solid hardwood will expand and shrink depending on the moisture levels, causing damage to the flooring. Moisture affects the engineered hardwood and the engineered hardwood Pro version much less than its solid wood counterpart.
The second thing to consider is the hardwood’s cost. Engineered hardwood gets better the longer it is out. Engineered hardwood means that the top and bottom are real wood. But the inside is made of synthetic materials to lower the cost.
Engineered hardwood is a cheaper and more flexible option for someone who wants the solid wood look, but without the cost and worry of moisture problems. And, like its solid counterpart, engineered flooring is easy to clean with a hardwood vacuum.
However, unlike engineered, you can repair or refinish solid wood floors. So if it is your forever home, this may be something to consider.
Where on Earth Can I Find Shaw Flooring?
When you search Shaw flooring on Google, the first option is their website. This gives a great view of what their flooring looks like, with many professional photos and videos. This is also where you find that they offer two free samples, and any beyond that are $4.99.
The engineered hardwood and the Pro engineered hardwood are available at Home Depot, whereas the solid wood seems to only be available at smaller specialty places depending on your location. The website is very user-friendly which makes it easy to locate the smaller dealers that may carry the specific product you are looking for.
Learning from The Past & Our Fellow Home Improvers
Shaw hardwood flooring seems to be a one stop shop for all things hardwood. They have solid hardwood, high-end engineered hardwood and an affordable engineered hardwood. You have the options to glue down, nail down, and click together.
They even carry other types of flooring on top of that. It seems no matter what you are looking for, you will find it with Shaw.
Reading through some reviews, most of the negative reviews I found involved the engineered hardwood flooring. Most people said they had issues receiving warped planks when the flooring arrived. Not only that, people mentioned having trouble with splintering, denting and damaging boards very easily.
Bleaching, light sensitivity, finish wearing off, and poor company policies regarding the lifetime warranty have also been some issues with this flooring.
Almost all of the positive reviews were directly after installation. Reviewers mostly noted how great the flooring looked and that they didn’t have any issues installing.
It seems that the product is an easy install, especially for beginners, however it simply does not last. The product looks great at first, but has many issues during normal wear and tear. The lifetime warranty on the product is very limited.
The Verdict is In
Shaw hardwood may not be worth your time or money. Many folks who had issues, and got Shaw to agree to replace the flooring, decided not to because they didn’t want to deal with the same issues again.
Not many people were satisfied with the product long term, however they were happy with it short term and loved the product. It seems that it looks great and is easy to install but may be of poor quality and doesn’t hold up to normal everyday living.
I would look for a different product, and possibly one that has samples in store, so you don’t have to hunt samples of the product down. The price is at the lower end of average, but at any price I wouldn’t personally install this flooring in my house.
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