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)

The price/value of the condo will dictate the finishes used on the inside. If this is an entry level condo, then a laminate floor ($3/sf) will perform VERY well in your situation. No need to go to vinyl if you don't have to. If this is a luxury condo with a luxury price tag then hardwood is going to be worth the extra price tag (over concrete you will need/want to float the floor). All options have *issues with health concerns. To get as far away as possible from the worst effects, you need to pay the TOP PRICE in the category (hence the reason why I listed $3/sf laminate...a Swiss based laminate will be the safest floor you can find without installing dirt). A $2/sf vinyl = scary. A $4/sf engineered hardwood = scary. If you must go vinyl, then look to the $7-$9/sf product. If you must look at engineered hardwood then look at the $10-$15/sf. If you need to keep with a budget but want the best floor possible....$3-$4/sf laminate out of Europe will do the job (for the next 20 years).

CoreTec wood line is a hybrid product. It has the water proof core (mineral core) that is very stable (doesn't move too much). This is a core that is NORMALLY paired with laminate (a paper photograph on top) or vinyl. CoreTec has used the wood product on top to reach out to customers who will NOT have laminate or vinyl in their homes. They are trying to capture the 'wood market' without producing a wood floor. My problem with this situation is: Wood expands and contracts in the presence of moisture. This is normal and to be expected. The CORE underneath the wood DOES NOT. Hmmmmm. That means the expensive TOP stuff (that you pay $$$ for) will do everything wood is supposed to do (expand/contract) while the stuff it is GLUED TO does not. And that brings us to the next concern: the Glue. A layered floor (like CoreTec Wood) has a weak link = the glue that holds the layers together. The Wood can and will expand. That will STRESS the glue underneath. Eventually (and no one knows when 'eventually' will be...the product is so new that no one knows it's breaking point) that glue will let go. The CoreTec core works well with laminate (the photograph) and vinyl because both are relatively stable when dealing with humidity and with spills. The WOOD is NOT stable. My concern is the hype around the water proof CORE is going to be the selling feature when the WOOD on top (and the glue below) are NOT. I would get a sample of this product and soak it in a fish tank for 24-48 hours. Then pull it out and see if the wood has been affected. At that point you can assess the legitimacy of the claims re: water proof wood flooring. Please get back to us once your experiment has been conducted.

Hi. I'm the orginal poster. Our cork floor is now in. We're about one month out from finishing our whole house (down to studs). We went with Cali- Cork, with a color called Pura. I was concerned with fading since we will have tons of light and it goes well with the modern Scandinavian esthetic. It mimics the look of concrete or terrazzo and the sample tile I placed in full sunlight for the past year has shown no noticeable fading. We went with the click/lock flooring over glue-down for 2 reasons. One was cost. Glue down is more expensive because the cost of the adhesive and labor. Also, glue-down takes an installer with expert knowledge handling cork and that's nearly impossible to find. Bottom line, I couldn't be happier. I was concerned the floor would feel hard since we have a concrete slab and you don't get a sense of how the floor will feel based on a 6" sample square of tile. I had the GC put down an underlayment with the cork floor on top and its amazing! There's a softness and bounce that almost feels like carpet. Bottom line, I love the floors and am relieved that I love the floors.:) The entire house is cork except for the 3 bathrooms where I opted for porcelain tile. Good luck and keep us posted on what you chose and how it worked out. I was a little afraid of going with cork but I'm so glad I did! PR