Shaw Laminate and Hardwood Flooring Reviews

Shaw is a well know flooring brand that is offered at such popular online store like Home Depot or Lowes. Shaw flooring products have rather low price that causes its popularity among homeowners.You may find both complains and compliments about these products quality on the internet. In this post I will publish true and honest Shaw flooring reviews that I’ve gathered interviewing consumers.

I’ve had an issue when I decided to divide the post into two parts: the first part is dedicated to laminate flooring reviews, while the second one – to hardwoods. The problem is that I have only one review under the second part. Of course, I will try to add more lately, but if you have any information about people having shaw hardwood floor – let me know please =) .

1. Shaw Laminate Flooring Reviews

Review #1.1

Our first guest is Lori. She was quite surprised when I asked her about the flooring. However, she’ve sent me a few photos and shared her opinion about it. Thank you, Lori.

Lori's Living Room 1

Lori's Living Room 2

I have had it about 5 yrs, my husband and I installed it. We have wood/laminate.

Durabilty seems fine, although I am very cautious. I had an iron fall on it, pointed tip first and it didn’t do a thing.

I wash it with water only (steam cleaner) or just a micro fiber dust mop.

Yes, I would recommend it.

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Review #1.2

Our next guest is an active member of the city-data.com forum. She’s known here as DenverLawGal. She has been travelled a lot but now she’s found her happyness in Denwer. She is very kind and communicative person.

Hello, my answers are in red below.

- If I got it right, you have Shaw laminate flooring set in your house. Yes.

- How long have you been using shaw laminate flooring? What product do you have? Shaw laminate. It’s been installed for over a year now.

- How have you installed it? We hired workers.

- Did you have any problems with this flooring? Minor curling in one or two places.

- What could you say about its durability? Extremely durable, I’ve dropped heavy cans of food, glasses, not one scratch or dent.

- How do you maintain it? Cloth mop, 1/2 laminate cleaner, 1/2 water.

- Other pros and cons? No cons whatsoever.

- Would you recommend it? YES. Much better to have laminate than carpet. Less alergies, less dirt.

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Review #1.3

While I was searching at Google for some interesting information about Shaw laminates, I found a post where a lady was asking for a help. Brandy was looking for a store offering Shaw laminate that will match her laid flooring. I don’t know if she received any help, but I’m very thankful for such a detailed reply.

Hi, Alex.

I’m happy to answer your questions.  Yes, we do have Shaw laminate flooring downstairs in our home.  Since it was recently installed, (less than a month ago) I can’t speak to its durability.  However, I read up a good deal on flooring options prior to buying and talked to a lot of people with wood/laminate experience.

Shaw is a good brand, and I understand that Swiftlock was one of the best and easiest to install, so that’s what we went with.  We did not install it ourselves, however, so I can’t speak to the ease of installation from personal experience.

The best advice I can offer anyone looking for flooring is to shop around.  We spent several months in our spare time looking at flooring options, and were in and out of more stores than I care to count or recall.

What I learned is this: There are flooring businesses located in high-rent areas, where the decor is beautiful, where everything is perfectly displayed, where a couple sales people eye you with a hungry look when you walk in.  And where you can find laminate flooring for $14 a SF, as well as above and below that cost.

Then there are those businesses where you aren’t sure they know you’re there, and if you see something you want, they assume you’ll let them know.  But the quality of their product is just as good, or maybe better, than the “hungry sales person” business across town or up the street.  Sometimes it’s an identical product except for the difference in cost.

We put wood upstairs.  So we were shopping for flooring totaling 2200 square feet   Cost was definitely a consideration!  We didn’t want to buy flooring where a good deal of the cost went toward flawless decor, high-rent, salaries, and commission.  I personally prefer not to have salespeople on my heels when I’m shopping, so our only focus was a good product.

I love the flooring, the ease of upkeep, the “cleaner” feel of it compared to the carpet they ripped out, and the overall look.  But I have a German Shepherd who sheds unbelievably and hauls in a generous amount of dust when she goes in and out, which she also happily sheds throughout the house.

Still, I can clean the floor in much less time than vacuuming took.  I use one of those Swiffer floor duster things that swivel in all directions.  But instead of buying the refills for it, I use a micro fiber cloth which works much better because the dust and hair clings to it.   I can whiz across each floor in about ten minutes.

As for mopping, so far I’ve used a Bruce hardwood cleaner upstairs, and haven’t mopped the laminate downstairs yet because it gets so little traffic.  I think it can just be damp mopped, but I’ll probably Google that.  One thing I did hear while shopping was that flooring with a high gloss shows every speck.  Ours does not have the high gloss.

The Bruce hardwood cleaner is pricey if you have a lot of wood and a dog, but you can also use vinegar and water occasionally.  Being acidic, vinegar will affect the finish on hardwood over time (I know you aren’t asking about hardwood if you use it frequently.

I prefer hardwood over laminate, but thought it would be much more expensive to do both upstairs and downstairs in wood.  After we’d purchased the laminate for downstairs, we found a hell of a deal on hardwood, too, from a business located in a rural area a couple towns away.

It really pays to peek under every rock when you’re making a significant purchase.  The hardwood flooring we found was no more expensive than the laminate was.

As for installation, my husband is not handy at all.  Installation, depending on where you purchase, varies considerably.  We ended up going with someone on CL and checking references.

The flooring upstairs and down is beautiful.  I have always disliked carpeting. So far, we’re happy with the Shaw product, as well as the wood we purchased.  I hope this is helpful in some way.  brandy

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Review #1.4

Sassia is a president of www.universeofenergies.com. She’s had not so positive experience with Shaw as other customers presented in this article. That’s why I think this review is so important. Any product has positive and negative feedback and I won’t hide any of them.

See below the  answers. Thank you

1. How long have you been using your Shaw flooring? What type/product do you have? We had it installed and during installation we found the faulty product. I do not remember which one. (it was laminate)

2. How have you installed it? Professionally with flooring company

3. What could you say about its durability?  LOUSY

4. Did you have any problems with this flooring?  Yes even before we finished installation we had to take it all out and replace it with something else…. The  corners all were coming up and the sides were breaking off…. Yes there was  enough space between the wall and the floor… we had a perfect prep work done ….

5. Pros and cons?…  only  cons ….   If I have to take out a floor BEFORE full installation is finished there is a bit issue

6. Would you recommend it?  NEVER !

Warmest Regards,

Sassia

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Review #1.5

I’ve met our next guest at doityourself forum. He has a forum name yelloguy and here is what he writes:

I don’t have it in the whole house but three bedrooms. I bought Pergo at more than twice the price for the rest of the house except the family room. I did the family room two years ago with Armstrong laminate. Answers:

1. How long have you been using your Shaw flooring? What type/product do you have?

About 5 years now. I am not sure about the product any more but I bought it at a local flooring store for $1.49/sqft.

2. How have you installed it?

Used the plastic vapor barrier and did the install myself using a jigsaw for cutting. I would not recommend the jigsaw method to anyone now but at the time it worked fine for me. It is easy to install if you are reasonably handy. But there are always tricky areas.

3. What could you say about its durability?

Very good things. I have no complaints whatsoever. I did not have good luck with Pergo which makes clicking noises. I had to contact Pergo for warranty claim (denied) and show them the Shaw’s laminate as a comparable product with zero problems whatsoever. It is still like the day I put it in. Rock solid.

4. Did you have any problems with this flooring?

No problems whatsoever.

5. How do you maintain it?

I don’t. Except picking up water droplets/spills with a paper towel ASAP. I do that on the Pergo and other flooring too.

6. Other pros and cons?

Clicking noise is a con. Depending on your preferences, you may not notice it or you may hate it. I have gotten used to it.

It gets a little slippery when your feet are wet. But so does all other laminate. One gets used to it.

But pros are many. It is cheap, solid and easy to install. I wanted the same one for family room (overlooking Pergo) but the dealer was OOS so I settled for Armington. But that is just as solid.

7. Would you recommend it?

Absolutely. I recommended it to my bro-in-law for his kitchen project. He did not find it at the same dealer (either) but got the Armington instead and is happy with it.

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Review #1.6

Here is another negative story. The score is changing to 4:2. I’ve received this review at the same forum as the previous one,

I installed Shaw laminate over a concrete slab about 2 years ago. It was the basic snap together glue less installation.

It stands up to our 2- 70 pound dogs but if you drop a can of green beans on it it will dent it easy.

And if you live in a sandy area like us near the beach, and you slide something across the floor it will scratch your floor real well!

We had just vacuumed and slid a dining room table that had felt floor protectors on it and it left nice big long scratches.

I would not recommend it.

I installed it myself and some of the end joints are separating with the change in weather-so much for that snap fit installation.

I’m not thrilled after doing 90% of our house with it only to scratch and dent.

If I do it again it will be real wood or tile.

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Review #1.7

I wish I could learn about Karen a little more, but she haven’t replied to any of my emails except the first one. Hope she is ok now. Here’s what she writes:

Hi Alex,

Here are my answers to your questions:

1. How long have you been using shaw laminate flooring? What product do you have? - We’ve had our flooring for 4 years. It is a VersaLock style 0021U color 00804 (according to the box).

2. How did you install it? – My husband and father-in-law installed the floor, both are pretty handy and are in the construction business. I don’t believe it was difficult at all though.

3. What could you say about its durability? - Seems to be holding up nicely. We have a dent where we dropped a cast iron pan.

4. Did you have any problems with this flooring? - No problems.

5. How do you maintain it? - I sweep and my housekeeper washes it, couldn’t honestly tell you what she uses, lol.

6. Other pros and cons? - Pros: Looks like wood, love the color and pattern that we chose. Cons: You have to be careful about spills, if water gets near a seam, it can soak in a swell a bit. That being said, I’ve also seen those swells dry up, there’s only one tiny bump in front of the fridge where an ice cube melted unnoticed.

7. Would you recommend it? - Definitely I would recommend it. My first choice would be hardwood, but this is a great economical alternative.

I hope that helps some!

2. Shaw Hardwood Flooring Reviews

Review #2.1

The last but not the least review I’ve received from Sarah. This is the only review about Shaw engineered flooring for today that I have, but I hope, there will be more of them soon. Here it is:

We had Shaw Rosedown Hickory engineered flooring installed back in May 2010.  So far it is holding up well and we have had no problems with the finish.  I have been using Bona wood floor cleaner to tend to any spots.

The finish on the flooring seems to be strong.  It held up while we installed ceramic tile in  the kitchen next to it.   In spite of the tile dust and other abrasive material, it did not mar the wood finish.

However there are a few small marks from having the refrigerator moved on and off from the wood floor during the kitchen work.

I am happy with the wood, and I would recommend it.

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More Shaw laminate and engineered hardwood flooring reviews soon…