60 Minutes – Lumber Liquidators
For years we have been informing our customers and prospective customers about the dangers that can be hidden in their flooring when simply searching for the “cheapest price” and not doing their due diligence in regards to the source of the material. High levels of formaldehyde in your flooring, in your home, contaminating the air you breathe is a danger to you, your family, and even your pets. The most recent 60 minutes episode that aired March 1st, 2015, for which the link is posted below, brings to light the depth of deception and fraud that is being committed by Lumber Liquidators on a daily basis. Their careless and reckless behavior is putting all of their customers in danger, literally. Please watch the video.
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lumber-liquidators-linked-to-health-and-safety-violations/
Although 60 Minutes went into depth about the formaldehyde in flooring sold by Lumber Liquidators in the United States, which is the most serious and pressing of the deceitful practices, there are countless other reasons why you should be looking elsewhere for your flooring.
By buying flooring from Lumber Liquidators you are supporting their practice of sourcing the least expensive wood possible. The reason the materials are often so far below the pricing you would find elsewhere is because the wood is illegally harvested and sold to Chinese factories for production. For example, the Russian Far East is being overrun by illegal logging. The habitat from which they are harvesting oak and walnut flooring is one of the last refuges of the Amur Tiger, commonly known as the Siberian Tiger with an estimated 450 remaining in the wild. Over the course of the last year it was discovered that much of the hardwood originating from the Russian Far East region, $5.7 million dollars’ worth from one Chinese plant in particular, made its way into the United States via Lumber Liquidator’s and onto people’s floors around the country. We don’t doubt that Lumber Liquidators made a hefty profit either.
Further, in addition to the terrible sourcing practices and deceitfulness mentioned above, the actual quality of the flooring you are purchasing from Lumber Liquidators is quite frankly, crap. Even the top of the line products have very limited warranties, high degrees of color variation from board to board, and short average board lengths. The result is an ugly, poor quality floor that has little to no warranty protection.
Our take is that if you value your health, the health of your family and your homes’ inhabitants, the environment, the animals that share the planet with us, or you simply want a quality floor, you should not look to Lumber Liquidators, or the other large box stores for that matter (we’ll dive into them at a later date). You may have to spend a couple dollars extra but it’s well worth the investment.
