The trust about Investment floors
LVT, engineered and all floor covers are man made and end up in landfills one day. Our floors are solid wood; engineered by Mother nature and designed to outlive the house. Real wood flooring, i.e. 3/4 or more solid, can be re-invented several times. Real wood, not engineered floors increases the value of your home. In the market today, misinformation and single use floor coverings are praised as “better than real wood” for a number of reasons all of which 100% untrue. So we cut through the nonsense and our customers like that about us, for sure.
What is an investment floor?
Is flooring an investment or a product? A product is designed to be used for a period of time, i.e. LVT and laminate. An investment floor, while it may fulfill the same purpose as the product such as walking on the floor, it is not designed to fail one day. An investment floor provides a return as well as a function, i.e. increased home value. Real wood floors are an investment, single use floor covers are just a lease. Yes a lease, you are paying to use a product that will have no residual value. On the other hand, a real wood floor will last forever, saving you money every seven years or a dividend of sorts, like a bond or preferred stock.
Future landfill
One house, One Floor mandates no person should ever have to buy laminate or engineered floor covers because they have no local real wood options. 4,000,000,000 lbs of landfill materials is produced every year in the United States with somewhere between 200,000,000 and 250,0000,000 lbs of it singe use floor coverings, including carpet. Laminate and (more every year) engineered flooring, will be close to 30% of this by 2025. We consider this not only an environmental issue, but also the greatest wealth re-allocation from so many to so few in the history of the modern economy.
Investment (no kidding) Flooring
Green & Eco-friendly, and using any other terminology indicating ‘good for the earth’ cannot be used in the same comparison with solid real wood. Unfortunately, our site is one of very few that will tell you the truth because it is not profitable for those marketing flooring. Not profitable with regards to repeat business, ease of installation and so many other factors all designed to rob your home equity, from someone if not you.
What are floor covers?
Any floor created to be replaced and or not salvaged is a cover, not a floor. LVT, laminate and engineered wood with very few exceptions are all the new carpet, i.e. they are manufactured with ‘planned obsolesce’. Real wood floors, as in 3/4 solid will be the last thing of value left in your home and salvaged one day, imagine them becoming an accent wall and lasting anothere 100 years or so.
One House One Floor
Southern Yellow Pine Direct welcomes all of you homeowners told solid wood is too expensive or cannot be glued down. Welcome to a place where logic still exist, we tell the truth. For example, warranties,worthless, and engineered floors cannot be refinished. It all comes down to this, real wood takes time and since time is money, most floor covering companies choose to sell single use floor coverings because every seven years they get repeat business. Our “one house one floor” promise is not popular with most contractors especially if they sell covers such as carpet, engineered floors, vinyl or laminate.
Engineered to fail
Does anyone remember the phrase planned obsolescence? To refresh your memory, it is by definition; “a policy of producing consumer goods that rapidly become obsolete. This is done by frequent changes in design, termination of the supply of spare parts, and the use of non-durable materials.” In an update (2023) of sorts, we do an amazing source for 3/4 solid engineered Walnut, unfinished with a 6mm wear layer. And yes, it can be refinished and you finish it the first time, which we advise since it cost so much.
Laminate is the new carpet
Laminate and LVT are the new carpet for the industry. And like carpet, these fake floors allow retail shops to keep a steady supply of repeat business. With floor covers such as engineered and laminate; you are really just leasing the floors. The question of engineered or real wood floors is easy to answer. Real wood will be the last thing of value salvaged from your home one day. Whereas, every single piece of engineered flooring will end up in a landfill. In fact, laminate is huge problem, as it remains in landfills for up to 1000 years