If you’ve shopped for flooring in the past decade, there’s a good chance you’ve stumbled across the Bellawood flooring lineup. It’s the store brand of Lumber Liquidators and one of the more popular options within the budget-friendly to midrange realm.
There is no official website for the Bellawood brand, so you won’t find quite as much information on how their products are made. Most of the key tech specs are listed at Lumber Liquidators, however, and the site itself is easy to browse. There are currently four types of flooring available with Bellawood, Bellawood Artisan Distressed, and engineered variants from both of those lines.
Bellawood Solid Hardwood Flooring
Most of the hardwood flooring manufacturers we’ve covered focus on engineered flooring. It’s considered more sustainable in some cases but doesn’t hold up to the durability and feel of solid hardwood flooring. Bellawood stands out from the pack compared to other manufacturers as they have focused on solid floors whereas other companies largely rely on engineered products.
Bellawood’s solid hardwood flooring comes in the usual shades of light, medium and dark but you’ll have 10 colors to choose from. You can find planks with an orange hue and boards that are a pale white along with the usual natural tones like brown and tan. There are three widths with medium, wide and thin strip planks, but only one thickness at ¾”.
Bellawood Engineered Hardwood Flooring
While not nearly as impressive as their solid flooring, the Bellawood engineered hardwood lineup has a little something for everyone. These boards come in two sizes at 5/8” or ½” thick, and most are in the “Select” grade classification and wider than traditional hardwood floor boards.
There are close to 20 types of engineered flooring available from Bellawood with close to a dozen species represented. It’s a nice mix of both domestic and exotic species, including interesting choices like Pecan, Koa, and Cumaru. A few styles are matte or stained, but most feature a simple, clear finish and are of a medium tone in general.
Species
Another area where Bellawood shines is with species selection. There are close to 20 different types of wood available between solid and engineered styles. You can find Hickory, Maple, Oak, Pecan, Ash, and Walnut if you’re into domestic species and want to use a sustainable style of flooring in your home. They still need to be harvested responsibly, but none of these are considered endangered and grow across the United States.
Bellawood’s exotic options include popular options like Brazilian Cherry and Walnut along with Acacia, Koa, Cumaru, and Curupay. You can find most of these with other manufacturers, but we can’t say the same for Tauri, Tamboril, Purple Heart, Bloodood or Brazilian Chesnut. Overall, they have one of the better selections when it comes to species – especially given that most of their catalog consists of solid hardwood.
Grades
Some companies put a grade on their hardwood flooring, but it’s not the typical A, B, C scale and not always about quality. With Lumber Liquidators, it has to do with the look or character of the wood, and they have four main grades of flooring with Utility, Rustic, Select, Natural. They also sell “Odd Lots” which are essentially seconds and not what you’ll want if quality is important to you.
The best grade of flooring from Lumber Liquidators is Select. These planks are uniform and free from large knots and any major blemishes. Utility grade flooring is knotty and can have anything from splits to burns and various defects. It’s the opposite of Select, whereas Natural grade is somewhere in the middle. Those boards can have small knots and mineral coloring while Rustic grade takes things a bit further with color variation and larger knots.
Durability
The easiest way to figure out just how durable a style of Bellawood hardwood flooring requires a little digging on their site and some knowledge on the Janka scale. Our hardwood flooring guide explains the scale nicely, but the main thing to remember is the higher the number, the harder the wood. Softer species like Pine or Birch aren’t nearly as sturdy as Hickory or an exotic hardwood.
Lumber Liquidators also allows you to browse Bellawood hardwood by its hardness rating or the Janka scale. Their products are rated from 1,010 to 3,840, so there are several levels to consider. It’s also important to remember that the wear layer and whether it’s solid or engineered hardwood plays a large part in durability as well. All Bellawood hardwood has a 100-year finish warranty which is transferable.
The Green Factor
When it comes to the eco-friendliness of hardwood flooring, there are two things to consider. You’ll want to look for products that produce little to no VOCs or off-gassing from the finishes. For Bellawood, all the products we checked were GREENGUARD GOLD certified whether they were solid or engineered. Some products had additional messages about CARB compliance and being formaldehyde-free, but those labels were present on some products and missing on others.
The second factor that comes into play is sustainability and how the wood was sourced. We didn’t see any mention of responsible forestry practices or certifications so take that as you will. With domestic species like Oak, Maple, and Hickory, it generally isn’t a problem, but it can be when the wood comes from Brazil and other regions from around the world.
Bellawood Hardwood Cost and Availability
As Lumber Liquidators is the only place you can purchase Bellawood in its solid or engineered form, the availability may be limited for some consumers. The company does have a wide range although not as wide as Home Depot or Lowes. Given their pricing, it may be worth taking a drive…
Species
Style
Type
Width
Price
Hickory
Natural
Solid
3”
$4.69 sq. ft.
Oak
Claire Gardens
Engineered
8 ½”
$6.79 sq. ft.
Brazilian Cherry
Select
Solid
3 ¼”
$4.99 sq. ft.
Purple Heart
Select
Solid
5”
$12.29 sq. ft.
Chestnut
Gilded Reverse
Engineered
5 1/8”
$3.99 sq. ft.
Acacia
Quick Click
Engineered
3 ½”
$5.69 sq. ft.
Bellawood Hardwood Pros, Cons and Ratings
One of the biggest concerns with Bellawood is quality control, and the brand had issues in the past with their laminate flooring which involved lawsuits and VOCs. Those problems are over, but the jury is still out on the overall quality. Some of their lines have very mixed reviews while others appear to hold up very well. Our advice is to get a good look at the flooring in store and put a few samples through scratch and ding tests.
Pros:
Excellent selection of domestic and exotic hardwood species. The company has a wide price range for their products and more solid hardwood flooring than other brands. 100-year finish warranty species like Bloodwood and Purple Heart are nice perks.
Cons:
Quality control issues with some lines result in mixed reviews and higher than usual waste percentage. Not quite as eco-friendly as other manufacturers. Sparse selection of colors and tones.
Ratings:
Styles: 3
Species: 5
Finishes: 3
Durability: 4
Overall Rating: 3.75 out of 5
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