Discount Hardwood Flooring

If you’re interested in hardwood flooring, but want to save money, there are three basic ways you can find lower prices. Discount hardwood flooring can sometimes be found at major home centers, online retailers, from smaller specialty floor covering retailers, and occasionally from contractors or builders.
Home Centers: Major retailers like Home Depot, Lowe’s, and 84 Lumber often offer special pricing on major brands due to manufacturer overruns or to special arrangements with certain factories. For instance, some Home Depot outlets on the East Coast offered TrafficMaster Legacy Oak planks for 20% off recently. If you’re not too picky about the specific brand, wood, or stain color you want, you can frequently find specials at your local major retailers.

Online Retailers: A number of online retailers sell both unfinished and prefinished discount hardwood flooring. Prices tend to be lower because they don’t have the overhead of maintaining showrooms or retail outlets, but in most cases you will have to pay for shipping costs to your location. Many online retailers sell major brands like Bruce, Pergo, Cyntel, and others, so you can feel secure that the quality is up to standard. Here’s a buying tip: if you have doubts about the quality or service you’ll get from an online retailer when you buy discount hardwood flooring, pay with a credit card so you can dispute the charge if necessary.

Specialty Floor Covering Retailers: most towns and cities have specialty or local flooring retailers. Check the Yellow Pages in your area under “Flooring,” “Floor Materials,” or “Lumber” to find dealers near you. Specialty retailers often offer discounts on mill overruns or discontinued flooring lines, or will offer specials in order to reduce their hardwood flooring inventory. Compare prices with online retailers or with major home centers to make sure you’re truly getting a good deal.

Contractors and Builders: Some contractors, especially those who are building multiple homes in a new subdivision or development, will purchase large quantities of hardwood flooring for use in multiple locations. In some cases they’ll sell excess quantities to homeowners if they have unneeded supplies – check your local classifieds and bulletin boards at hardware stores or other home improvement suppliers. You can also ask the contractor if you can purchase hardwood flooring through them, since many retailers offer 10% to 20% discounts to contractors. You may have to split the savings with the contractor, but if your overall price is lower you’re still ahead.

Here’s an additional tip: Some home centers like Home Depot and Lowe’s have “Contractor Sales” departments. Those departments tend to offer special pricing to contractors in order to build a long-term business relationship with local professionals, but many will offer those same prices to you… if you ask. Don’t hesitate to ask if you can receive contractor prices – if they’re unwilling, you haven’t lost anything, and if they offer you the same price levels, you can save considerable amounts of money.

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