Sarah,
I don't have experience with those particular online flooring companies, but one word of caution if you don't mind. Please be sure to check out shipping prices when ordering flooring online. When I was looking for our "Natural Cork - Earth Series - Toledo", I found that the shipping costs from online companies negated any savings over what local floor companies could offer on total cost. In fact, the locals were actually less when considering the cost PLUS shipping.

Good luck to you.

You can go to resellerratings.com and check them out. They have customer feedback on two of the three companies you listed.

Some things to consider are:

1. When will it really ship? (None of them actually have it in stock and they all buy from distributors or from the manufacturers, which they have to check with to see if their supplier has it in stock.)

2. What are the shipping costs and how will it arrive to you?

3. What happens in case of damage in shipping? How long to get replacement boxes?

4. If you need it by a certain date make sure it is in stock and will arrive by then.

What I don't like about the shopping cart at qualityflooring4less.com is they have you enter your square footage but never show you how many actual cartons you are purchasing. Cork planks are sold by the carton, not by the square footage.

Don't forget you want some extra in case you need it during installation.

I don't have experience with the sites that you listed, but I have purchased flooring on-line. I bought cork tile floors from Duro-design. The cost was $6.50 / sq.ft. including the glue, applicators, and finish sealer. Shipping was free for orders larger than 200 sq.ft. They offer cork planks too, but I didn't price them out because I was going with 2 colors in a very specific pattern. They sent as many free samples as I needed to make a decision. My order went into production the day after I placed it and I had my floors within a week. They were really helpful and friendly. I worked with Laurence(french accent as this is a Canadian company, but not so much of an accent that my DH couldn't understand him.)HTH.

I used fastfloors.com to purchase my wood floors 3 years ago (about 1000 sq. feet of BR-111). Even with the shipping added in, they were a good dollar cheaper per sq. foot than any local stores around here (the reality of living in SoCal -- the prices of everything are jacked up pretty high). Ordering online was relatively easy, and the shipment came about a week and a half later. The boxes were all in good shape, and I was perfectly happy with my order.

One piece of advice -- make sure you buy enough reducers/moldings. The online stores get kind of snotty about your ordering anymore after the fact, because they don't make much profit on them, and I gather it's a pain in the behind for them to ship them? I dunno. But I've had to order t-moldings on two separate occasions from fastfloors for different reasons, and they really gave me grief about it.

Sarah,

This might help you with your search for carpet and flooring companies.

http://www.myprimebuyersguide.com/ca/mountain-view-carpet-and-flooring-dealer.html

It has a list of the top 10 flooring and carpet stores. Good luck with your search! :)

Just wanted to post a plug for Hosking Hardwoods. They have a very informative and helpful web site. Their prices were very, very competitive. Customer service was helpful; shipping prompt, and quality exceeded my expectations.

I have used hurst hardwoods before and was pleased.

We ordered from Qualityflooring4less.com and overall received excellent service. Our floor was Kahrs Hardwood and was delivered on time and the company actually called us the day of delivery and a follow up call a week after.

Definitely recommended

Here is a link that might be useful: Qualityflooring web site

if you are into travertine, marble mosics/tiles etc, check out www.dekotile.com, they have great products and i received good service..

Here is a link that might be useful: DEKO Tile

Seriously? Do some good for your local economy. Walk into a small flooring store and tell them exactly what you are thinking of doing. Give them a shot at earning your business. Most will gladly try and most should even be able to compete.
What's most important is that if a problem arises, you have a local place to go to for help.
Where will you turn if something goes wrong with an online store? Think about it. Oh, and one more thing, find the manufacturer's website (BR111, Armstrong, Bruce, etc.) they all say the same thing: 'if you buy from an online store, YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO WARNING, despite what the package says. check it out for yourself.

Thanks iqfloors! What you said is so important today more than ever!! We plan to do just that!!

I agree that when possible, going with a local company can be a good thing. But if the local floor stores don't earn your business, you shouldn't feel guilty about purchasing online. Before I purchased my cork floors from Duro Design, I went to two local floor stores. The salespeople at the first store looked at me like I had flown in from Mars when I asked to see cork samples and tried to sell me ceramic tile. The second store dug their cork samples out, but couldn't answer questions I had. I live in a fairly conservative area where non-conventional choices are rare. I wanted to purchase from a knowledgeable source and had to go to the internet for that.

Be sure all your flooring is same dye lot! Some online companies use partial lots left over from other jobs (eg south cypress floors). We have checked out online companies and make sure that we ask the question. We also challenge high shipping rates when we get one that are lower since most tiles are coming from the east coast.

Hi there! I've ordered cork flooring from http://QualityFlooring4Less.com. I'm a bit of a bargain shopper, so I looked both in stores and online first, and found Quality Flooring 4 Less to be the best priced/most quality. I had no problems ordering or receiving the items. Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: Cork Flooring

I have ordered samples from:

truehardwoods.com (fantastic personal service from owner)
hursthardwoods.com (great response)
floormall.com (samples came very quick and packed nicely)

I would not hesitate to order from these three based on my communication with them.

I would also check out local suppliers. With this economy, we found a regular flooring store that matched Home Depot's price and delivered samples to our door. Worth a try. Also, that way you can see the stock before ordering. Here's more on wood floors.

Here is a link that might be useful: hardwood floors