@kayleston - Coretec is a floating floor and cannot be installed under the cabinets (that’s what I was told by where I purchased this product). Grande is thick (I think 5/8”), so my cabinets were shimmed underneath to allow for the thickness of the floor. There is a small gap between the floors and the edge of my cabinets, which was covered with shoe molding that matches the base cabinets.

Where are people ordering their floors? We live in Northern Cali and our small town upcharges on everything. I would love to order somewhere online.

I am in the Raleigh area ordered through a local contractor who will be doing the work. The price was a little over 25% off list price on mfr site. I have seen online for about the same price, so am lucky. If you order online, you need to make sure warranty holds. Might be a good idea to contact mfr on which online retailers they extend warranty to….

Finally finished my Grande Petronas floors last week… very pleased. looking forward to furniture coming back from storage Monday. Here are some pics. As mentioned in a previous post, I think pictures are redder than actual floor, which is more muted. i particularly like the wider planks and that the pattern truly looks like wood versus pattern repetition that is more obvious with some other flooring. i waited several months for materials, but believe it is more readily available now. regardless regardless, for me, worth the wait.

I agree 100% ... we have a whole home full of grande petronas, and it's definitely not red.  It's warm and looks like really wood.  Love it!  Your pictures are beautiful!

Wow, the floors look gorgeous!! Thank you so much for remembering to post pictures! I think I’m getting close to convincing hubby that this is the best choice for us! The sample we have really looks and even feels like wood. I have my flooring store guys on alert for any installations that we can actually go look at! That’s what will really convince hubby. 🥰

I’ve lived with the Coretec Grande Lotte Oak for 3 months now and overall am very happy with it, but there are some drawbacks. I’d caution everyone to make sure their sub-floor is even because the floor will highlight any imperfections. I ran the product in my guest bathroom and have a vanity and toilet that sits on top of the floor. The weight of the vanity and toilet on one side of the room caused the floor on the opposite side to raise up. Just by looking at it, you couldn’t tell there was an issue, but when I walked over it, I could feel the floor flex and hear a squeak. It happened because the subfloor was uneven. My installer had to tear planks out, plane the sub-floor down to get it perfectly even, and then reinstall.

Be careful when you’re painting. The floor has “grain” and I dripped paint and didn’t realize it. It was awful to get dried paint out of the grain.

No issues with durability so far. It is a very beautiful floor.

Really appreciate your post and feedback thank you !

Yes, Captain-Obvious, very good heads up - thank you! We’re actually going to be able to see an install of the Lotte in a builder’s home in about a month so I’ll be able to see it in the flesh, even though we like the color of petronas oak, but at least we’ll see the pattern and feel of the brand.

My builder recommended glue down for our engineered flooring for our new build. Our previous home had floating floor and some spots were hollow sound bouncy spots.

I had glued down engineered wood, and replaced with this after a leak ruined a 4x6 area, causing the need to replace the entire floor since engineered flooring could not be matched to patch. I was very lucky that slab in good shape and in walking around so far (without furniture), have not found hollow spots. Interesting that contractor urged you to go that way as contractor responsible for slab being even, no? I do miss my previous gloss, but they are not making gloss engineered floors now, since not in vogue. I must say that this cortex looks more like wood than current engineered wood floors I’ve seen in showrooms. To me,real hardwood,that can be done with any finish, would be first choice, but not an option on slab home.

John - I’m not sure if Coretec can be glued down but if it can, I would now consider installing it that way. I have one spot in my kitchen that sounds hollow if I step on the plank just right and it’s likely a low spot on the sub floor. I can live with it though. The way my bathroom was, I couldn’t live with that and it had to be torn out and redone. Fortunately I had one box leftover and we had to use it in the bathroom so I’d also suggest buying an extra box to have on hand just in case.

Bill & Lynn - the pic of my bathroom is true to the color of Lotte Oak. The camera on my phone tends to make it read yellow with natural light coming in, probably similar to how Petronas is pulling red for others. Everyone that has seen it has thought it was real wood.

Yes, it really does look like real wood and I’m afraid the more people realize that, the more popular it will become AND the more pricier. Already, the price for the Petronas oak has jumped from 7.89 to 9.19 with one of our local vendors 🤨.

Bill & Lynn - If $9.19 includes installation, that is in line with what I paid here in suburban Detroit, Michigan. The material was $6.20 and it was $2 or $2.50 a square foot for installation. Louise - My parents have red oak floors sanded and finished on site and they recently refinished to remove the red/orange tones. When my dad saw my floors, he asked if I was sealing the color as it was or if I was staining it darker 😂 When I told him it was a vinyl product he was blown away!

No, that is for material only - installation is an additional 2.50. Other vendors in my area are charging less for materials, 7.80 is the least I’ve seen with 1.25 installation. But they all say these prices will go up again.😔

I’m in South Florida.

Our local businesses had pricing around 7-11, so we decided to order Grande Lotte Oak from Efloors.com on November 16th for 5.66. We just received the floors January 27th. They only deliver to your driveway, so we had to carry the boxes(all 134 cartons!) indoors to store, as we are not getting them installed for a few weeks and live in Iowa.

Wow, that’s quite a savings! Do they take returns if there are any damaged pieces?

Bill & Lynn - I used to live in SE Florida (wish I was still there!) and used Dolphin Carpet and Floors in Pompano to install Coretec Plus in my previous home. I had a really good experience with Dolphin. I didn’t have sub floor issues being it was a concrete slab and was very happy with the product holding up in FL humidity and in/out from the pool.

Yes, you are supposed to contact them within 3 business days after receiving the delivery to report damage and initiate a damage claim. We had 2 boxes that we could see had a small amount of damage externally, so we opened and found a few of the planks had a little bit of damage, so we are planning to call tomorrow and request replacements. The rest of the boxes look good from the outside, so hopefully when we open them prior to our installation, the floors will be in good shape on the inside.

Erin, are you installing them or did you hire someone?

Captain_Obvious, we live about an hour north, in Stuart, but there a couple good local companies that have good reputations so I feel confident we will be ok, once we get to that point. Thanks for the recommendation, though!

Erin, apologies just seeing your message. I did a stained quarter sawn oak for the island cabinets. I’m so glad you like it, thank you! It took forever to get the color just right on the island. I took a sample of the floor to my cabinet guy and had him mix up a couple options to try and match the darker hues in the floor to help create contrast but still make it look like they go together.

Just a couple pics to show the place with the finished remodel. 🤗

Finally, with furniture. I have a traditional home, and I am pleased with the grande petronas. I was afraid it would look too rustic, but works well for me.

Looks so pretty! Thanks for sharing the pics - I am trying to convince my husband to go with this!

Bill & Lynne, We are having someone do our remodeling projects including installing the floors.

Kristi, Thanks for the info about your island and sharing your photos. The color of your island and other wood areas look great!

Louise, thanks for sharing those pictures! It's amazing how different your floors look from the pictures of the Grande Petronas on the COREtec website. I like the look of yours, but I don't like the way it looks on their website. We're planning on Grande Lotte Oak on the first floor of our walkout ranch, but I want a darker, warmer feeling floor in our basement. I'm considering the Grande Petronas after seeing your pictures.

Kristi, did you put Coretec on your stairs?

Hi. We are planning on using Coretec Grand Petronas in a coastal house in SC. The local flooring store said they will float the floor over the tile in the bedrooms. The rest of the house will be just slab after they remove the carpet and exsisting wood.

They claim that they will gradually slope it so its not even noticable. Has anyone else heard of this or done this? Or should I find someone who will remove the tile first? Thanks

Lobrochta, my flooring store required the subfloor to be completely even otherwise they would have had to use transition moldings where the floor was uneven. I wanted a continuous floor (no moldings) so I removed the old flooring and made sure the sub floor was in good shape. That said, I had one area where the sub floor was uneven (one piece of plywood subfloor was 1/4 inch higher than the piece next to it) and the installer laid right over it. It created a horrible squeak and flexed when I walked on it. The installer had to remove planks, plane the subfloor, and reinstall and glue down those planks. Having gone through that, I’d be very nervous to install without removing your old tile. I’d want to know more how they do it (perhaps they build it up with mortar??) and what they will do if you have an issue. Personally, I think the right way to install is to remove the old tile and after my experience, I would push for that or find a new installer.

Check the Cortec site. I think it says you lose the manufacturers warranty if installed over an existing floor. I had my contractor remove my engineered floor before installing. Other folks in my neighborhood have installed over existing floors and have yet to have issues. I’d rather do it right and maintain warranty.

@lobrochta2667 Yes, you can gradually slope a floor without any issue. It just depends on how much. Here is what the installation instructions say:

All subfloors must be clean, flat, dry, and structurally sound. The correct preparation of the subfloor is a major part of a successful installation. Subfloor must be flat: 3/16" in 10' or 1/8" in 6'.

And here's what it says about what you can install it over:

C. EXISTING FLOOR COVERINGS

Flooring can be installed over most existing hard–surface floor coverings, provided that the existing floor surface is fully adhered, clean, flat, dry, structurally sound and free of deflection.

• Existing sheet vinyl floors should not be heavily cushioned and not exceed more than one layer in thickness. Soft underlayment and soft substrates will compromise the product's locking ability as well as diminish its indentation resistance.
• Installation is NOT allowed over any type of carpet.
• Do NOT install over wood floors adhered to concrete.
• This product can be installed over existing ceramic/porcelain tile products with up to a 1/4 inch wide grout joint. If the grout joint width exceeds 1/4 inch, a cementitious patching compound should be used to fill the grout joint to make it smooth with the surface of the tile.

Here is a link to all the installation instructions. Good luck! Grande Petronas Oak (coretecfloors.com)

Thank you for your responce.

Thank you for your response

So for people who have decided between the Lotte Oak and the Goldin, the online photos make the Lotte Oak look yellowish. But in the samples I received the the Goldin appears more yellow to me. Which is a cooler tone? Thanks!

I am in the process of having Grande Petronas installed throughout my home. Existing flooring is all being removed (carpet upstairs, vinyl, hardwood and carpet downstairs). The installer wants to know if I want my new kitchen cabinets on top of the flooring (ie., install flooring wall to wall before cabinet installation) or install the cabinets first and put flooring only around the cabinets. I have enough flooring to do it either way. Is there a proper way to do this or is it customer preference? What is usually done in new construction with LVP?

@suter705 that looks amazing, first of all.  Secondly, we did not put our cabinets on top of the flooring, which I believe is the recommendation from Coretec.  Get more opinions than mine, though ;)

@Stars2723 I would say in Goldin is cooler in tone. However it all totally depends on the individual home and the type of natural light you get. In our current home Lotte looks a bit yellow, and Goldin looks perfectly neutral. However in our new build where we will be installing it, lotte looks neutral and wonderful and goldin looks dark and gray!

Looks great! I have heard that you should NOT put the appliances on top of the flooring because the weight might make them bow, or something like that!

Suter, I was told you cannot install cabinets on top of Coretec like you can with real hardwood. It’s a floating floor and the weight of the cabinets can cause issues with the floor. I installed coretec in my bathroom with a furniture style vanity that sits on top of the floor. The weight of the vanity caused the flooring not under the vanity to lift up slightly (kind of like a see-saw). Just looking at it, you couldn’t tell there was an issue but you could feel it flex when you walked in it and there was a squeak. Had I known it was going to create an issue I would have picked a regular cabinet and not run the floor under it.

Hello! For those of you did Lotte Oak, what wood species and stain did you choose for your stairs/railing? My builder is saying that white oak is hard to come by and that red oak would be a close match, but I'm not so sure!

We are also looking at the Grande Petronas. Would someone who installed the Cortec Grande floors tell us how many repeat patterns are in the boards and what percentage of the boards are 28", 55" and 82"? Thanks!

The info on the repeat is on the website. Each box has 6 boards, 2 of each.

Louise Stanley I love these floors. Would you say they read a nice traditional medium brown? Or more orange?

Erin, it depends on lighting. Warm medium brown in some, with a warm orange hue when using soft white lighting. I think you will love them. They look more like wood than many mat wood floors!

I love the Coretec Grande Lotte Oak. I have compared them to other WPC LVP and the quality, look and feel is the best! Everyone on the mainland is lucky they don’t live in Hawaii. I was initially quoted $19/sq ft for material only! Then I got it down to $10.85/sq ft. The most shocking thing is I was quoted $42k for labor alone!! 🤯 This is for 2000 sq ft.

Hi Becky, try and get a few more labor bids, 3$-5$ per ft is reasonable for labor, maybe in Hawaii it could go as high as $7, but $42,000 seems very high.

They are finishing my Grande Petronas today!!!! The contractor has told me that because it is the stiffest laminate they have ever worked with that if someone else uses it they will be charged a bit more for labor than I am paying. It is beautiful flooring. They also say that once it is down “it’s not going to float anywhere”. They are getting a workout each day because it is also a lot heavier than most laminate. More like working with hardwood. I will post more pics once things get cleaned up. Waiting for the kitchen cabinets to arrive.

@Becky - Admittedly, I’m not familiar with costs in Hawaii, but $42K for labor alone seems excessively high. I’m in the Midwest and paid about $13500 for material and install for 1600 sq ft.