watch this BEFORE buying flooring from Lowes (why I DO NOT recommend Lowes!) 

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I’ve been installing floors for 6 years now (own business) and I typically recommend customers to our local flooring store. Big box stores like Lowe’s,Home Depot etc tend to have lower quality product(LVP,Vinyl Planks) unless you actually spend the $4-$6/ sq ft to get a thick MM and thick wear layer.. but will say those damaged pieces were definitely from the manufacture and not that Lowe’s store fault since they don’t open and inspect every box of flooring that comes in. You could tell by the type of damage it was manufacturing/QC issue.. Also for any other DIY’er, I can assure you that you don’t need a table saw if that expense is not feasible. I install Vinyl Plank 70% of the time with my flooring business and all that is needed is ur carpenters knife for cutting this stuff… when u have to rip a plank/make a long cut you just mark your measurements and then grab another piece of floor out of the box and use that as a straight edge. Line the “tongue” side of the floor up to ur marks u measured out on the piece of floor and hold it down with your off hand and then run ur knife right down the side of the tongue to cut the piece you are using. Then grab the piece of floor and start bending it where you just cut and work your way down the piece,bending as you go. It will snap right off. Install that piece and move on to the next one. Another tip is when you get to your last piece of floor in a row, no need to pull out your tape and measure and then make your marks on floor and cut it. Just spin your piece of floor upside down (not bottom side, just spin it so it’s the opposite direction floor is currently running) and butt it against the wall, grab ur knife and make a cut where that piece of floor that is upside down meets the piece you just installed . After making the cut with your knife just grab it and snap it off.. spin the piece to the correct direction and install. No need to measure, get up, use a saw,etc.. may take you a few pieces to be able to cut a straight line free handed but you could also just slide a square where ur two pieces meet and use that for a straight edge to get a straight cut on your end pieces.

T-square and a utility knife are all i used to cut length wise and it worked perfectly for me.

Just go ahead and skip to roughly to the 9:00 mark to skip the rambling and sped up install footage to actually see what the video is about ...smfh

Weird I just did a room in my house 15 boxes and ZERO damages. All from Lowe’s.

Looks awesome. Thanks for sharing. Yeah chips and things are a pain but that’s why any project is recommended to estimate at least 10% over but your case is clearly well over that margin. I would like to say that the fault to the damaged planks is the manufacturer. If the missing/chipped pieces are NOT in the box then it happened before the planks were packaged (if the boxes were mfg sealed). Lowes should take onus to correct and refund but they didn’t manufacture or package those cases.

I totally agree with you ! We got the exact same flooring you got. Actually after we measured our floor for the footage, the girl at Lowe’s told us straight up , get extra boxes because you’ll probably run into some chips on some of your pieces! No.1 so she actually knew ahead because it happened to others, No2. Lowe’s is our only choice we don’t have a Home Depo in Eastern NC - I understand your pain! 😩

Hello, My first time here. 👍🏽looking for waterproof flooring . Yep the first place we headed was Lowe’s. The price’s have gone up 🙀. You are a nice couple. Thank you for sharing 💕🙏🏿💕

How is the floor holding up since you've installed it? Great job on the installing video. Does the underlayment heat the Halo sound down when you walk?

I have been renovating this 2 story, 3/2 + basement for almost 2 years. Mostly shopped at Lowes because Home Depot is an hour away. I have had some issues with some items (not their fault) and they have happily refunded or replaced whatever issue I had. My Lowes is pretty good

How is the overall quality of the flooring? Seems durable? Would you buy the same type of floor again from another company? Thank you

The flooring looks absolutely amazing! You two kids are doing a beautiful job. But I am so sorry that you had to have that experience with Lowe's. I think that explains why Gary got the majority of our building materials for the house in Bandera County over at Home Depot instead of at Lowe's. I will end up buying a playscape from Lowe's and after they got my money I had a fairly similar nonchalant attitude from the box store here in Kerrville. Their response was, " That's a subcontractor. We have nothing to do with them once the sale is made and we send them the invoice". 🙄 Anyway, Beau,,that was an informative video. Hang in there and keep up the good work! God bless and have a blessed week with Kelly and the kiddos.

I bought the same flooring about 6 months ago and mine was in great condition and it still looks great on my floor.

Great video,Great advise & Great job on your home!

Lowes put down my Luxury Vinyl flooring in my beach house. I had the kitchen, den, dining room and living room. That was a year ago, no problems. I did have to return 2 boxes as guys over estimated how much would be needed.

You two should be proud.. the floors look fantastic. In fact your entire home is looking great at this point.. amazingly open and bright (especially for a shed build).. looking very nice..

Nice looking place! Thanks for the demonstration

Good video. Not saying you're wrong but: 1) how do you know how much quieter it is with padding vs without? 2) how do you know Home Depot doesn't have similar issues?

Thank you so much for sharing what happened with your flooring- just another thing us DIYers need to be mindful of when we are doing projects and making sure we get the right equipment for the job and check the materials we are going to purchase for the job thanks again but the flooring looks awesome YA!

I had one bad plank out of 8 boxes. I took it back to Lowes and exchanged it. They had a few extras that were out of the box for this purpose. I haven't had any other issues and plan on doing my other two rooms.

Buddy buddy buddy. Use "them bad" planks for the ones where you need to make cuts. Just a tip to save you a trip 😘

For your chipped planks, if their at the ends, save those for your cuts and try to use as much as you can, depending where the scratch, chip or whatever its at.

I use Lowes peel and stick vinyl. Holds up fantastic and is $.98 per square feet. Looking at a closeup of the flooring that you used, it actually looks like the same vinyl planks I use, stuck to the click together flooring system 🧐... at any rate I have used the peel in stick in two homes now and very high traffic areas and it has been great. Despite the instructions, I will add a bit of glue if it will be in an area that is in the sunlight (i.e.) Peel and stick also has pretty good ratings. I always always base my purchases on the ratings and I take into consideration why individuals gave low ratings (sometimes it is error on their own part). When I was researching flooring I actually considered the flooring you are using until I started reading the reviews . Thank goodness I didn’t go that route. Thank you for sharing your experience!

Guess everyone has there own experience. I almost canceled my order when I saw this video. As it turned out I installed nine boxes of the Savanna smart core without any issues. All the boxes were delivered to my store in good condition and arrived earlier than expected. I checked every plank and no broken ends no damage. I’ve never installed flooring before and I did it in my daughters bedroom in one weekend. The only issue I had was the ends of the planks are beveled so depending on what angle you look it can seem that they might not be totally locked when they really are. My wife and daughter are totally satisfied with my job and you know if mommas happy everyone is happy!

I've did my half basement in ProCore from Lowes. First shipment of flooring I got were great! When I went to do the bathroom, one box had all the groove pieces on one end cracked or broken. Again being shipped to the house, I assume it was just rough handled. Lowe's is great with returns so just always buy 10% more than you think you need, especially if you have to special order/ship it, and return unused/damaged product at the end. Also, as one user mentioned below, you can use those damaged planks for end pieces/special cuts. Nice job on the installation, it looks great!

I always buy in store so I can view it. Secondly I have compared Home Depot to Lowe's and Lowe's has a better selection

We just layed the SmartCore Cottage Oak from Lowe's in three bathrooms and didn't have any quality control issues at all. It was all perfect. So sorry your experience was not the same.

I went with Lowes ProCore mainly because it matched the porcelain tile wood planks down stairs in color. It is working but I think a more expensive brand might have had a better lock in system.

Just did a room with 11 boxes of smartcore, no bad planks, looks great

Glad I found your Video, thanks. I'm about to rip out our Carpet and put down LVP. I don't know what that product is that you used, but it looks really low quality. The one we are going with is the Lifeproof from HD. It's the 8.6" x 72" planks, 8mm's thick, with 22 mil wear layer. It has built-in backer and 2 types of mold/mildew protection and 100% waterproof. Yes, it's $3.19/sqft, but I think it's worth it in the long run. It's not always true in life, but with Flooring, I think you get what you pay for. Invest up front and you will avoid issues down range.

When you started talking about chipped corners, I knew you must be talking about the Smartcore brand. It's a common issue that most retailers know about. I bought 500 sqft of Cali Vinyl Pro after hearing about Smartcore issues. Not one piece was damaged.

Hey, have you tried using Supercore Flooring, would love to see a review on that!

I finally got a video that help. I want to upgrade the flooring for my living room and kitchen. But the furniture and other stuff cant move out to empty the area. I find that you are at the same page as mine. Can you give me some tips to start and easy to work with?

Wow! So glad I saw this! We were about to get flooring from there.

i was debating lowes vs hd. good enough, i'll go with hd. thanks for the honest opinion. very good knowledge starting a diy project. nice work! looks awesome!

I utilized my chipped boards in closets and against walls. I was able to cut the chipped portion off to fit.

So thankful for your being positive despite the challenges. Very inspiring and real! Just bought my flooring materials at Lumber Liquidators today for my family room, living room and formal dining. Wish us luck! Maybe I could share the results later...

Great video. And you guys are awesome! Only suggestion would be to eliminate or replace the music you’re using during the install. Really obnoxious. Thanks for sharing the information and wisdom though.

I did a LifeProof floor in a 350sqft ish room and factored in 20% waste. Between double prints, small chips, and cut errors; I pretty much used the entire margin. Returned about 10% of the product (doubles + chips) with no questions asked. I think I spent more time deciding how to organize the planks from 7 patterns, of which 2-3 were literally reverse prints, than I did installing the floor. It came out great, but I would think real hard about tile next time if waterproof was a requirement.

I bought the smartcore pro and it already came with the padding in back

Watch Vid @ 2X speed. nice video, good info. Thanks

I have bought products from suppliers over the years that I found to be crap and if they let it be returned without questions no big woop it happens. In my basement I just installed 660 sq ft life proof from Home Depot and the product was without damaged pieces and installed just fine also am just finishing up 350 sq ft Smatrcore pro Clairmount Oak from Lowes and it was also without damaged pieces installed just fine and looks great. Vinyl plank flooring does have edges that are susceptible to damage if mishandled during shipping.

GUYS! the floor looks AMAZING! So yeah we’ve had the same kind of disappointment with both Lowe’s and Home Depot over the years and like Kelly said they don’t even act surprised when you tell them about damaged product. It’s sad that the stuff is coming from the manufacturer in that state. Oh and don’t worry about the mess, it’s called life in a construction zone! We miss you guys!!

I just received around 30 boxes of the same vinyl and had zero flaws. Not suggesting you shouldn't be disappointed just that this may be a one off bad batch. We LOVE our SmartCore flooring.

Not all Lowes are the same. I've bought, and installed myself, over 1,000 sq ft of locking vinyl flooring over the last 5-ish years from Lowes. I've bought both the Cali-Bamboo and CoreTec brands. I ended up switching stores, though, because the one closest to my house seemed to end up damaging boxes. I don't know if it was the store's fault or the shipping folks, but after switching stores I haven't had any problems. I always refuse any broken or damaged boxes. You don't need to take those.

We've done 6 cabins at our resort over the past several years with no problems using Shaw flooring and the Smart Core product with no such experience, .Probably 2500 sq.feet, we inspect the boxes for any damages before accepting them and really haven't had to reject but a couple boxes.

If the planks slide around on the suv it could cause damage like you described. Also someone could have returned the planks after they had them in the back of a pickup.

We bought 40 boxes of vinyl plank flooring from Lowe's to do a majority of our house. Not one problem so far. (Still have 20 boxes left- still have to do the bedrooms) We bought the Procore brand that had the backing already on it. So far we are very pleased with it.

I noticed at the end you say “sorry for the mess we live here.” Do you find it more difficult to keep the smaller place clean or more difficult in the larger house you used to live in? I live in a 600 sq foot home with 2 small children and it can get cluttered sooo fast!

I had a good experience with Smartcore flooring. 4 boxes and not one issue.

How did your flooring hold up? It looked like you didn’t leave expansion gaps.

Just the info I needed thanks

Your video is super inspiring, very soon I will be doing 3 bedrms, kitchen, hallway, living + dining rm. 1. What brand the floor did you use and is there something better than that out there that you wished you would have used instead? 2. Other than the underlayment down is there anything else you can put down to assure the floor will not be cold?

If you have Floor Decor near you, they seem to have a wider range of Luxury Vinyl with many having the cork backing which would enable to skip the underlayment, at least on a concrete slab. I find the high quality vinyl flooring to be very heavy at about 50lbs per box.

i just did my upstairs --55 boxes of smart core --i did not have one single knick or bad plank at all ---sounds like a handling issue with loews when you purchased

thank you both

Was this the 7.5mm SmartCore Pro flooring? Or the thinner one?

I just did about 850 square feet of flooring with the Smartcore Pro, only had a few chipped boards BUT, i cut the ends off and used them to start a row, ALSO Lowes doesn't make the product or box it, They just sell it. Take them back and buy another box. Love how people blame the stores when it's the manufacture's fault.

I do all the flooring inspection and measurement assessments for Lowes in my market and we have never had any problems with this product. I would highly recommend you get a Laminate Cutter or AKA “Guillotine” when working with any vinyl thicker than 4 mm which in this case I think yours was 6 mm. Scoring it or using a circular saw can become difficult depending on the size of the job and the room layout.

Great video!!! Thanks!

Had you purchased flooring with the cork on the bottom or some sorta pad would u still need to buy that expensive purple Matt ?

Great video! Just wondering... 8 months later, how are the planks holding up? Any chipping or scratches? Any warping or dents under heavy furniture/fridge/vanity?

I didn’t use underlayment for my smartcore ultra on my basement floor, I was cheap but I think it’s fine..

I love that you all film your real life. I love seeing the different stages. I appreciate your reveals not looking like an episode of fixer upper. I have 6 kids, we homeschool and have animals. We want realistic and that's what I see when watching y'all. Great job and I really admire you for what you're doing. Y'all rock!

I this video is a few years old, but how has the flooring held up?

If you returning only the damages one, I would assumed that the damages are from the customer. Return everything once the 2nd box contain damages items.

I just got some and I guess I got lucky none of them was chipped, but I only got like 9 boxes.

So your expense report shows $3000 for luxury vinyl plank flooring. What was the backing (underneath it) u used and how much did it cost, versus the cost of the luxury vinyl flooring? (I'm looking at about $2.58/SF current price. How much did you pay, and how many SF did you lay down? Did you have to do anything extra to the floor prior to laying aside from cleaning it? I'm wanting to go over existing old rough tile with grout, so may have to skim coat it first with cementitious leveling material to fill in the grout lines.)

It looks like my comment is not unique but I picked up 45 boxes on a pallet from Lowes and 3/4 through the installation not a single plank is damaged. They vary in color a little bit like they are supposed to but they don't vary so much that one plank sticks out. Pergo Portfolio Wetprotect. The portfolio collection does require at least an intermediate skill level to install. The tolerances are tight and it does not snap together easy but so far the floors are rock solid and very nice to walk on.

Lowe's carries several types of store brand vinyl plank. Which product was this?

I had LVP installed in all the “wet” areas in my home (kitchen and all bathrooms) but I bought my flooring from an actual flooring business. Because I’m a repeat customer (bought all my hardwood for the rest of the house through them) they gave me an excellent price of the LVP. Very high quality and looks beautiful. My only real complaint is I had them install the LVP over the existing tile that the builder had put in. They did lay some sort of underlayment down first to help smooth out the grout lines but because the LVP is floating it sounds hallow underneath in some places. I had them lay it over the tile because they wanted a shit load of money to remove the tile which i just couldn’t justify that kind of expense.

Thanks for the video - we are about to do our floors and, unfortunately, we have a Lowe’s and the nearest HD is 1 hour away (they may have the same issue too). The flooring at Lowe’s is made by Unilin Flooring out of NC. That is very poor QC from a good factory like that, not sure what is going on there but we will check every box IN THE STORE. Can you share what “wear rating” you got? Most is around 12 mil but we have seen some that is 20 mil (more expensive) but looks like it is much harder. Maybe it will be harder to chip too? Best of luck - Brian

Home depot has the same issue | 400sq - big chips everywhere where you snap the edge in. I ordered 18 boxes and half of them are chipped. Its such a pain because these boxes are not light!! I was worried that these LVP would chip that easy after installion..its not the case.. They shipped them this way. And not to mention it takes over 2 months to order. HD does not care also. - Next time ordering and picking up my own boxes from a suppliers warehouse.

What is this brand? Style Selections? Is that Lowes house brand? I was thinking of getting Lowes Style Selection as well as Lucida MaxCore. Thanks!

Great Job guys! I always enjoy seeing you all learn new things. The struggle is real but it is definitely worth it. Keep being awesome

Thinking about doing my first floor in the basement.... I have a lot of our furniture/fridge (that can't come out of the room) piled on one side of the room. Can I install half the room and then move the stuff onto the Vinyl Flooring, and then finish the flooring on the other side? Appreciate the help!!

How about buy twice of much as you need and return those chipped ones all once. Would Lowes accept returns in the forms "boxes of chipped floors"?

Is this pergo timbercraft hillcrest hickory or crest ridge hickory? Looks good!

Tyvm!!! Very helpful!

We got pergo from Lowe’s. The quality was pretty decent. Out of about 40-50 boxes we had about 3 full boxes of bad pieces to take back. Our problem was it was a bear to install. There was no clicking into place. We had to use a spare piece and a mallet and tap every damn piece in. Took forever. I’d say unless yours was specifically Lowe’s brand, it is a manufacturing problem, not Lowe’s. Though I’d think they need to drop that brand for sure!

I’ve been working at Lowe’s for just under a year and wanted to comment on your point about chipped/damaged product. To be clear, this is not said on behalf of Lowe’s, these words are my own. I recently switched to flooring and realized how much damage there is but I am aware of the many factors that play into why this is. Most flooring is shipped on pallets and how those are treated is usually dependent on the powered equipment operators and how they’re transported/received. It is not uncommon for pallets to be damaged upon storage as employees like myself are expected to regularly add or remove product from top stock and using our powered equipment given our narrow aisles is not easy. Then on the sales floor, product is regularly opened by employees or customers alike due to a variety of factors. This compromises what little protection these pieces have and the planks usually break shortly thereafter. It then becomes very difficult for both customers and employees.

I got 48 boxes of luxury pro core plus and every single one was perfect

The under padding doesn’t loosen the planks? Or void the warranty?

Very helpful video, thank you. We’re in the process of finding luxury vinyl plank flooring for our house. The floors look great by the way.

Hi...... Thank you 🎥👍👍👍

We purchased the Cali Vinyl Flooring in all our house, had it professionally installed and it’s been a year 😢we need to replace it in the entire house. The side locking system is terrible

I would like to know the manufacturing, they are the ones that shipped them to Lowe's.

lowes delivery people damaged my vinyl plank floors .I had my floor down and ordered a dishwasher and they delivered it Sunday .They dropped the handtruck on it after the guy kicked the hand truck to get it out of his way .It fell over hard on the floor .I prepped my floors for 2 weeks to install the floors .I installed venice beach 5 mil tile look in my kitchen 15x35 feet of it by myself .Easy to do and only had 2 planks damaged in 28 boxes of it .I used them for cut offs in pantry .I am now not very happy because of the damage and it is in the very middle of the floor .I am still very upset by this .Waiting to see if they will do anything as they have not call me .The hand truck hit so hard that it broke the locking piece on several of them .Dishwasher is still sitting in the middle of my kitchen uninstalled because I told them to leave before they did more damage .I am 66 years old and over the years I have remodeled several homes I have lived in .This is my retirement home .I moved to VA from NJ .The laminate flooring was a bear to take up as fridge leak damaged it .It is just hubby ,myself and 3 chihuahuas and floor was finished 4 days before delivery and I warned them before they even entered the house .So watch delivery people closely Not many places sell tile look flooring .

Wow. All those chips make you wonder if the floor will actually be indestructible.

Big box stores don't sell quality product. In fact, a lot of products (such as plumbing fixtures) sold in big box stores are actual code violations to use in your house, but they still sell them.

Well on thechipped planks you can cut the ends off and used as starters and enders. Home depot has same problems. 25 yrs installing floors

I completely understand about getting something that came from the factory that way! Summer before last it took me three air conditioners to get one delivered, that worked! The first one looked OK but didn’t cool. That’s much more understandable than the second one that came in a totally pristine undamaged box, but the thin metal that houses the air conditioner inside that box was totally trashed on the back and side, like an elephant had stepped on it,... Which caused that housing to damage the fan motor! How could somebody not catch that and stop the packaging and shipping!‽ It’s unconscionable.

lol my experience hasn't been great with the pro core vinyl flooring. So many chips and issues when installing. I haven't had issues with there lower brand of laminate flooring.

Was Lowes able to do a refund only on the broken pieces? I've bought boxes of tile before with chips in them and they refunded me the broken ones.

I got same experience..that is why I don’t go lows anymore besides some employees very rude..I like Home Depot

What kind blade did you use on your table saw? Just bought a tablesaw and confused on what blade to use. Installing vinyl planks. Thanks!!!

Sorry you guys have had this problem with flooring at Lowe's and some of the comments of people claiming that Lowe's doesn't back their products. I have currently gone through 36 boxes of the ultra version and did not have any issues with any. I'm only halfway, but I feel confident I will not have any product quality control. The associates at my Lowe's have been absolutely spectacular during my repair and renovation of my home and the part-timers that work a trade at day have helped immensely. I am certain that there are stores that do not have such awesome associates as I have access too, and I feel sorry for you. I am sure there are other big box stores that could be described the same (good and bad) and hope you all can find that store that works for you. I would absolutely recommend Lowe's, at least my store anyway.

Do you have a shed measuring 10’ wide and 7’ deep?

What brand from Lowes did you use ?

If you dont like the flooring and packaging take it up with the manufacturer. If there were missing pieces, exchange it for a complete box. Lowes return and exchange policy is pretty good much better than Home Depot. I bought laminate flooring from Lowe's 20years ago and it still looks great.