@Alan Ward I also noticed the Max is 8mm thickness and heavier, while rigid is 5.5 mm thick. Not sure how that affects things. @kaycreighton1 thank you! Initially we were just looking at Max. the stairs themselves we are carpeting and thankfully the hallway/loft upstairs is mainly above the garage, so not TOO worried about a lot of noise. From what I've read Max is still more soundproof than Rigid as well right?

I just wanted to share some install photos. We just finished a kitchen of One Sweet Talker. I love how it looks and I love the wider and longer planks. The customer service was again top notch. However, I hate that I have to say this but I feel like I need to share because I wish I'd known. This is our second house with Supercore and we love the company. We just finished the install Thurs. Sunday we had guests over. One of them must have had a rock stuck in their shoe or something. There's now a huge area of scratching. Almost a foot long. It's so disappointing. And I know that maybe other brands would be similar, but it just seems so soon and just under normal wear. 😕 I'll attach pictures in another comment to show how well they show up on this color.

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)

I also considered those two other colors. The floor is a hard thing to photograph because of all the different lighting. I looked through my phone for a pic that looked most like it does in person. I took this pic yesterday when it was overcast... I think it's about right. It's kind of a chameleon floor. You can see the red cat toy under the chair. The red seems to bring out a bit of a pink tone, more than is really there, I think. Closer to the doors, next to gray chair you see gray popping out. When I look at the floor I see a warm tan (golden) undertone with some gray streaks and because my red oak wood stairs are still a bit pink (despite bleaching) I see a little bit of pink in the floor, thankfully. For a second, I regretted the Lotus clove when I laid out the first pieces in the strong light, I thought it was too bland and I should have been bolder with the color. It was so subtle. Once it went in and I let the warm sunset light and and the furniture colors (and cat toys) do their reflective thing I totally changed my mind. Lotus Clove is a realistic, plain white oak-look floor that doesn't draw too much attention to itself. I think it's great.