We want to replace the carpet in 3 bedrooms with solid hardwood floors. Since 2 of the rooms are for our kids, we would like floors that do not offgas VOCs. I saw that Shaw Hardwood Floors are "greenguard certified" to have low VOCs, and since I know Greenguard is a reputable organization, I thought I'd go with Shaw.

Home Depot has Shaw Rockingham solid hardwood oak flooring for $3.49/sq ft. It is listed as "Real Domestic Oak Hardwood" and as "Made in the USA." This seems too good to be true, to have that low of a price for solid wood floors from US trees made in the US.

I have read several negative reviews about Shaw hardwood floors, but I don't have a sense of whether the problem was actually with the Shaw hardwood floors, or were problems that they would have with any hardwood flooring (i.e., installation issues).

Do you recommend Shaw solid hardwood floors? Is this price reasonable (it seems too low to me)? And if you don't recommend Shaw, what solid floors that don't offgas VOCs do you recommend? We prefer pre finished but are willing to finish on our own with VOC free finishes if necessary.

Thank you!

The VOC is only dangerous during application and drying of finish. When you are buying pre-finished materials there is nothing to do with VOC. As soon as the finish is dry, it has no gas coming out from its surface, because it is already Crystalline Substance.

The Shaw is far not the best material on the market. I would say it is the cheapest one! But you are getting what you are paying for.

Roman K.

theflooringninja.com

actually, I remember we did install Shaw prefinished Oak flooring 2-1/4'' a few times. It's good for the its price. There are less finish on top then on the other brands, but wood is wood, it's going to be scratched like any other wood. Yes, there are many boards are too curvy, that you can't install them at all, and many cracked boards, but you just need to take them out and try not to install them. Again, yu are getting what are you paying.

Roman K.

I just purchased Shaw prefinished solid hardwood flooring to be installed in my toddler daughter's bedroom. Since opening the boxes for the flooring to acclimate, there is a very strong smell in the room. It is almost like a combination of chemicals and wood. I previously had a bamboo floor in there that we removed because it tested high for formaldehyde. That, too, had the same smell which never seemed to go away... hence the reason I had it tested for formaldehyde. I am very nervous to install the Shaw flooring for fear that we could have a similar problem on our hands. Shaw's customer service is closed for the weekend, but in the meantime, I am wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue when installing prefinished solid hardwood? The employee at the store I purchased it from said it the uv finish offgassing and it should be fine in 1 to 2 weeks. Does this sound right? It is my daughter's room and I don't feel comfortable putting down another floor if it could potentially harm her health.

Thank you for any feedback anyone can offer.

Courtney