In the carpet industry, it's not uncommon to see one company own a half a dozen brands. The same rules apply with other styles of flooring like laminates and vinyl as well. That said, we have seen a number of new companies appear over the past decade with the rise of engineered and luxury vinyl flooring. LW Engineered Hardwood flooring is one of those companies, and in this review, we're going to take a brief look at their flooring collections.
LW Engineered Hardwood Flooring Collections
The LW Flooring website is easy to navigate, and at this time, they have five collections of engineered hardwood flooring. The company also makes luxury vinyl flooring and engineered vinyl plank flooring as well.
LW Flooring Renaissance Collection
In the LW Renaissance Collection, you will find engineered hardwood boards grouped by finish. There are 8 styles with a polyurethane finish, including Naples, Palermo, San Marino, Venice, Bellini, Delia, Perugia, and Cortona. All of this flooring has a wire-brushed finish, with the exception of Delia which had a smooth finish.
In the UV oil finish category, there are three styles, and there more with a natural oil finish. All of these styles are wire-brushed as well and are made from European White Oak like the rest of the collection. Every style is 9/16” x 7 ½” in lengths around 73” although some styles are random length.
LW Flooring Sonoma Valley Collection
Whereas the Renaissance collection was focused on European White Oak, the Sonoma Valley Collection lets you sample a variety of species. There are five unique styles made from American Hickory, some with an antique vibe. All are wire-brushed and hand-scraped, although Shiraz is arguably the cleanest looking from an appearance standpoint.
There are also 7 styles of wire-brushed European White Oak, including several gray and ladder toned woods. While there's only one style of natural Acacia and American Walnut, they will grab certainly grab your attention just like the five different styles of Hard Maple. Sauvignon Blanc is a hue you'll need to see to believe. All the flooring in this collection is ½” thick and 7 ½” wide.
LW Flooring Traditions Collection
The Traditions Collection from KW Flooring is one of our favorites and full of interesting styles and shades. Most of this collection is either ½” or 3/8” thick and 5” wide, but the styles vary by species. On the exotic side, you'll find Acacia in eight different styles, or you can pick up planks made from Amendoim or Brazilian Cherry. Elm is an option as well along with five styles of Birch.
Both Birch and Elm are uncommon domestic species in the flooring world and would make an interesting addition to any home. The largest series in this collection is American Hickory, however, which has 10 district styles. A few that caught our eye were Huckleberry with its dark, hand-scraped finish as well as Toffe, Java, and Chestnut.
LW Flooring Vintage Elegance & Paradise Island Collection
These two collections are sparse compared to the companies' other lineups, but there are some interesting options nonetheless. In the Vintage Elegance Collection, there are three species to choose from with European White Oak, American Hickory, or Rustic White Oak.
The rustic planks are wire-brushed and hand-scraped while the rest of the styles are just hand-scraped. All boards measure 5/8” x 7 ½” x 74 ¾” random lengths. Paradise Island appears to be a new collection from LW Flooring. There are only two styles with Bali and Fiji, but no images of those styles are available at this time.
Treatments and Finishes
Finishing techniques and treatments are a great way for flooring manufacturers to make their clients look more realistic.There are a number of ways they go about this, and LW flooring uses a few of the most popular methods on most of their planks. From the styles we checked, 90% of them were wire-brushed or hand-scraped. With finishes, there are two options with a UV oil finish and a natural oil finish.
Durability
Durability can be a tricky thing to gauge with engineered flooring. Quality is always important, but you also have to consider the species of wood. With LW’s engineered hardwood flooring, you can find a Janka rating for each species and style, which is a great way to get a good idea about a floor's durability. Another indicator of durability with engineered flooring would be the warranty, and all of the products we checked had a lifetime structural warranty. Some had a 50-year finish warranty listed as well.
The Green Factor
With engineered flooring, there are two things to consider when it comes to our Green Factor. The first would be VOCs, which can leech into the air and affect the indoor air quality of your home. LW flooring’s engineered products are listed as Carb Compliant and Lacey Act Compliant as well. With that in mind, we did not see any information listed about sustainability practices from this particular company.
LW Hardwood Cost & Availability
LW Flooring's engineered floors are currently “represented” in three states with Florida, Georgia, and Texas. They do not sell directly to the public or individual homeowners, so you'll have to find their products through a dealer.
Unfortunately, there is no dealer locator tool on their website, so you'll need to call a toll-free number and speak to their customer service team to locate a dealer in your area. There is also a section on their policies page that prohibits internet sales in around a dozen states. In other words, pricing and availability are unknown for this brand.
LW Flooring Pros, Cons and Ratings
While we like what LW flooring brings to the table in terms of style and selection, their flooring may be difficult to obtain for some homeowners. We were unable to track down many verified LW flooring reviews, but based on their literature and specifications; they appear to make a high-quality product.
Pros: Nice mix of foreign and domestic species in their catalog. Interesting collections and good warranties.
Cons: Availability may be an issue. Lack of pricing information to compare with similar brands.
Ratings:
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