Hardwood Brands and Quality

Since we bought our hardwood floors on sale, they were dedicated lot sizes. This means that we actually got three different colors and three different brands.  Our master ensuite (bedroom and walk-in closet) is by Mirage, the office is by Superior Flooring, and our living/dining/hallway is by Satin Finish.  After working with these brands, we can honestly say that although all three are Canadian owned and operated, there is quite a bit of difference in quality and care.  Simply the way the wooden planks were packaged inside the boxes speaks volumes. Every other row in the Mirage box was flipped.  This means that the underside of the planks would only come into contact with other undersides, and the smooth finished side with other finished planks. Superior Flooring took even more care with their product, in that they had a thin piece of foam between each row.  Satin Finish was by far the worse of the three. Their wood was laid in one direction so the rough underside of the top rows would be pressing against the smooth finished side of the bottom rows.  One would figure that they'd be more careful being "satin finish" and all, their surface is shiny and more prone to scratches.

As we worked through the house, we found that Satin Finish not only had the most scratches, but also the most defects.  The scratches didn't just come from the poor packaging, but also the poor quality finish.  There were planks with random dents, and sometimes even knots in the wood that wasn't fully finished.  As well, we also found quite a number of cracked pieces, that's broken down the vertical!  By now you may think maybe it's because we used a different species of wood with Satin Finish and so there's an added factor of them having a different hardness.  However, Maple was used for all three brands and so for anybody looking into getting new hardwood flooring, we will definitely recommend Mirage and Superior Flooring over Satin Finish anyday!