Beware of Howell Hardwood Flooring out of Dalton Ala,

We been in the wood flooring business for over 90yrs member of the NWFA for over 20yrs and I sit on a committee with the NWFA

My grand father who started this company in 1922 was friends with Chet Derr the 1st. My father took over the company in 1962. We built long relationships with the Derr family the former hoboken Flooring, Floor style on and on. These company's backed up there words with deeds. They never sell you a bad product or defective and leave you hanging. They replace it and cover your back. Howell Hardwood Flooring sold me maple engineered unfinished product. There sales people said you only have to screen it then stain or coat it. Maple is the key word here......or suger maple is what Howell is passing off as a hard maple. The stuff you can't sand or stain or finish. Even the trio with 120 sand paper leave scratches like a hockey rink after each period, we even tried 120, 150, screens on trio something. We even tried hand block sanders and that didn't even work left straight line marks 120grit. The marks were like knife cuts in the floor like when people try to take up carpet over hardwood and cut the wood. I was out at Surfaces talking to the owner of Howell Hardwood Flooring Clay and he acted like he cared and was helping, telling me try this and try this, like he was my friend and he is there with me to the end and the customer is happy with his product. Telling me lets keep the homeowner from filing a claim, do whatever it takes so that doesn't happen and I have your back on doing all this extra labor. Remember this was a easy pre sanded maple 1600sqft ready go. I figured on 3 3 1/2 days stain streetshoe 275. I have done these floors for yrs from Graf Bro, Real Woods etc never a problem. I support we got from those company's was top notch. Howell just told me what I wanted to here lied to my face at surfaces and when he got home to his office changed his ways to I don't back up my floor I sold you and we don't back our product and what I said to you at surfaces I don't remember anymore. Howell Hardwood Flooring is a ripoff and sham company and owner is fake and lair. Clay Howell sat there at surfaces and said to me lets pray to god to help us in this matter right in the middle of the show. I be-leaved the owner and Howell Hardwood Flooring and now they left me with a big mess and a lawsuit coming his way. I will be a NWFA in Dallas and this case will never end to Clay Howell and Howell Hardwood Flooring keep with word to me and to the industry. I had the wood tested SUGER MAPLE. Don't fall for Howell Hardwood Flooring sales pitch........I have home owner pissed and my family's 91yrs Reputation is on line, My father and grand father name and Howell Hardwood Flooring treated it like it my crap. I will never give up or go away to Howell takes care of the matter

I recently had a similar issue with some maple trim I bought, luckily it was just a few t-molds. They damn things were sugar maple, you can tell just from the weight they are sugar maple. Sorry to hear you about your issue I have bought from howell in the past with no issues but all we buyfrom them is red oak.

I just had the same thing happen with EcoGrain by Premier finishing. Prefinished engineered click North American (Sugar) Maple. Within a week it was scratched and dented like soft pine. They wouldn't stand behind it either Don't ever use their product.

Good to know. There are good and bad manufacturers out there. Shamrock makes some good stuff, then Owens. You may want to look into Uptown. They have some good precision milled unfinished engineered. 3/4 inch thick too. Heavy 6 mm wear layer.

Here's a character Walnut unfinished engineered lightly stained

I know this is an old thread, but I wanted to post and say I am glad I found it. I called them to order a few samples and the sales person (Larry) was condescending and rude as hell and couldn't understand why I was interested in their product. It was like pulling teeth to get any information out of him. Finally I ended up getting him to send me a few samples, and he was going to charge me $25. A few days later I take another peak at their site and realize the samples are supposed to be free so I called them back and of course got Larry again. This is what it says on their site:

"Howell Hardwood Flooring operates a full-time sample making facility. We offer many same day shipments and specialize in expediting special requests. We ship each business day via UPS. Sets of three pieces in all of our standard offerings. There is no charge when these are shipped UPS ground."

Not only could he not clearly explain why he wanted to charge me, he continually contradicted his website and hadn't even shipped the samples almost a week later. So I canceled everything, what a joke.

Why does it not surprise me they are religious freaks, it always seems like the people that are the most reliant on religion have the worst morals and ethics of all. I guess they think god is just going to make everything better for them.