For anyone years later who is looking for the same info: I recently left flooring as a store manager and sales rep. First, understand that NO flooring is scratch-proof. They are scratch-resistant. I know someone else recommended staying away from it in case your basement floods but the truth of the matter is that if it floods and you use your homeowner's insurance (recommended), they will insist on the entire floor being replaced no matter what you have installed. You can choose a commercial grade if you are really worried about the flooring holding up to abuse. They are often glued down. Your installer will probably want to skimcoat the floor or use a leveler. This is good practice. Urethane with ceramic bead and urethane plus with aluminum oxide particles are the strongest choices right now but there are some higher ratings Like AC 5 which is stronger than say a 20 mil wear layer. There are also a few in the 30 mil wear layer range. You will often save money hiring your own installer because stores make money from the cost of installation. Hire your own and have them buy your materials. If they have an established relationship with the store, they will often get a significant discount on your materials. The store I worked for had a 55% profit margin but when they sold to installers/contractors they lowered it to 30-35%. Stores have to make a profit and so do installers. You may save some cash if your installer charges a smaller profit margin. Ask for a Certificate of Insurance on the installer. If their installation is bad or unfinished, their insurance has to cover it. Stores should have a warranty to cover poor workmanship as well. The manufacturer will cover manufacturing defects but not workmanship. Before you hire someone, ask if they do moisture testing and what is their procedure for it. ALWAYS have a moisture test done and documented when they come out to measure. If it is too high they should recommend what to do to get it and keep it at the appropriate level. ALWAYS have it done again before installation. This is the number one thing that causes manufacturers to deny a claim.

Here let me give everyone a fuller picture. We are doing two bathrooms - one kids, one master. Both are total guts/remodels. We live in an urban victorian in the philadelphia metro area, and I would describe the aesthetic I'm going for as an urban transitional look - like, CB2. My goals are: super easy to keep clean. Enough quality to not be destroyed by 4 kids. Kid's bath: Leaning towards large grey cement like tiles, with large rectangular glossy white for shower/bath. Plain white walls. My dream vanity would be custom reclaimed wood. https://pin.it/4db2sdme54o6vb or https://i.pinimg.com/564x/46/f3/bf/46f3bfdd3062b0088eef68b7ceb5350c.jpg I really hate the furniture look vanity that has space underneath (we currently have this) because it is really gross and hard to keep clean. So I want either to go all the way to the floor or to be floating, or to have fairly long legs. I don't want lots of crevices in doors to have to clean. I would prefer a single hole faucet and prefer an integrated because currently whenever I swipe a paper towel in the space between the undermount and the counter, there is black gunk and I don't understand what is growing there. Aesthetic wise, I know that my dream vision is to have a warm wood (reclaimed or something like teak), but I don't like veneers, and I don't like espresso stained, so I kind of feel like then moving towards the grey or white vanity like the Inolav Adams vanity I posted above.

I have bought and installed $3000.00 worth of smartcore pro 1 year ago in my unheated cabin since it said good for extreme temperatures down to 25 degrees below zero and Lowes said it was the best and only flooring that will work for me. The floor started to seperate in December 2020 at 19 degrees. Lowes said they can not help me and to file a claim with Shaw. Shaw sent an independent inspector to see flooring in March 2021. The so called independant inspector came and pretty much told me that his job is to find things to void the warranty so no claims get paid. He crawled on my floor throughout all rooms with a 6 foot level and found one high spot on my l floor that tilted his level uneven. I told him every house built has a joyce that is a little high or a little low. He agreed and said that he goes through million dollar brand new homes and always finds the same. He measured the space at edges an said some spots were too close to wall. I told him nothing expanded or contracted and its the locking that has failed. He also said the floor molding was touching the floor and that will also void a warranty. I told him there are no houses where the wall molding is not touching the floor and that no one keeps a gap below the molding. He agreed but said even if my floor did have more spacing and wall molding had a gap under it that Shaw would still void my claim since he found a joyce high spot. He left and I never had a returned call since March. I even offered to lift my floor and pay the $1.49 per square foot and to have it reinstalled by anyone of thier choice to prove it was not an installation problem and it is a locking failure problem with the flooring. I am a tipical hard working person that saved for two years to buy the best flooring made for my conditions. Shaw or Lowes have not even called me to offer me a solution or any compensation towards my $3000.00 invested. I do not know if my floor will continue to worsen but I do know it will not get better. I told the inspector that if Shaw really wanted to improve thier product that this was the perfect chance. An unheated cabin that temperatures go down to a couple of degrees below zero in the coldest part of the year. I have 8 rental proerties, a house and 2-cabins that I wanted to do all over with this flooring and now I can not trust Shaw flooring or Shaw customer service to correct the failure. My cousin is a contrator that build homes and works with hundreds of other contracors and said that he will no longer use Shaw flooring after he sees what happened to me. SHAME ON YOU SHAW FOR NOT FIXING YOUR FAILED FLOOR LOCKING PROBLEM. I or my cousin will never buy another Shaw product unless this is fixed by compensation or what I prefer which is to lift and reinstall new flooring by anyone of Shaws choice. The cabin next to me installed a cheap laminate flooring from Pergo at 1/2 the price and it has not failed under the same temperatures. I am out $3000 but you are out hundreds of thousands of dollars when contractors will not trust your products since you chose not to do the right thing.***SHAME ON YOU SHAW FOR NOT FIXING YOUR FAILED FLOOR LOCKING PROBLEM. Tim Sommers Mongomery, Pa. 17752 (570-220-8070)

Hi Chrissi, those are both nice looking floors. We are the reverse - I prefer darker floors and my husband prefers mid-tones. But because we have a big dog, the hydrocork line was key for us to have peace of mind without him scratching the floor to bits. I know only one other person with cork floors (20+ years old and probably not Wicanders), and there's has worn to the point of replacement, in part because of their dog. We place a good deal of weight on product reviews and the lack of information about the Chinese brands was a deterring factor for us. They are cheaper yes, but it wasn't a risk we were willing to take. We just don't know how it will hold up long term. If it is click and press installation like Wicanders, it might not matter because you can replace single boards without ripping up the whole floor. Good luck!