Our response to the Lumber Liquidators 60 Minutes Expose

by | Apr 16, 2015 | Ecology, Green Issues, Health

Some of you may have seen the 60 Minutes piece about Lumber Liquidators (LL) this past Sunday. If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so (the youtube link may be liable to change but here’s a current link to the report). Reading with interest the blogs and feedback on their web and Facebook pages, and from our experience here at Planet Hardwood, I’d like to dispel some commonly held misconceptions:

  1. Within the industry “laminate” refers exclusively to plastic laminate which is the product category in question. This product is a layer of clear melamine plastic over a picture of wood (or tile or your cousin Henry) on a substrate of high density fiberboard (HDF). Outside the industry it is very common to incorrectly include wood engineered flooring in that category of “laminate” since thin layers of anything satisfies the dictionary definition of that word. Formaldehyde emission mis-labeling is not a problem in the wood business. It’s about as unlikely as finding something other than rice in the rice box at the supermarket.
  2. Not everything produced in China is suspect or deficient. Also, the Chinese don’t conspire to mis-label and confuse. Remember, this is a factory producing a private label product to a Lumber Liquidator specification packaged in a box designed by Lumber Liquidators. Lumber Liquidators brands it and that’s how they conduct their entire business. They’ve never produced a square foot of their “own” flooring. The Chinese mill managers immediately answered the tough questions posed by the undercover 60 Minute “buyers” in an entirely honest and forthcoming manner. This has also been our experience at Planet Hardwood when dealing with Chinese mills. You either pay for quality or pay for crap… there are no secrets. The customer is boss.
  3. Planet Hardwood decided years ago not to sell plastic laminate flooring. Or carpeting. Or vinyl. All of these products leave toxic trails in production, have a limited life span, will spend most of their time on this earth leaching poisons into the environment, and are unhealthy to live with while in your home.

Humidity and the health of you and your wood floor

by | Dec 16, 2013 | Health, Wood

Wood acts like a sponge. It expands in the presence of excess moisture, and contracts when that moisture is given up to a dryer environment. It is always trying to achieve a balance with the prevailing relative humidity. In the Northeast, the natural seasonal swings in relative humidity are wide, and will stress the wood at each extreme. All wood responds in the same way, no matter how it’s mixed, shaved, turned it into powder and glued back together again (like the cores of plastic laminate flooring), wood will react dimensionally to the presence or absence of moisture. Wood flooring is the most stable between 35% and 65% relative humidity, the same range comfortable for people, pets, plants and other living things. Here in New England, even though human activity adds moisture to the air, it is important to humidify your home during the heating season.