Lumber Liquidators

Last night (12÷30÷15) was the first time we have used Lumber Liquidators. The staff were very helpful and Jonathan was fantastic. He was very good at describing each product and gave us good advice on what to look for in flooring. We are very pleased with the service and are looking forward to seeing the final product installed!

Dwayne was incredibly helpful, knowledgeable, and patient. I recommend them for any of your flooring needs.

I’m so grateful for 60 Minutes’ expose yesterday about LL’s dangerous formaldehyde levels in their products.
Here’s our story: we needed flooring for a small addition we’d put on our house. This was in October ’14. First, we ordered a handscraped hardwood that was exhibited on the floor. When it came in, the first board we pulled out of the box had big areas of splintering – the kind of thing where if someone slid their foot across the floor they’d end up with serious injury. We pulled more boards out – some were missing stain in splotches, some had deep splinters. Also, it didn’t look anything like the sample in the store. So we took it back to the Douglasville LL where we’d purchased it. They agreed that it was defective, but refused to give us a refund – only store credit. I understand that policy if someone just changes their mind – but when the product you wanted is defective, that should mean a simple refund. We tried to get a number of other hardwoods, but almost all were out of stock or unavailable for months.
So we went with a Morningstar bamboo, which was very pretty, and they had plenty right there in the attached warehouse. We were surprised to see that the cardboard boxes had been completely sealed in plastic. The salesman told us to make sure we acclimated the bamboo, and to do so we’d need to remove the plastic overwrap. So, we took it home, took all the plastic overwrap off, and then realized: uh oh. A strong, strong smell began to immediately permeate the house. It smelled like frog dissection day in a biology class. Our eyes were watering and our throats were burning. So we moved the stacks out to the carport – and even being in open air, you could smell the smell just rounding the corner outside. It was very, very strong. I got online and saw that many, many people had these same complaints, and many, many people had dealt with LL denying that the product even has formaldehyde. Someone on a forum posted the stats page that clearly listed formaldehyde as part of the glue, but LL had since removed that info from consumers. We now understood why it was wrapped in plastic – LL has to do this or the smell would be so strong the employees would be dropping like flies. We also understood why they had plenty in stock – lots of people return the product.
So, back to LL yet again. There, we told them about the strong fumes, and they insisted that we were just flat out wrong. LL doesn’t USE formaldehyde, they said. We were just picky people, they said. We asked them to please, take a small stack of it home with them and put it into the house and see what happens. They were just scornful. (Thank you, 60 MInutes, for proving that we are not liars, which is basically what LL implied that we were.) Also, they were upset that we had removed the plastic overwrap. We told them that we had been told to remove it by their associate, and they unhappily said that he shouldn’t have told us that.
Once again, even though we had now purchased TWO defective products, they refused to give us a refund. So we went with solid oak. No glues with solid wood, and any splinters can be sanded out. We have beautiful floors now – but what a nightmare in getting there.
I urge anyone considering Lumber Liquidators to pay attention to the 60 Minutes expose, to get online and read the hundreds and hundreds of complaints about LL and their products, to read about the class action lawsuits, to read about their return policy. It was a nightmarish experience for us, and I hope that they change their practices and stop ordering toxic floors made in China and start caring about their customers.