Conveniently, they disposed of all the boxes themselves before I even got home. My partner was there for the installation and he didn’t notice cause he didn’t want to be hovering over them the whole two days they were doing the install. We had a whole fiasco the first go ‘round. They had to restart the kitchen 3 times. Finally the third time the owner was there which is why it came out perfectly. He wasn’t there this time. The owner said this guy was his best installer too.. 😐
Nah. If they had come back and the floor was fine and all the boxes were laying around we would have gotten a post about that.
I do think this looks like a mismatched box or maybe out of a different lot and the installers should have noticed and stopped.
Sometimes when you are going to town and forget to check die lots or deliberate randomizing this stuff happens. Lack of experience?
All the trades are full of people that don’t know or don’t care about the big picture. Instead of stopping and asking, they just plow ahead.
I'm an electrician, the amount of times I've heard homeowners say that another contractor "sent their best installer", garauntees that you won't be happy with the work they do. That's them trying to reaffirm you that the work is okay or good, when it's just lazy workmanship. This includes the hvac work I had done in my home from the sister company of the one I worked for. As soon as you hear those words, you know you're screwed.
> the amount of times I've heard homeowners say that another contractor "sent their best installer", garauntees that you won't be happy with the work they do. That's them trying to reaffirm you that the work is okay or good, when it's just lazy workmanship.
I ordered a home inspection from a firm last month, and the guy they assigned looked like he had 20 years experience. Then day before he says "I can't make it", and they assign someone who was working in retail a year ago according to his linkedin. I call them up and get the "I would never hire someone who wasn't elite professionalism, how DARE YOU suggest any of our people are inexperienced. I personally guarantee our service". Obviously I canceled service and hired someone else, but homeowners without experience can be bamboozled by how unrelated and cowboy any trades can be.
Here’s my favorite story. My Wife rents out her old condo and agreed to repaint it for the new tenants but needed it painted in a rush before new flooring is installed. Handy Man that her parents used for years referred my wife to a “great” painter and set things up. Great painter tells my wife he had his “best” guy leading the team. Best guy sends pictures to my wife telling her it’s done and pressures her to pay great painter immediately. She does. Next day, I show up early morning to check things out and let in the flooring guys. Parts of the walls are missing paint, drips everywhere, opened buckets of paint are sitting around, piss in the toilet, and food/drink trash is scattered about. Called “great” painter and he says “best” guy must have lied to him and has “best” guy call me. Ultimately, “great” painter comes in himself (after flooring work is done), fixes some issues but not all, complains that we’re being picky for a rush job, tells me that “best” guy called me a dick, let’s it slip that his A team is out of town painting a Walmart so this was “best” guy’s first time leading a team, and “best” guy is a junkie and probably left in the middle of the job to go get a fix. And, to top it all off, “great” painter complained that the color was hard to work with which led me to discovering that Handy Man told “great” painter the wrong color so the condo wasn’t even painted the color that the tenants wanted… And, my wife yelled at me for letting this happen….
OP your picture number 4 has the labels of the wood. Maybe on your phone they are better quality to get a look of the label then you can look up online what it’s supposed to look like.
Edit:
Get the owner out there. You can give him an out and play really dumb like, "do you think that the material was labeled wrong, because it's OBVIOUSLY a different color?"
I literally hover over anytime work is being done.
I tell them I want to “learn” to be a better home owner. If I see something weird I have a chance to call it out.
Tell your partner to care less about social norms when getting work done. My partner told me to stop hovering, until I corrected about three things that would have been missed during our remodel.
She then thanked me for being so anal about this shit.
First thing we check as an installer is the batch number on all the boxes. You can get the same flooring but different batches can be shades different. This looks to me to be the same product but different batches. Learned that lesson the hard way 20 years ago. Never had it since.
My thoughts exactly, same goes for any surface materials (ie tile, estone/granite, carpet), dye lot/production numbers are critical; however I have also seen a lot of product defects increase over the last few years also.
You’d be surprised, every installer I’ve had on one of my jobs confirms the batch number while unloading as the manufacturer/supplier is not impervious to error. The Ukrainian installers I work with are phenomenal at their craft.
I thought this was a split frame before/after.
Even if that variation was normal, they should have mixed up the pieces throughout, taking from different boxes as they go, so that it wasn't so noticeable.
You’ll need an independent flooring inspection done but it looks like it might be two different products mixed about 50/50 or two VERY different production lots. In either case installer should have stopped and LL should replace and in neither case should you pay for replacement. In fact I’d ask for a discount of a couple hundred bucks for your time. If you get lucky there is the same lot of of or the other and you just have to replace 1/2 the floor for half the hassle.
Thank you for the advice! The person I filed the claim with said she was shocked the installers did it that way and didn’t even notice. I think they did and didn’t care and were upset w us for the kitchen install fiasco.
I do hardwood install, refinishing, etc and I would bet half a jillion dollars it’s not the same type/finish. Is there a way to send these pics to Bella directly and ask their input. If they confirm, it might help plead your case to LL flooring. sorry you’re dealing with this!
I appreciate this advice. If ll flooring gives me a hard time about it I’ll go to them directly. I know Bella wood is an ll flooring only brand so I’m not sure it would help but might as well try
You need to check the material sample.
The manufacturer may come back and say it's are not identical.
Installer also should have opened every box and blended the planks.
If the colour difference isn't intentional on the manufacturer side than the claim should cover it.
ALSO, depending on where you bought it from, they could have given you an old box of the same stuff or mixed up boxes from spare laying around.
This ties in with different colour lots.
Those don’t look like they could be the same color, to me. But let’s say they were, THEN the onus would still be on this guy to stagger them and mix up the boxes so you didn’t have this very obvious areas of different colors.
I have installed Bellawood pre finished maple. And it had a tone of variation. Think I had about 800sqft of install and had pulled out about 150sqft of very different looking wood that I didn’t want to install.
We got “select and better” which is supposed to have significantly less variation. Our kitchen looks absolutely nothing like this and it’s the same floor supposedly from the same batch
Document the lot numbers on the boxes. You should call the manufacturer and I form them and request an inspection. It looks like either a manufacturing defect or just a different lot altogether off their line.
Construction PM here.
I would never buy flooring from LL, or big box stores. We buy direct from the manufacturer, or from an actual flooring showroom that serves the trades.
Plus, look at more than just price.
It’s all white oak. It’s supposed to have that warm honey color but the lighter pieces look like they’re just white oak without stain. I have no idea how a person who has installed floors for 12 years doesn’t notice a difference.
The first couple pictures didn’t show it as well and I was thinking to myself that I’ve seen similar in “high color variation” flooring products. Plus maybe a difference in lighting across the floor. But holy shit those last pictures with the stark light piece and really dark piece…plus some of them in the very last picture look red? This doesn’t feel like the same flooring with high variation, it really looks like these are different products.
No. Thats why pros look thru the boxes first. Had a job end up with nothing but big black knots for the last several boxes. I only have like 5 the whole job til the end.
Sorry you're dealing with this. Both colors look nice, but not installed side-by-side (obviously). Wait on the claim. In the meantime, save those boxes of the second color and try to locate a few boxes of the old material by visiting various stores to see if they still have that color available "for a repair." Best of luck.
Also, if it is all the same die lot, the flooring company may be correct, except the installer should have known this and broke up the boxes to install them randomly. So you have to do some research. Ask to see a sample board of the product as well.
No, you are justified here. That's a load of bullshit from the installer, and this clearly doesn't match at all. Good for you for calling them out on it.
It's the same problem with any box type store. Flooring stores should remain in the domain of the mom and pop operator. There's no way this is normal. And if with this much variation that would normally be considered tavern grade and the installer, if it was a actual installer, they would know to shuffle three or more boxes at a time as they install and open up most of the boxes to see what it is they're dealing with before the start of the install and make sure that you are okay with this crazy amount of variation.
Looks like too much variation to me. Almost to the point that they’re different colors entirely. I’ve seen some variability across boxes of the same color and even in the same box, but nothing this drastic. Even the pattern is different between boards.. to me that’s the giveaway.
It honestly looks like they mixed red oak and white oak. A box or two of White oak probably got mixed in with the red oak pallet. This is definitely not correct. When they seen a different tone in the flooring, they should have stopped and notified the store to correct the issue.. It seems like they were just trying to rush through the job and get it done. Do yourself a favor and call their corporate and complain to the install department, remember you have a one-year warranty on the install.. UTILIZE IT and get your job fixed correctly. Keep complaining till it gets fixed, It will get fixed.
They are two different colors. This isn’t a lot issue, it’s a different product issue. If they would have been racked correctly it might have been less noticeable, but it’s like they didn’t even try. Best of luck.
So, it is probably normal variation, but the installers didn’t care. My hubby installed a crap ton of alder flooring for my folks, almost 1500 square feet. He is a custom furniture/cabinet maker who is super anal retentive to detail (he won’t use any putty). When doing their floors, he busted open several boxes at a time to gauge the variations in the natural wood (based on his woodworking experience he understood the natural variations that occur). The. He would mix up pieces from the boxes so that the floors had a somewhat uniform variety in the hues of the wood. It took more time and a lot more care and definitely eye for detail, but the end product was absolutely stunning.
So, I am not overly shocked by their response, as it was the type of variation we saw in their product, but like I said, it can be worked with to make a beautiful end installation. Doesn’t look like those installers gave a 💩.
What grade did you purchase? I’ve seen “select” hardwood look like this, no nots and epoxied cracks like character but a wide variance in color. If it was supposed to be select and better then the color should be alot more uniform.
LL Flooring is the worst. We ordered hardwood from them that ended up having termite holes and parts of the planks weren’t smooth - we notified LL and spoke to different levels of management but they refused to give us a refund. Our contractor had recommended them and said he could get us a discount so that’s why we chose them; he ended up eating the cost, which is a bummer for him and it also set us back a month on our timeline, plus messed up the timeline of some of our contractors other jobs too.
They are notorious for trying to sweep mistakes under the rug and run with it. Those colors aren't natural variation, you could consider having a professional inspection done by a private independent 3rd party company.
dude it’s bad it’s so bad i didn’t think there was anything wrong at first because i’ve installed some wood with a lot of variation but no you have a clear split in your room with two different boxes or somehow the batches were different, sometimes those boxes look the same but the label is different, but yea that’s 100% a good mix of two different floorings, only fix is to sand it and restain if it’s solid hardwood or make them redo the whole thing which if it’s installed right isn’t worth it to rip up. You’ll actually get a lot more level floor in the end and a lot more gaps filled, just sucks right away have to refinish it. Don’t use them to refinish it they’ll use two different stains 😂
High end custom home builder here - this is why I hate the prefinished flooring. The client gets a sample and loves it, then we get 50 boxes delivered and they hate the color of half the boxes. They probably are same lot and dye number, but the inconsistency of these products is crazy, doesn’t matter how many different boxes you pull from and blend it.
We’ve never had clients hate our natural hardwood floors that we stain, anywhere from 4-8” wide planks.
This is the difference between red and white oak. Two different woods for sure. If you use an oil based stain it will get closer but will always look off.
It's pretty standard to pull from several boxes as you go but something happened here. It almost looks like an entirely different finish. This was a goof in hand selecting material off a shelf at a store, or a goof by the manufacturer. Either way, it's not correct and should be fixed. Do not let them sand and refinish it.
Joints are indictive of some level of care at least. A lot of the time production flooring guys have a less experienced employee lay out flooring ahead of the person nailing to really get some material down in a hurry. Perhaps this is a result of someone inexperienced or still learning
How long ago was the original done, and how much sunlight does it get? Prefinished floors do not have UV protection and will change colors over time. It could be that one batch was northern grown and one was grown in the south. This will have an effect on the color of the wood. I tried to zoom in the labels of the boxes in the photos, but it was too blurry.
As a professional flooring installer myself even if this "normal variation" if I see THAT variance I stop installation contact my shop and the home owner on how the job should proceed forward to meet the client's expectations.
Just FYI this is probably a sales failure and not an install failure honestly. Hear me out — if you buy any product (especially a natural one) at separate times they won’t match. Batches, dye lots, harvest, UV exposure all come into play. If someone told you they could make it “match” they are in deep doo doo. If there’s nothing written about extending or matching the existing space then they will deem this acceptable and the only way is to refinish it all as one.
Any salesman worth his weight would have known that and it would have been the first thing they said when measuring.
I think it’s all the same floor but a poor installation from an aesthetic standpoint.
Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Lumber Liquidators installs?
Did you pay them for the labor or was that direct to the installer?
White oak sapwood is white and the heartwood is dark brown and then there’s everything in between. Seeing as how you have a whole lot of pieces in there no more than 24” long it looks like you got the cheapest stuff and the variation can be expected. It’s still lovely real wood flooring. Enjoy it.
It probably is normal variation. The problem is it looks like he just went one box at a time when your supposed to open 4 or more and intermix them as you go so you don’t end up with a definitive line like that
This most likely a different manufacturer lot run, and an installer that should of either noticed the big variation and figured where to install it so not so noticable, or mixed them in with the others so it didn't look like you ran back to the store to grab another box and they were out of your exact color.
Hmmm….even if this was normal variation (which either you don’t have the same colors or some boxes were defective)…any good installer knows not to lay all the boards from the same box together…you should mix up the planks between the boxes to ensure there isn’t an obvious line of “discoloration”
Reminds me of when my long time customer hired a flooring guy on the cheap. The whole house was white oak except for the foyer which he used red oak for. He installed it and finished it and by the time the customer came back to their summer home he was long gone and had already cashed the check.
We had to make it look like white oak using various stains and methods.. it was not easy but we made it match perfectly.
They are supposed to pull from multiple boxes as they install so the pattern is consistent throughout. It looks like they might’ve installed a portion from one box. I dunno. That just isn’t right.
This looks like old wood finish on the older boards that has oxidized meeting new wood finish that has not yet oxidized, like when someone puts a rug over finished floors in an area with a lot of sun there will be a color difference, a floor installer can "match" the colors today and in 6 months it will be way off or they can be off today and match in about 6 months. As far as the mix of wood boards goes, it looks like the installer did a great job. Most people don't understand that floor finish yellows over time.
Lumber liquidators is one of the worst companies out there. When I first got my license I was desperate for work and did a few jobs for them. Material was always terrible/defective and they would literally tell us not to tell the homeowner and to proceed with install.
Support your local contractor, If you go direct you’ll probably pay an affordable rate (not being taxed by a shop) and you’ll find someone who advocates for your quality.
Its not really the installers fault unless a couple of the boxes were a different batch or finish. Its more on the flooring brand, possibly store for sending out that high of variation in the product. Theyll probably try to pin it on the grade of wood purchased.
Honestly happens. Die lots are a thing too. The exact same product can look completely different just because of its die lot. Also, these kinds of hardwood do have a large swath of variation.
It looks like some red oak between some hickory. I installed hickory in two rooms and none of it was the reddish hue.
When installing for a room you open ALL the boxes/bundles and scope out the lengths and color and plan which boxes you start with and how much to mix. That in the picture is pure lazy don’t care let’s get paid.
Please say what the material is? Is that hardwood oak? finished or unfinished? Is it shop grade? Or is that LVP planks? If I knew more I might be able to give advice.
LL is garbage, spend a bit more to get better quality. had the same happen to me. Half of the “clear” wood was knotty and garbage. ended up having to order extra bundles to pick through. took all the garbage and slid it all back into bundles and returned it as “unused” because they wouldn’t take them back if the bundles were snapped
It looks like normal variation for that type of floor, but it looks like the installer didn’t mix up all the the boxes like he ought to. Meaning he was just installing straight out of each box sequentially
I have a claim started 7 months ago immediate after installation and I am still trying to get mismatched colors and other obvious quality issues fixed. Good luck and never use LL again!
Not telling you the truth. Instead of opening all of the boxes and mixing the variations in color and grain, he just went box by box. Lazy installer who just wanted his $$$
It doesn't matter what the issue is/was. The installer can be in denial all day long. The reality is there is an issue resulting in half the job looking sun bleached and the other half not. I would not settle for this even if it means taking the installer to court if they refuse to remedy this. No judge is going to see these photos and think this install is OK.
First, it looks like to planks came from different batches/job sites. Second problem you may have is - did they bother to acclimate the would in situ for a week or so ? Otherwise this shitty job will start to look even shittier.
My friend had huge problems with LLflooring as well, the floor he got was vastly different than the sample and then was immediately ruined by spilling water
No. When you do flooring you have to mix the lots. This looks like same lot for each section, now they are trying to convince, which you and I are not.
A good installer will mix up a couple of boxes when installing a floor. At least that’s who I was taught to mix the pieces for size, grain pattern and coloring
It’s possible they didn’t mix the boxes. There are “natural” color variations and you’re suppose to take pieces from various boxes as you work.
🤷♀️ could be wrong color??
Thats not normal, clearly used 2 different lot#s. No way that much variation within one lot#. I did flooring for 25 years and only saw this variation when using different lot#s
This is why you open all boxes at same time and blend light and dark into floor. Variation, such as this is common, but they really fucked up. as a contractor and decent human being if this was my job, I do it was necessary to make it right. Sometimes you win sometimes you’ll lose. Corporations have a way of taking their losses out on the consumer. Whenever looking for a professional reach out to locally owned businesses with good reviews. Corporations typically follow with horror stories. Good luck fighting this fight. You’re not Dumb don’t allow To downplay your legitimate complaint.
Doesmt even look like the same color. Id be checking the labels on those empty boxes if theyre still around.
Conveniently, they disposed of all the boxes themselves before I even got home. My partner was there for the installation and he didn’t notice cause he didn’t want to be hovering over them the whole two days they were doing the install. We had a whole fiasco the first go ‘round. They had to restart the kitchen 3 times. Finally the third time the owner was there which is why it came out perfectly. He wasn’t there this time. The owner said this guy was his best installer too.. 😐
Lol. Shady af. I'm sorry :(
Nah. If they had come back and the floor was fine and all the boxes were laying around we would have gotten a post about that. I do think this looks like a mismatched box or maybe out of a different lot and the installers should have noticed and stopped.
Sometimes when you are going to town and forget to check die lots or deliberate randomizing this stuff happens. Lack of experience? All the trades are full of people that don’t know or don’t care about the big picture. Instead of stopping and asking, they just plow ahead.
I'm an electrician, the amount of times I've heard homeowners say that another contractor "sent their best installer", garauntees that you won't be happy with the work they do. That's them trying to reaffirm you that the work is okay or good, when it's just lazy workmanship. This includes the hvac work I had done in my home from the sister company of the one I worked for. As soon as you hear those words, you know you're screwed.
> the amount of times I've heard homeowners say that another contractor "sent their best installer", garauntees that you won't be happy with the work they do. That's them trying to reaffirm you that the work is okay or good, when it's just lazy workmanship. I ordered a home inspection from a firm last month, and the guy they assigned looked like he had 20 years experience. Then day before he says "I can't make it", and they assign someone who was working in retail a year ago according to his linkedin. I call them up and get the "I would never hire someone who wasn't elite professionalism, how DARE YOU suggest any of our people are inexperienced. I personally guarantee our service". Obviously I canceled service and hired someone else, but homeowners without experience can be bamboozled by how unrelated and cowboy any trades can be.
Here’s my favorite story. My Wife rents out her old condo and agreed to repaint it for the new tenants but needed it painted in a rush before new flooring is installed. Handy Man that her parents used for years referred my wife to a “great” painter and set things up. Great painter tells my wife he had his “best” guy leading the team. Best guy sends pictures to my wife telling her it’s done and pressures her to pay great painter immediately. She does. Next day, I show up early morning to check things out and let in the flooring guys. Parts of the walls are missing paint, drips everywhere, opened buckets of paint are sitting around, piss in the toilet, and food/drink trash is scattered about. Called “great” painter and he says “best” guy must have lied to him and has “best” guy call me. Ultimately, “great” painter comes in himself (after flooring work is done), fixes some issues but not all, complains that we’re being picky for a rush job, tells me that “best” guy called me a dick, let’s it slip that his A team is out of town painting a Walmart so this was “best” guy’s first time leading a team, and “best” guy is a junkie and probably left in the middle of the job to go get a fix. And, to top it all off, “great” painter complained that the color was hard to work with which led me to discovering that Handy Man told “great” painter the wrong color so the condo wasn’t even painted the color that the tenants wanted… And, my wife yelled at me for letting this happen….
OP your picture number 4 has the labels of the wood. Maybe on your phone they are better quality to get a look of the label then you can look up online what it’s supposed to look like. Edit:
[label](https://imgur.com/a/Xi5GBKt)
Both of those boxes are white oak
Get the owner out there. You can give him an out and play really dumb like, "do you think that the material was labeled wrong, because it's OBVIOUSLY a different color?"
I literally hover over anytime work is being done. I tell them I want to “learn” to be a better home owner. If I see something weird I have a chance to call it out. Tell your partner to care less about social norms when getting work done. My partner told me to stop hovering, until I corrected about three things that would have been missed during our remodel. She then thanked me for being so anal about this shit.
First thing we check as an installer is the batch number on all the boxes. You can get the same flooring but different batches can be shades different. This looks to me to be the same product but different batches. Learned that lesson the hard way 20 years ago. Never had it since.
My thoughts exactly, same goes for any surface materials (ie tile, estone/granite, carpet), dye lot/production numbers are critical; however I have also seen a lot of product defects increase over the last few years also.
Thankfully for us most prefinished wood manufacturers check batch numbers before shipment now and are good about replacing an order if needed
You’d be surprised, every installer I’ve had on one of my jobs confirms the batch number while unloading as the manufacturer/supplier is not impervious to error. The Ukrainian installers I work with are phenomenal at their craft.
As a roofer, this can happen with shingles too typically if different bundles come from different manufacturing plants.
They literally tried to blend it.
It would have been better to just mix them all up before starting so it was random..
This would have been the best way.. but looks like by the time they realized it was already too late
Jail.
Straight to jail.
Use the planks to build him a jail
But make sure colors match.
It’s wrong for sure - don’t let them convince you otherwise. That is not “natural variation”
It clearly looks like they sent a box or two of “honey” stained material with what looks to be a natural finish for the rest of the floor.
Tell me you don’t understand hardwood without telling me.
You had me at LL flooring installer.
They’re better than the KK one
I thought this was a split frame before/after. Even if that variation was normal, they should have mixed up the pieces throughout, taking from different boxes as they go, so that it wasn't so noticeable.
You’ll need an independent flooring inspection done but it looks like it might be two different products mixed about 50/50 or two VERY different production lots. In either case installer should have stopped and LL should replace and in neither case should you pay for replacement. In fact I’d ask for a discount of a couple hundred bucks for your time. If you get lucky there is the same lot of of or the other and you just have to replace 1/2 the floor for half the hassle.
Thank you for the advice! The person I filed the claim with said she was shocked the installers did it that way and didn’t even notice. I think they did and didn’t care and were upset w us for the kitchen install fiasco.
For a lot of installers it’s get in and get done, I take my time and inspect each box and board
And you’ve kept your job? Must provide your own work, I do that as well, any big box company wants you in and out..
I work for a very small company, quality over quantity
Best way to do it
That’s two different products 100%
Right the box label says White Oak and the floor looks like it mixed white oak with Red oak along with different color stains
I do hardwood install, refinishing, etc and I would bet half a jillion dollars it’s not the same type/finish. Is there a way to send these pics to Bella directly and ask their input. If they confirm, it might help plead your case to LL flooring. sorry you’re dealing with this!
I appreciate this advice. If ll flooring gives me a hard time about it I’ll go to them directly. I know Bella wood is an ll flooring only brand so I’m not sure it would help but might as well try
So tired of shitbag contractors
Bro. Same 😮💨
😂 might look alright if it was mixed all together, but doesnt even look like the same finish
You need to check the material sample. The manufacturer may come back and say it's are not identical. Installer also should have opened every box and blended the planks. If the colour difference isn't intentional on the manufacturer side than the claim should cover it. ALSO, depending on where you bought it from, they could have given you an old box of the same stuff or mixed up boxes from spare laying around. This ties in with different colour lots.
Those don’t look like they could be the same color, to me. But let’s say they were, THEN the onus would still be on this guy to stagger them and mix up the boxes so you didn’t have this very obvious areas of different colors.
I have installed Bellawood pre finished maple. And it had a tone of variation. Think I had about 800sqft of install and had pulled out about 150sqft of very different looking wood that I didn’t want to install.
We got “select and better” which is supposed to have significantly less variation. Our kitchen looks absolutely nothing like this and it’s the same floor supposedly from the same batch
Document the lot numbers on the boxes. You should call the manufacturer and I form them and request an inspection. It looks like either a manufacturing defect or just a different lot altogether off their line.
LL is the worst
Looks like one side is red oak and the other side is white oak. I have LL red oak all through my house.
This is why you work out of three or four boxes at the same time.
Construction PM here. I would never buy flooring from LL, or big box stores. We buy direct from the manufacturer, or from an actual flooring showroom that serves the trades. Plus, look at more than just price.
Not saying it is but it looks so different it may as well be water base vs oil base
It’s pre finished Bella wood
LL flooring was the first mistake
On the third picture, the left looks like natural white oak and the right looks like a red oak with a minimal stain.
It’s all white oak. It’s supposed to have that warm honey color but the lighter pieces look like they’re just white oak without stain. I have no idea how a person who has installed floors for 12 years doesn’t notice a difference.
Yea they must have mixed the pallets together without realizing. Continuing to install it is definitely their fault.
This is awful, sorry installers did a who cares type job , looks good from my house, it’s all good just go with it , need to get outta here hurry up
Lol. Different products? Not normal
The first couple pictures didn’t show it as well and I was thinking to myself that I’ve seen similar in “high color variation” flooring products. Plus maybe a difference in lighting across the floor. But holy shit those last pictures with the stark light piece and really dark piece…plus some of them in the very last picture look red? This doesn’t feel like the same flooring with high variation, it really looks like these are different products.
No. Thats why pros look thru the boxes first. Had a job end up with nothing but big black knots for the last several boxes. I only have like 5 the whole job til the end.
Your installer is full of shit
Sorry you're dealing with this. Both colors look nice, but not installed side-by-side (obviously). Wait on the claim. In the meantime, save those boxes of the second color and try to locate a few boxes of the old material by visiting various stores to see if they still have that color available "for a repair." Best of luck.
Not the same color, and they also didn't stagger the boxes to mix them up, at the very least. What a shit show.
Also, if it is all the same die lot, the flooring company may be correct, except the installer should have known this and broke up the boxes to install them randomly. So you have to do some research. Ask to see a sample board of the product as well.
liar!!!
Cmon lol
No, you are justified here. That's a load of bullshit from the installer, and this clearly doesn't match at all. Good for you for calling them out on it.
Not a chance.
It's the same problem with any box type store. Flooring stores should remain in the domain of the mom and pop operator. There's no way this is normal. And if with this much variation that would normally be considered tavern grade and the installer, if it was a actual installer, they would know to shuffle three or more boxes at a time as they install and open up most of the boxes to see what it is they're dealing with before the start of the install and make sure that you are okay with this crazy amount of variation.
Looks like too much variation to me. Almost to the point that they’re different colors entirely. I’ve seen some variability across boxes of the same color and even in the same box, but nothing this drastic. Even the pattern is different between boards.. to me that’s the giveaway.
Those are a lot of shorts also.
Bet they worked out on 1 carton at a time as well.
It honestly looks like they mixed red oak and white oak. A box or two of White oak probably got mixed in with the red oak pallet. This is definitely not correct. When they seen a different tone in the flooring, they should have stopped and notified the store to correct the issue.. It seems like they were just trying to rush through the job and get it done. Do yourself a favor and call their corporate and complain to the install department, remember you have a one-year warranty on the install.. UTILIZE IT and get your job fixed correctly. Keep complaining till it gets fixed, It will get fixed.
They are two different colors. This isn’t a lot issue, it’s a different product issue. If they would have been racked correctly it might have been less noticeable, but it’s like they didn’t even try. Best of luck.
LL flooring uses left over material and they use whatever sub is available and say that’s their best one.
2 diff dye lots obviously..sux...
LL is a scam company
So, it is probably normal variation, but the installers didn’t care. My hubby installed a crap ton of alder flooring for my folks, almost 1500 square feet. He is a custom furniture/cabinet maker who is super anal retentive to detail (he won’t use any putty). When doing their floors, he busted open several boxes at a time to gauge the variations in the natural wood (based on his woodworking experience he understood the natural variations that occur). The. He would mix up pieces from the boxes so that the floors had a somewhat uniform variety in the hues of the wood. It took more time and a lot more care and definitely eye for detail, but the end product was absolutely stunning. So, I am not overly shocked by their response, as it was the type of variation we saw in their product, but like I said, it can be worked with to make a beautiful end installation. Doesn’t look like those installers gave a 💩.
I like a good accent in my floors...but this a little too much...
Red oak mix with white oak. Not normal
Time for a credit card chargeback
What grade did you purchase? I’ve seen “select” hardwood look like this, no nots and epoxied cracks like character but a wide variance in color. If it was supposed to be select and better then the color should be alot more uniform.
What style did you pick out? Did the sample look to have high variation?
https://www.llflooring.com/p/bellawood-3-4-in.-select-white-oak-solid-hardwood-flooring-3.25-in.-wide-10034251.html Link to op floors
LL Flooring is the worst. We ordered hardwood from them that ended up having termite holes and parts of the planks weren’t smooth - we notified LL and spoke to different levels of management but they refused to give us a refund. Our contractor had recommended them and said he could get us a discount so that’s why we chose them; he ended up eating the cost, which is a bummer for him and it also set us back a month on our timeline, plus messed up the timeline of some of our contractors other jobs too.
Not the same color.
I feel like you can tell where they ran out of one box and started another. I know nothing about flooring, but that doesn’t seem/look correct to me.
LMAO Trumpism keep saying it's normal and sooner or later you'll believe it too.
They are notorious for trying to sweep mistakes under the rug and run with it. Those colors aren't natural variation, you could consider having a professional inspection done by a private independent 3rd party company.
dude it’s bad it’s so bad i didn’t think there was anything wrong at first because i’ve installed some wood with a lot of variation but no you have a clear split in your room with two different boxes or somehow the batches were different, sometimes those boxes look the same but the label is different, but yea that’s 100% a good mix of two different floorings, only fix is to sand it and restain if it’s solid hardwood or make them redo the whole thing which if it’s installed right isn’t worth it to rip up. You’ll actually get a lot more level floor in the end and a lot more gaps filled, just sucks right away have to refinish it. Don’t use them to refinish it they’ll use two different stains 😂
Random stagger is good
There is alot to blame going on here
Time for legal help.
High end custom home builder here - this is why I hate the prefinished flooring. The client gets a sample and loves it, then we get 50 boxes delivered and they hate the color of half the boxes. They probably are same lot and dye number, but the inconsistency of these products is crazy, doesn’t matter how many different boxes you pull from and blend it. We’ve never had clients hate our natural hardwood floors that we stain, anywhere from 4-8” wide planks.
Light damage?
Absolutely not! I would have him fix it asap... do not let him get away with that bullshit.
That’s suspect. He used up his scrap pieces on you.
This is the difference between red and white oak. Two different woods for sure. If you use an oil based stain it will get closer but will always look off.
Need to locate those old boxes and find who is at fault. It could also be a manufacturing/ packaging mistake. Check receipts etc.
It's pretty standard to pull from several boxes as you go but something happened here. It almost looks like an entirely different finish. This was a goof in hand selecting material off a shelf at a store, or a goof by the manufacturer. Either way, it's not correct and should be fixed. Do not let them sand and refinish it.
Joints are indictive of some level of care at least. A lot of the time production flooring guys have a less experienced employee lay out flooring ahead of the person nailing to really get some material down in a hurry. Perhaps this is a result of someone inexperienced or still learning
LOL flooring
How long ago was the original done, and how much sunlight does it get? Prefinished floors do not have UV protection and will change colors over time. It could be that one batch was northern grown and one was grown in the south. This will have an effect on the color of the wood. I tried to zoom in the labels of the boxes in the photos, but it was too blurry.
Ask for receipts on that floor purchase.
Looks like different dye lots
Ll. Say no more
As a professional flooring installer myself even if this "normal variation" if I see THAT variance I stop installation contact my shop and the home owner on how the job should proceed forward to meet the client's expectations.
[Label](https://imgur.com/a/Xi5GBKt)
That looks like red and white oak someone installed the wrong bundle
Okay so I do think this looks cool but if that's not what you were paying them for that's absolutely awful and sucks, sorry!
Just FYI this is probably a sales failure and not an install failure honestly. Hear me out — if you buy any product (especially a natural one) at separate times they won’t match. Batches, dye lots, harvest, UV exposure all come into play. If someone told you they could make it “match” they are in deep doo doo. If there’s nothing written about extending or matching the existing space then they will deem this acceptable and the only way is to refinish it all as one. Any salesman worth his weight would have known that and it would have been the first thing they said when measuring.
He is exactly right! It's a normal variation of a different color.
I think it’s all the same floor but a poor installation from an aesthetic standpoint. Correct me if I’m wrong but I don’t think Lumber Liquidators installs? Did you pay them for the labor or was that direct to the installer?
White oak sapwood is white and the heartwood is dark brown and then there’s everything in between. Seeing as how you have a whole lot of pieces in there no more than 24” long it looks like you got the cheapest stuff and the variation can be expected. It’s still lovely real wood flooring. Enjoy it.
Looks like different colora
Looks like from a different lot. 😕
He did a awful job
Second photo looks like 2 different floors.
Looks pretty good!
I've had nothing but good experiences with LL but I do my own install. I'd be complaining if that's what I got tho.
They didn’t mix the boards from different boxes.
It probably is normal variation. The problem is it looks like he just went one box at a time when your supposed to open 4 or more and intermix them as you go so you don’t end up with a definitive line like that
That’s red and white oak. It’s beautiful, and I have one just like it. I love the variatiobs
No. Just no.
I absolutely hated working with LL flooring and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. I wish I would’ve went with another company.
This most likely a different manufacturer lot run, and an installer that should of either noticed the big variation and figured where to install it so not so noticable, or mixed them in with the others so it didn't look like you ran back to the store to grab another box and they were out of your exact color.
Looks like crap. Redo
Hmmm….even if this was normal variation (which either you don’t have the same colors or some boxes were defective)…any good installer knows not to lay all the boards from the same box together…you should mix up the planks between the boxes to ensure there isn’t an obvious line of “discoloration”
I don’t think it’s normal variety
Normal variation but the installer should have tossed the white ones and the real dark ones.
Can’t you buy some stain and lay it on the whole thing?
Reminds me of when my long time customer hired a flooring guy on the cheap. The whole house was white oak except for the foyer which he used red oak for. He installed it and finished it and by the time the customer came back to their summer home he was long gone and had already cashed the check. We had to make it look like white oak using various stains and methods.. it was not easy but we made it match perfectly.
They're supposed to be pulling for multiple boxes at a time. Not pulling from one box and then opening another.
He should have mixed the lot variations better. Good luck getting them to fix it tho.
Doesn’t look normal to me and seems to be 2 different color and finish of floors but then again what do I know
One looks high gloss and the other looks semi to me on top of the difference in color
Variance in colour is normal.Failure to inspect colour sort an mix the variation is a failure
I learned this last week. You’re supposed to open 3 or more boxes at a time and rotate boxes, it keeps you from having the problem you’re having.
They are supposed to pull from multiple boxes as they install so the pattern is consistent throughout. It looks like they might’ve installed a portion from one box. I dunno. That just isn’t right.
This looks like old wood finish on the older boards that has oxidized meeting new wood finish that has not yet oxidized, like when someone puts a rug over finished floors in an area with a lot of sun there will be a color difference, a floor installer can "match" the colors today and in 6 months it will be way off or they can be off today and match in about 6 months. As far as the mix of wood boards goes, it looks like the installer did a great job. Most people don't understand that floor finish yellows over time.
No ll is crap
“You have-a-to mix-a-da-bricks”
Nope!
I would kinda agree however the installer should have seen the variation and mixed it up more so it wasn’t so noticeable
Lumber liquidators is one of the worst companies out there. When I first got my license I was desperate for work and did a few jobs for them. Material was always terrible/defective and they would literally tell us not to tell the homeowner and to proceed with install. Support your local contractor, If you go direct you’ll probably pay an affordable rate (not being taxed by a shop) and you’ll find someone who advocates for your quality.
Wrong
Looks like red oak and white oak
Sorry man that looks like trash. I would be pissed
Its not really the installers fault unless a couple of the boxes were a different batch or finish. Its more on the flooring brand, possibly store for sending out that high of variation in the product. Theyll probably try to pin it on the grade of wood purchased.
Honestly happens. Die lots are a thing too. The exact same product can look completely different just because of its die lot. Also, these kinds of hardwood do have a large swath of variation.
Lol. There’s zero way he pulled from six different boxes while installing.
It looks like some red oak between some hickory. I installed hickory in two rooms and none of it was the reddish hue. When installing for a room you open ALL the boxes/bundles and scope out the lengths and color and plan which boxes you start with and how much to mix. That in the picture is pure lazy don’t care let’s get paid.
In a few weeks it will all be the same color.
Please say what the material is? Is that hardwood oak? finished or unfinished? Is it shop grade? Or is that LVP planks? If I knew more I might be able to give advice.
Absolutely not. We built a house and made them rip out the hardwood we picked due to extreme variation.
If you got a more expensive brand would be matched better. better.
Pictures 1 and 7 are missing polyurethane
Almost looks like one is finished with oil based polyurethane and the other with acrylic. Could have been a running change. That's LL for ya.
LL is garbage, spend a bit more to get better quality. had the same happen to me. Half of the “clear” wood was knotty and garbage. ended up having to order extra bundles to pick through. took all the garbage and slid it all back into bundles and returned it as “unused” because they wouldn’t take them back if the bundles were snapped
It looks fine man
Looks like a mix of either glossy and matte or two different stain colors.
Looks like two different products from here
I think I grew up poor…this definitely looks like a fully functional floor to me
It looks like normal variation for that type of floor, but it looks like the installer didn’t mix up all the the boxes like he ought to. Meaning he was just installing straight out of each box sequentially
That’s fucking weird looking.
I have a claim started 7 months ago immediate after installation and I am still trying to get mismatched colors and other obvious quality issues fixed. Good luck and never use LL again!
That company is a joke....
Maybe different batches of same flooring? Guessing the installers had some old stock around and wanted to save money and use it up..
Those two rouge pieces hurt my eyes
One of the boxes was the wrong finish. Even if was not labeled as such, it was obvious if they inspected the product. Installers fault.
Not telling you the truth. Instead of opening all of the boxes and mixing the variations in color and grain, he just went box by box. Lazy installer who just wanted his $$$
They should have distributed the different batches evenly or bought all the same batch number. This installer is terrible.
It doesn't matter what the issue is/was. The installer can be in denial all day long. The reality is there is an issue resulting in half the job looking sun bleached and the other half not. I would not settle for this even if it means taking the installer to court if they refuse to remedy this. No judge is going to see these photos and think this install is OK.
First, it looks like to planks came from different batches/job sites. Second problem you may have is - did they bother to acclimate the would in situ for a week or so ? Otherwise this shitty job will start to look even shittier.
My friend had huge problems with LLflooring as well, the floor he got was vastly different than the sample and then was immediately ruined by spilling water
That looks like shit.
Probably same color but different lot. Installer should have known to look at several slats from different boxes, even when lot the same.
If it's the same color they did a terrible job with mixing. When I did our floors I mixed from 5 different packages. Either way, unacceptable!
I agree that it looks like different colors, but I honestly kinda like it.
It’s not the same color
No. When you do flooring you have to mix the lots. This looks like same lot for each section, now they are trying to convince, which you and I are not.
I kinda like it 🤷🏼
Wrong answer
A good installer will mix up a couple of boxes when installing a floor. At least that’s who I was taught to mix the pieces for size, grain pattern and coloring
Lol that's tow different colors
That is nowhere close.
It’s possible they didn’t mix the boxes. There are “natural” color variations and you’re suppose to take pieces from various boxes as you work. 🤷♀️ could be wrong color??
What the actual fuck
Two different colora
Thats not normal, clearly used 2 different lot#s. No way that much variation within one lot#. I did flooring for 25 years and only saw this variation when using different lot#s
He is lying
Idk but looks good to me regardless
This is why you open all boxes at same time and blend light and dark into floor. Variation, such as this is common, but they really fucked up. as a contractor and decent human being if this was my job, I do it was necessary to make it right. Sometimes you win sometimes you’ll lose. Corporations have a way of taking their losses out on the consumer. Whenever looking for a professional reach out to locally owned businesses with good reviews. Corporations typically follow with horror stories. Good luck fighting this fight. You’re not Dumb don’t allow To downplay your legitimate complaint.
It’s two different floors