When I started shopping for flooring, I scoured houzz for ideas and visited a multitude of stores, from speciality retailers, to big box stores and finally found Lumber Liquidators. (Sidebar: I think their name is very misleading as it implies downscale products ~ inferior or lesser quality flooring. Not true.) They sell flooring sourced from all over the world (including the USA) so to associate their brand with China is misleading. It was the Lumber Liquidator staff and houzz that educated me about flooring (kudos to houzz!) and I ended up choosing reclaimed pine and the natural rubio monocoat. I couldn't be happier with my decision. I wouldn't hesitate to shop at Lumber Liquidators. I'm not a laminate consumer, regardless of source. Overall, I believe that this laminate story will end up being about the safety testing of compressed wood products, regardless of the source (think IKEA and the many manufacturers who use the same materials in manufacturing consumer products). I'm disheartened that Lumber Liquidators was considered guilty BEFORE anything has been proven outside of a 60 Minutes show. Bah!

OK... the "reality" for VOC free engineered hardwood is...there aren't any. Why not you ask? Because the GLUE they used to keep the layers STUCK together contains small amounts of VOC content. The factory finishes often have small traces of VOCs (some as low as 80g/L = super low) but they are still THERE. Which means you will need to change your search to LOW VOC content wood. Even the European produced engineered hardwoods have traces of VOC content. Only the SUPER HIGH END stuff out of Switzerland (which bothers the Germans to NO END!) will get you the "Zero" you are looking for. And they start at $10/sf....and that's for the ugly stuff. The beautiful wide plank European Oak stuff hits $15/sf without blinking. If you want NO VOC wood = solid unfinished hardwood. Done. You have your No VOC wood floor. A hardwax finish can be applied on site = NO VOC (Rubio Monocoat comes to mind). So...with your low budget, you may need to modify your requirements. You can get the look you want with LOW VOC criteria....but not the width or the long length (the link indicates "short" lengths of 2ft - 4ft lengths are the MAJORITY).Or you can get the look+length you want with an INCREASE in budget. Your limited budget means you must look at altering your requirements. I think LOW VOC is the start. Then the width of the product needs to change. And you will need to accept the shorter lengths. But the easiest thing to do is to increase the budget. A 3500sf install is no small feat. This is a SIGNIFICANT amount of flooring. It is the surface that will take the MOST abuse! A budget of $28K for 3500sf is too lean. I would prefer to see $35K for 3500sf of flooring. That's a better price point. It will get you MUCH closer to where you want to be. Going "cheap" on flooring is like going cheap on roofing. It isn't worth it in the end. If the wood in the link is still available....I suggest you find contact the manufacturer/seller and get your order in. It looks to be a decent product for a decent price. But most likely made in China.

LM is the brand. I live in Texas also. I bought mine at a local floor shop. I have them in the kitchen, living area, halls, and utility room with no problems so far. We also have a dog. They're 3/4" thickness with aluminum oxide finish. LM has a lot to choose from as far as plank size and finishes. Look up LM Flooring. They have good reviews and also a good warranty. I have a great floor guy and he said they were good quality floors. I've also had other engineered hardwood floors that peeled like a layer of plastic when they scratched like you said above.

i have had nothing but issues with this product! i have had the company i purchased the product from come out, months with no answers, finally got a company rep out to review the product in my house....still no answers back from the manufacturer! my house humidity is around 32%-37% totally within canadian home builder standards, not to mention the product is sold as 100% water proof?? how is that possible when they are concerned about humidity that has been proven by the rep not to exceed industry specs??