We are in ne Tennessee. We are putting t&g flooring as paneling on our renovated mudroom. We need about 400 sq. ft, which will include a closet paneled inside and out. We live in the country and have a lot of wood in our house(mainly oak, both prefinished(upstairs floors) and downstairs as window trim, butcherblock countertops, and other places.) We do not want to go with oak in the mudroom/sunroom, as we would like a different look here, tho we may trim around the windows in this room with our own oak that we stained and varnished. We had pretty much decided on a Ipee wood, what a nice grain. But when we went back to the store to look at the wood again, it struck us as really being too dark. We saw a cypress that looked similar to yellow pine but had much more depth/character. The company that showed it to us said it is hard to get, I have called them twice for a price quote and they do not call back, so I guess they could not get it. I found Lumber Liquidators has a Bellawood cypress, 3/4 x 5 1/4, their price is $5.69 per sq. ft. They have it in stock we could look at it before we purchase it. I found a company in Winchester, Va., Moxon Timbers, that also has it, at a lower price but we would not be able to see it before purchasing it. The Bellawood has numerous good reviews but then I realized they are all on the Lumber Liquidators website, so if there was a bad one it may not get on. We are not set on cypress but prefer something interesting to look at, we like the knots and the graining look.

Nancy

I'd rather not get into all the particulars . But if it was me....I would try to find a local company with quality products and service.

ive bought flooring from Moxon before when exotics were all the rage. I'm not sure but in the past they only had unfinished floors but its been 3-4 years ago. Just make sure.

My son and I bought wood from Lumber Liquidators (Australian Cypress and Tigerwood bambo) and found it to be pretty good quality.

Just checking.... Is this an educated professional opinion ???

This is just an opinion from a first time hardwood purchaser.

Tennessee? There's gotta be a ton of wood flooring manufactures there. I just read about one...was it Mohawk or Shaw that just built a plant there?

We went to Lumber Liquidators, looked at the wood, and decided to get the Bellawood australian cypress. 400 sq. ft. We have installed as paneling over 1/2 of it. So far we are very pleased with the product. Our waste is minimal, much less than 10%, tho I do keep an eye on which board is next. Only time will tell how this product holds up but initally we are satisfied.

Nancy

All the wood is now installed and we are very pleased. Only one board out of the batch was not the width it should have been. So far no splitting of the wood, we did make sure to leave at least 1/2 inch at the top and the bottom of the wall for expansion, and if we need to put in a screw we always drill a starter hole. Waste is still very minimal. We have used the boards mainly horizontally but around one door my husband put the cypress boards vertical then joined the horizontal to it by the tongue-and-groove. Came out perfect.

Thats great and a positive sign about the flooring. But putting it an walls is much different than floors you walk on. Hopefully you never have to try and file a claim against them.