Do you love your Armstrong / Bruce floors?

[dr.girlfriend]

I have made most of my renovation decisions, but I'm still kind of stuck on the flooring -- it'll cover the whole downstairs of the original house and the whole addition, so it feels like a huge commitment and I just haven't found anything I love.

If you love your Armstrong/Bruce flooring, can you recommend it, and preferably show me pics?  I feel like things I like on the sample board I dislike in the room pictures, and I'm not sure how much of that is color changes on computer monitor or whatever.

I'm ideally looking for something that's a mid-tone -- not too dark but not super light, but without the dreaded yellow/orange "golden oak."  Here are some inspiration pics:

[sju1982]

We had Bruce hardwood floors installed throughout most of our downstairs, 2.5 years ago. We went with Gunstock, in a 3” width. I might have went a little darker if our kitchen cabinets weren’t dark, but overall I’m happy with them. They are no where close to gym floor yellow.

Not sure what finish we have, but they are super glossy. If anything, I wish I had at least looked into a more matte finish. We had just bought the house and had a million things going on, and all I was concerned about was color. The existing stairs and upper hallway are stained Early American so we were trying not to clash with that. I actually prefer that color.

As for durability, I’m mostly satisfied. There are a few scratches, and quite a few dents, mostly in the kitchen. We have been hard on them so I expect that. However, on 3 or 4 boards the finish has almost peeled off around the edge. Like there was water damage, but that wasn’t the case.

[dr.girlfriend]

May 15, 2019 9:02:59 GMT -5 sju1982 said:

We had Bruce hardwood floors installed throughout most of our downstairs, 2.5 years ago. We went with Gunstock, in a 3” width. I might have went a little darker if our kitchen cabinets weren’t dark, but overall I’m happy with them. They are no where close to gym floor yellow.

Not sure what finish we have, but they are super glossy. If anything, I wish I had at least looked into a more matte finish. We had just bought the house and had a million things going on, and all I was concerned about was color. The existing stairs and upper hallway are stained Early American so we were trying not to clash with that. I actually prefer that color.

As for durability, I’m mostly satisfied. There are a few scratches, and quite a few dents, mostly in the kitchen. We have been hard on them so I expect that. However, on 3 or 4 boards the finish has almost peeled off around the edge. Like there was water damage, but that wasn’t the case.

Thanks!  That is one of the ones I was looking at.  Seeing real pictures is super helpful!

[hamster]

Can you get a sample and hold it up around the house? I just picked up a couple today, and held it up against various cabinets and colors in the store and then around my house.

I like one color better, but the other looked consistently good against everything I held it up to.

It also looks like crap in the full room picture online. I'm assuming it's mostly a monitor issue.

[dr.girlfriend]

May 15, 2019 17:59:13 GMT -5 hamster said:

Can you get a sample and hold it up around the house? I just picked up a couple today, and held it up against various cabinets and colors in the store and then around my house.

I like one color better, but the other looked consistently good against everything I held it up to.

It also looks like crap in the full room picture online. I'm assuming it's mostly a monitor issue.

Yeah, I'm going to try.  The samples that are just like 5" x 5" don't seem super helpful...sometimes they look good but when you look at the whole-room picture the grain seems really stripey, or the hand-scraping looks rippled, or the variation between boards is super-dramatic or too consistent.  I think I'm just picky, lol.  I've narrowed it down to a few, so maybe I'll go back to a store to try to see them in person again.

[sju1982]

May 15, 2019 18:44:56 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

May 15, 2019 17:59:13 GMT -5 hamster said:

Can you get a sample and hold it up around the house? I just picked up a couple today, and held it up against various cabinets and colors in the store and then around my house.

I like one color better, but the other looked consistently good against everything I held it up to.

It also looks like crap in the full room picture online. I'm assuming it's mostly a monitor issue.

Yeah, I'm going to try.  The samples that are just like 5" x 5" don't seem super helpful...sometimes they look good but when you look at the whole-room picture the grain seems really stripey, or the hand-scraping looks rippled, or the variation between boards is super-dramatic or too consistent.  I think I'm just picky, lol.  I've narrowed it down to a few, so maybe I'll go back to a store to try to see them in person again.

Where are you going for samples? Our guy had samples that were at least 2’X1’, probably bigger. At our last house, a local flooring company let us take a large sample home with a deposit.

[megstoo]

We also have bruce floors except it's in red oak. While I love it I find it gets scratched fairly easy because of the dog - either by his nails or by him throwing a bone across the floors.  Below is the kitchen but we also have it down the hallways 

 

[megstoo]

Not sure if you have a floor and decor near you but you can buy large individual boards of the wood. Take back what you don't like and you get your money back.

[gummybear]

I think I've showed you my pics before but we have handscraped hickory from Armstrong. We love it! The color is dark, but (IMO not super dark) and it's rich and varying which I love. There is not a single hint of orange/yellow/golden in it, which is the exact thing I was trying to avoid. I've lived in two houses with Bruce builders grade yellow/orange oak and I see it in my sleep. The color is "riverhouse" for our hickory for oak it is "brown bear" I believe, for comparison. 



ETA:
I can show you exactly how it changes a room.  This is post reno before floors

[dr.girlfriend]

May 16, 2019 13:41:44 GMT -5 gummybear said:

I think I've showed you my pics before but we have handscraped hickory from Armstrong. We love it! The color is dark, but (IMO not super dark) and it's rich and varying which I love. There is not a single hint of orange/yellow/golden in it, which is the exact thing I was trying to avoid. I've lived in two houses with Bruce builders grade yellow/orange oak and I see it in my sleep. The color is "riverhouse" for our hickory for oak it is "brown bear" I believe, for comparison. 



ETA:
I can show you exactly how it changes a room.  This is post reno before floors

Interesting...those colors are only for solid hardwood and we need engineered. I wonder if there are equivalents. Why do they make things so difficult! From what I’m reading they phase out lines every two years or so and by the time a good number of people have it installed that line or color is no longer offered.

[gummybear]

May 16, 2019 14:45:53 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

May 16, 2019 13:41:44 GMT -5 gummybear said:

I think I've showed you my pics before but we have handscraped hickory from Armstrong. We love it! The color is dark, but (IMO not super dark) and it's rich and varying which I love. There is not a single hint of orange/yellow/golden in it, which is the exact thing I was trying to avoid. I've lived in two houses with Bruce builders grade yellow/orange oak and I see it in my sleep. The color is "riverhouse" for our hickory for oak it is "brown bear" I believe, for comparison. 



ETA:
I can show you exactly how it changes a room.  This is post reno before floors

Interesting...those colors are only for solid hardwood and we need engineered. I wonder if there are equivalents. Why do they make things so difficult! From what I’m reading they phase out lines every two years or so and by the time a good number of people have it installed that line or color is no longer offered.

They def. do! I was able to see them side by side, but we had already done the portion of our house that needed engineered. I wish I had known before!! We literally just had our floor guy over yesterday to quote out stairs and second floor foyer, so they are def. still doing riverhouse.

[hamster]

Is it normal for floor colors to be discontinued so frequently? We are several years out on doing the floors in the main house, but I'd hate for it not be available when the time comes!

[dr.girlfriend]

May 16, 2019 14:53:33 GMT -5 gummybear said:

May 16, 2019 14:45:53 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Interesting...those colors are only for solid hardwood and we need engineered. I wonder if there are equivalents. Why do they make things so difficult! From what I’m reading they phase out lines every two years or so and by the time a good number of people have it installed that line or color is no longer offered.

They def. do! I was able to see them side by side, but we had already done the portion of our house that needed engineered. I wish I had known before!! We literally just had our floor guy over yesterday to quote out stairs and second floor foyer, so they are def. still doing riverhouse.

I feel like I've been on the Armstrong and Bruce sites so much I've got them memorized!  They are definitely not on the website with those colors listed.

[gummybear]

May 16, 2019 21:25:12 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

May 16, 2019 14:53:33 GMT -5 gummybear said:

They def. do! I was able to see them side by side, but we had already done the portion of our house that needed engineered. I wish I had known before!! We literally just had our floor guy over yesterday to quote out stairs and second floor foyer, so they are def. still doing riverhouse.

I feel like I've been on the Armstrong and Bruce sites so much I've got them memorized!  They are definitely not on the website with those colors listed.

You had me scared! But it's there. If you mean engineered it was never there. They can match it for you but it wasn’t called the same name. But the sample board showed an exact match - I just don’t remember what they called it in that line
www.armstrongflooring.com/residential/en-us/hardwood-flooring/american-scrape-hardwood/item/SAS508.html

Here’s the oak
www.armstrongflooring.com/residential/en-us/hardwood-flooring/american-scrape-hardwood/item/SAS503.html

[megstoo]

May 16, 2019 16:31:21 GMT -5 hamster said:

Is it normal for floor colors to be discontinued so frequently? We are several years out on doing the floors in the main house, but I'd hate for it not be available when the time comes!

The one thing we realized when we were trying to match the kitchen floor to the existing hardwood is that over time the flooring colors change due to the heat, humidity, temperature in the house.  Also if you use area rugs the color of the wood under those rugs is different than the boards next to it.  

[gummybear]

May 16, 2019 16:31:21 GMT -5 hamster said:

Is it normal for floor colors to be discontinued so frequently? We are several years out on doing the floors in the main house, but I'd hate for it not be available when the time comes!

I'm going to give you my experience - I'd say no, as long as it is fairly classic. I'd say there's a risk with what we have now (handscraped) and any trendy color (like a whitewash or gray stain) but as far as classic colors and sizes and finishes, not at all. In our old house (built in 2000, purchased by us in 2008) had classic Bruce Plano Marsh 2.25" oak. Installed by builders in 2000 in foyer, continued in kitchen by previous owners in 2005, continued in family room in 2011 by us, and finished in rest of first floor by us to prepare for sale in 2016. At all times, this wood was readily available. It was "discontinued" in 2011 for about 5 minutes and we got a great deal on it for the FR, but as you can see we were able to get it again in 2016 and it's still for sale to this day at HD. It's a basic builders grade cut and color. Gunstock is what was in our current house - again, installed when it was built in 1999 and still widely available 20 years later. It's def not going anywhere.  And as a pp has mentioned, colors will generally change a but once installed based on a variety of environmental factors. 

[dr.girlfriend]

May 16, 2019 16:31:21 GMT -5 hamster said:

Is it normal for floor colors to be discontinued so frequently? We are several years out on doing the floors in the main house, but I'd hate for it not be available when the time comes!

Someone keeps saying it on the Houzz boards -- I don't know enough to refute or deny.  :-)  I do know that dye lots can change a lot, etc.  



Cancork Floor Inc.
sue ...most flooring lines (the engineered types like engineered hardwood, laminate, vinyl, ceramic, porcelain, etc) have a "run" of roughly 2 years. If you have a solid hardwood, you shouldn't worry. If you have something that has a special manufacturing technique, then you should be reaching out to your local flooring stores as quickly as possible. Get them to find what you want and then PURCHASE IT as soon as you possibly can.

Again...2 years is about as long as a manufactured floor will "live" on the market. After that it can be deathly hard to find it.

[hamster]

May 18, 2019 19:56:44 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

May 16, 2019 16:31:21 GMT -5 hamster said:

Is it normal for floor colors to be discontinued so frequently? We are several years out on doing the floors in the main house, but I'd hate for it not be available when the time comes!

Someone keeps saying it on the Houzz boards -- I don't know enough to refute or deny.  :-)  I do know that dye lots can change a lot, etc.  



Cancork Floor Inc.
sue ...most flooring lines (the engineered types like engineered hardwood, laminate, vinyl, ceramic, porcelain, etc) have a "run" of roughly 2 years. If you have a solid hardwood, you shouldn't worry. If you have something that has a special manufacturing technique, then you should be reaching out to your local flooring stores as quickly as possible. Get them to find what you want and then PURCHASE IT as soon as you possibly can.

Again...2 years is about as long as a manufactured floor will "live" on the market. After that it can be deathly hard to find it.

Damn. We are doing LVP. Hopefully it won't be too big of an issue down the road.

[dr.girlfriend]

May 18, 2019 22:21:31 GMT -5 hamster said:

May 18, 2019 19:56:44 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

Someone keeps saying it on the Houzz boards -- I don't know enough to refute or deny.  :-)  I do know that dye lots can change a lot, etc.  



Cancork Floor Inc.
sue ...most flooring lines (the engineered types like engineered hardwood, laminate, vinyl, ceramic, porcelain, etc) have a "run" of roughly 2 years. If you have a solid hardwood, you shouldn't worry. If you have something that has a special manufacturing technique, then you should be reaching out to your local flooring stores as quickly as possible. Get them to find what you want and then PURCHASE IT as soon as you possibly can.

Again...2 years is about as long as a manufactured floor will "live" on the market. After that it can be deathly hard to find it.

Damn. We are doing LVP. Hopefully it won't be too big of an issue down the road.

I will say that when we put wood flooring in our t.v. room, we bought enough to do the kitchen too because we knew we would be reno'ing it in the next few years.  We kept the flooring in our garage.  I don't know how much this was true problems with the flooring versus not-great installers, but when the time came the contractors complained to high heaven about how the floor was, saying that the tabs on the click-lock were just breaking off.  They ended up nailing it down to some degree and our kitchen looks like crap, with big gaps between the slats.  So, "buy extra and keep it in storage" may work if you have some magical climate-controlled space big enough to stash a 10-foot long box of spare wood, but I don't think that's the answer for many people. 

[hamster]

May 19, 2019 11:01:20 GMT -5 dr.girlfriend said:

May 18, 2019 22:21:31 GMT -5 hamster said:

Damn. We are doing LVP. Hopefully it won't be too big of an issue down the road.

I will say that when we put wood flooring in our t.v. room, we bought enough to do the kitchen too because we knew we would be reno'ing it in the next few years.  We kept the flooring in our garage.  I don't know how much this was true problems with the flooring versus not-great installers, but when the time came the contractors complained to high heaven about how the floor was, saying that the tabs on the click-lock were just breaking off.  They ended up nailing it down to some degree and our kitchen looks like crap, with big gaps between the slats.  So, "buy extra and keep it in storage" may work if you have some magical climate-controlled space big enough to stash a 10-foot long box of spare wood, but I don't think that's the answer for many people. 

Lol. Definitely not. Our garage is too full of crap waiting for the addition to be done anyhow!

At least the LVP will connect from a hallway into the kitchen, so I imagine we can find something similar enough for that 3 foot connection when the time comes.

[dr.girlfriend]

This is probably a situation in which too much knowledge is a dangerous thing, lol. Just read that Armstrong/Bruce sold off their hardwood divisions to a private equity firm, which will make them for the next two years and then after that They are also closing a lot of manufacturing. Looks like a lot of places are making the switch to LVP.

www.cpbj.com/armstrong-sells-wood-flooring-plants-for-100m-to-focus-on-vinyl/