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CB Sustainable Home and Construction Review of Builddirect Vanier Cosmopolitan Engineered Hardwood Flooring
Builddirect Vanier Cosmopolitan Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Builddirect Vanier Cosmopolitan Engineered Hardwood Flooring review: Defective Flooring 5

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Author of the review
4:21 pm EST
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Purchased over 2, 000 sq feet of BuildDirects Vanier Cosmopolitan engineered hardwood flooring. This product was shipped directly to my home in Las Vegas Nevada. It was acclimated per manufacturer's instructions. It was installed by a professional installer, and after most of it was installed, it began to crack and delaminate. BuildDirect was notified, further installation was stopped, and waited approximately 5 weeks for BuildDirect to send an inspector. During this wait, the floor continued to crack and delaminate in many locations. The inspector came and made a brief inspection, however made no conclusions regarding the cause for the problems in the flooring. Only the company came to a conclusion despite the fact that the inpector did not, blaming improper installation conditions in the home. I hired a independent certified inspector to examine the floor, and after a 3 1/2 hour examination, his report concluded that the delamination was a manufacturing responsibility, and that the intital cause of cracking was a manufacturing responsibility. Despite this definitive conclusion by a certified wood flooring inspector, the company has refused to honor their structural warranty to either replace or repair the flooring, and has only offered to sell me different flooring at a discount.

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Update by badfloor
Jan 12, 2012 1:47 pm EST

You are mistaken. The materials that I purchases actually cost MORE than the products recommended by two installers that offered bids. Further, the product that I purchased is NOT laminate, but engineered hardwoord flooring which is promoted as having superior resistance to water and environomental stresses than either laminate or sold hardwood. You are correct that the BuildDirect product was poor quality, but it was not low cost.
I have spoken to many hardwood flooring companies in Las Vegas. It certainly is possible to install hardwood flooring in Vegas.

Update by badfloor
Aug 29, 2013 12:23 am EDT

No Do NOT BUY FROM BUILDDIRECT. They are based in Canada. Their flooring is manufactured in China. They refused to honor the warranty on this product (25 yr structural). The Terms of Service of their website will waive your right to sue them in small claims court, and requires that any disputes be resolved by arbitration by an organization that THEY CHOOSE, therefore you know who the arbitrator will know who is buttering their toast. Save yourself the time, effort and money and choose another manufacturer.

I ended up having to rip up the BuildDirect floor, repair the subfloor and put down another manufacturers product. Total cost approximately $50, 000 for a project originally bid at $17000.

Update by badfloor
Dec 18, 2013 9:10 am EST

The wood was acclimated for a full 8 weeks in the house prior to installation (exceeding recommended acclimation time) . I would seriously recommend that you return this flooring now while you can and get a refund before it is too late. You have no warranty on this wood because if you read the warranty requirements, you must maintain your home at all times in a humidity range that is impossible to maintain in Phoenix (it is very dry like Vegas). Quoted directly from their warranty: " The relative humidity guide lines of 35%-55% should be maintained year-round inside your house or your flooring may be negatively affected and void your warranty". Phoenix has a yearly average humidity of 47% in the morning and 27% in the afternoon. That means for a good portion of the average day (and for the majority of a year) the humidity of your home will fall outside of the warranty requirements and void your warranty if an inspector comes during the period when the humidity is less than 35%. If you have a problem with your flooring BuildDirect will void your warranty for this fact alone. Further as mentioned in my comment above, after they void your warranty, you cannot sue them in small claims court since you waive this right by purchasing according to their terms of service.

Update by badfloor
Dec 18, 2013 9:31 am EST

Additionally unless you are an expert on wood flooring, or have hired a truly expert installer who really knows their sh_t, attempting to install in Phoenix is a HUGE risk. Let me give you an example. After the disaster I had with the BuildDirect product, and after many many hours of research and study I came to the same conclusion as the expert as to the cause of the delamination. The product that I purchased from BuildDirect had moisture content above 9% many months after installation (much higher than it should have even at the factory), indicating that it probably had a moisture content much higher than that even after 8 weeks of acclimation. My sub flooring however has of course been in the dry Vegas climate for years and had a moisture content much lower. Having a moisture differential between your flooring and sub flooring and new flooring will be a force to also delaminate your floor, and also can be used as a reason to void your warranty since the installation instructions call for measuring the moisture content of both your flooring and sub flooring prior to installation, and making sure that there is an acceptable gradient. After my disaster, I did indeed hire an expert in wood flooring to assist the installer in doing all appropriate measurements PRIOR to the installation and making sure that the moisture content of the new product that I purchased was acceptable (unlike the BuildDirect product). Again however realize that you will be proceeding without a warranty due to the bogus humidity restrictions in the BuildDirect warranty.

Update by badfloor
Oct 13, 2014 3:23 pm EDT

BEWARE OF POSSIBLE FAKE POSITIVE REVIEWS OF BUILDDIRECT!
Please beware of possible FAKE positive reviews of BuildDirect on such review sites as Trust Pilot, and Reseller Ratings. I am not saying that the websites themselves are fake, I am saying I suspect that many of the positive 5 star reviews are fake. Please do not believe me and check for yourself. Go to these sites and search for BuildDirect reviews. At first glance, it appears that there are quite a few glowing reviews for this company mixed with some very bad reviews; not too unusual for any company. BUT, look at the date for the reviews. You will see that the large majority of 5 star positive reviews are clustered very tightly within a few days of October 23, 2013 in the case of Trust Pilot reviews, and within a single month in the case of Reseller Ratings. I personally believe this to be HIGHLY suspicious. BuildDirect may claim that all these reviews are "verified" but what this means is that all a person has to do is order a free sample for which they will receive an order number which can be used to verify their "order." My experience has shown me that this company lies and cheats and refuses to honor their warranty, so I do not put any unethical practice beyond them.

Update by badfloor
Jan 20, 2015 12:03 pm EST

Here is a photo of a real BuildDirect floor that had to be ripped up due to wide delamination determined by a certified wood flooring inspector in his written report to be "manufacturing responsibility." BuildDirect refused to honor their sham warranty (see explanation above why the warranty is void in every city in the United States). The BuildDirect floor was ripped up as shown in this photo. It was replaced by another manufacturers engineered flooring of the same wood species (Santos Mahogany) and it remains beautiful today without any delamination.

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Update by badfloor
Apr 02, 2016 4:51 pm EDT

Purchased through flooring contractor; Brand was Mullican (American Company) with the great majority of manufacturing occurring in the U.S. I did have a wood flooring expert check all moisture parameters of the purchased wood and the subfloor and get their OK before proceeding to installation. The floor still looks great to this day. The crappy defective BuildDirect flooring is in a landfill somewhere in Nevada.

5 comments
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pone44
Cupertino, US
Jun 28, 2022 8:06 pm EDT
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Can you provide details about where the delamination took place? The Vanier 7-layer engineered hardwood is amazingly thick overall, and it also has a very thick hardwood layer on top. It is so over-engineered in every way that it would be amazing that they failed to supply enough glue or the right type of glue to keep those seven layers in place.

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Miss Brit
, US
Apr 01, 2016 7:21 am EDT
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Thank you so much for taking the time to provide the results of your extensive research. While I am sorry that you had such a horrible and expensive experience, you can take comfort in the thought that you saved someone else from the same ordeal; I will not be placing an order through BD as originally planned. There is so much information out there that is conflicting and confusing and the more that I delve in to it, the more I feel that I'm caught in a quandary, it's finding out about other people's personal experiences that brings to light information that would otherwise remain buried; I am glad that I happened to click on tihis website before making that call.

Would you be willing to divulge the company from who you ended up purchasing your flooring?

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V.Wallace
Phoenix, US
Dec 17, 2013 6:48 pm EST
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Hi, I was reading your complaint about BD and am a little worried, we just ordered 1700 sq.ft. of engineered flooring from BD, my question for you is we live in Phoenix, Az. which is similar weather to LV, how long did you let it acclimate before it was installed. Hopefully, we won't run into a problem, but I know how important it is to acclimate the flooring before installing. Also, did you use glue, nail down, or click and lock method. Thanks sorry you had such a problem!

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ErikU19
Tomball, US
May 10, 2013 2:44 pm EDT

did you ever get this resolved with builderdirect? Looking at some flooring from them (engineered vanier) but I sure as hell dont want the experience youve had!

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Ruruvi-at-hotmail
Jackson, US
Dec 28, 2011 4:28 pm EST

this was poor quality to begin with - you could have saved thousands by just buying the cheapest crap at HomeDepot; then of course it would do the same thing
consider buying solid hardwood flooring - not laminate; which is garbage
or put in slate tile
with the lack of proper humidity in LV even solid hardwood would have a tough time