I apologize if you have already seen my posts, but I want to alert as many people as possible about my experience with BuildDirect, and what they should know before risking purchasing from this company.

Firstly my experience involves purchasing about $10,000 worth of engineered flooring from this company which was shipped directly to my home in Las Vegas. The flooring was then acclimated in the home for 8 weeks!! Then a professional installer began installing and after the majority was installed, it began to delaminate. I immediately notified BuildDirect and sent them photos. Builddirect then said they would send an inspector. I waited and waited. All the while more and more of the flooring delaminated. Then when the inspector finally came he took about 30 mins. He did not even look at an entire level of flooring. He did not look at unused flooring planks which were delaminating. He did not take subfloor moisture measurements. In his report, there was absolutely NO assignment of cause. I subsequently learned that this inspector was not even certified at the time to do wood flooring inspections. BuildDirect came to their own conclusions of the reason for the problem (isnt that the responsibility of the inspector?) blaming my installer. Their explanation was NONSENSICAL. They stated that the house was too dry which dried out the wood and that was the cause. Well the humidity was measured at 31% in the house. The moisture of the external wood was measured at 11%, and the interior moisture level of the flooring was measured at 6%. In case you dont know, 6% moisure level in the wood is not dry at all. Further, 11% moisture level on the surface is VERY MOIST. Indeed, many manufacturers would likely not ship this out due to excessive moisture level. Therefore, BuildDirects claim that the dryness of my home is totally refuted by their own inspectors measurements. Firstly as noted, the flooring was not dry at all, and if anything was too moist. Secondly, if the dryness of my home was responsible for drying the wood, then the surface of the wood should have been dried out more than the interior. Instead the opposite condition existed. Therefore BuildDirects explanation and rationale for the delamination was NONSENSICAL used their own inspectors measurements.

I subsequently hired a highly respected certified wood flooring inspector to do an independent inspection. He did a thorough 3 1/2 hour inspection doing multiple moisture measurements of the surface, interior and subloor moisture measurements. He wrote in his written report that the cause of the structural failure of my floor was, and I quote, "manufacturing responsiblity." Indeed please note that NO FLOOR PRODUCT SHOULD DELAMINATE under residential housing conditions PERIOD. This is actually stated by the Co-founder of BuildDirect himself. Still despite the written report, BuildDirect refused to honor their warranty, continuing to present no coherent explanation of why their product delaminated.

I attempted to sue them, but learned that when you purchase from BuildDirect, their Terms of Use WAIVES your right to do so. Additionally their Terms of Use means that any dispute is decided by an arbitration company that BuildDirect chooses. Lastly since BuildDirect is based in Canada, even if you want to pursue the arbitration process, you have to travel to Canada.

Because my floor had widely delaminated with the surface of the floor peeling up, I had to rip out the entire floor, resurface the subfloor. I purchased another manufacturers product (also enginnered, also same species) and install it. Total cost approximately 50K for a project originally budgeted for 17K. Dont risk this happening to you!!!! Buy from an American company who can more easily be held to their warranty.