It's designed more for builders, not homeowners. Unless you need an entire shipping carton of granite slabs. Or want to use the same mediocre quality flooring throughout the house enough to buy it several pallets at a time. Plus shipping.

Warning about BuildDirect!!!!

The company is based in Vancouver British Columbia. If there is a problem with your product or your order. This makes it difficult to legally pursue them. When you purchase from BuildDirect, the Terms of Use of their website WAIVES YOUR RIGHT TO SUE them in small claims court. Further the terms of use also means you agree to have any dispute settled by an arbitration organization THAT BUILDDIRECT CHOOSES. You be the judge if that places you the consumer at a disadvantage. Lastly if you choose to participate in this arbitration process, you must travel to Vancouver British Columbia to do so. BuildDirect uses all these tactics as in my case to avoid honoring their warranty.

I've used builddirect for tile/stone. Ordered pallets of travertine and slate tile and slate pavers. No problems at all. The pallets are 300-350 sq ft, perfect for a master bathroom floor and shower with accent tiles bought locally. Figure 150ish sq ft for a standard bathroom floor and tub surround. Don't let pallet qty sway you.

As for protection because they're based in Canada and not the US: Pay with your Visa/Mastercard. If you don't get what you ordered (make sure your order is correct), then Visa/MC will reverse the charge and handle it for you. Always have for me.

Builddirect even sent us sample tiles (4x4) so we could pick colors and check them against local tile shops for color matching.

If you don't get what you ordered (make sure your order is correct), then Visa/MC will reverse the charge and handle it for you. Always have for me.

I've never dealt with BuildDirect. But I sure as heck have dealt with MC and if the merchant claims the order was legitimate, I've been out of luck and the charge hasn't been reversed.

Sorry to hear that Worthy, maybe just Visa is good to their customers. I've done it 3 times in the past, including once on an Ebay item, Paypal limits to 45 days from purchase and the seller strung me along, promising shipment until the 45 days had lapsed. Visa took it right off with one phone call and that was that.

bdpeck: Unfortunately in a case where a company sells you a product, delivers that product, and then there is an issue involving defective manufacturing, the credit card company does not want to get involved with reading wood flooring inspector reports and interpreting them. Therefore, I did indeed dispute the credit card charge, but the credit card company basically takes the position that the product was delivered and so there is not an issue they care about and did not refund the charges. Again, using a credit card DOES NOT PROTECT YOU FROM A DEFECTIVE PRODUCT.

Again, I only speak from personal experience with my CC company, and when I've gotten a defective product and the vendor doesn't want to take the product back and issue a refund, then my CC has done a chargeback everytime. If the product is defective, then they didn't send me the product I ordered, aka, the product was not delivered, and a chargeback is an option.