What Is Bellawood Flooring?
Bellawood a house brand of pre-finished hardwood flooring and engineered wood flooring sold exclusively at LL Flooring, also known as Lumber Liquidators. Pre-finished wood flooring is ready for installation since it comes pre-stained with multiple coats of urethane-based surface finish. By buying pre-finished wood, you avoid the mess and considerable smell that comes with manually finishing flooring inside your home. The various types of Bellawood are available in stock at LL Flooring/Lumber Liquidators stores since the retail outlets serve as mini-warehouses for everything carried by the stores. This is in contrast to some other retailers, where flooring products often need to be ordered as much as six to eight weeks in advance of delivery. LL Flooring is a chain of retail flooring stores that sells a wide range of domestic and foreign woods, both solid flooring planks and engineered hardwoods. In early 2020, Lumber Liquidators began the process of changing its name to LL Flooring to better reflect its main product: flooring, not lumber. But the company still alternately uses both names. Only a few years ago, Bellawood was the ultimate insider’s secret, since Lumber Liquidators stores were found only in out-of-the-way, light industrial zones. Bellawood is no longer a secret. Customers have found those remote stores, plus Lumber Liquidators stores have been popping up in more visible retail environments.
Bellawood Pros and Cons
Bellawood Pros and Cons
Pros
Bellawood is inexpensive. No matter how much a certain type of hardwood flooring costs at other outlets, the Bellawood price is invariably less—by at least by a dollar or two. Pricing for Bellawood flooring is governed mostly by market conditions, such as prices charged by growers, brokers, and shippers. But at LL Flooring, the cost of Bellawood has risen at a slower rate than at most other flooring brands. LL Flooring/Lumber Liquidators carries 96 types of Bellawood pre-finished solid hardwood flooring options and 31 types of engineered flooring products. Even though many companies have begun to phase out their solid hardwoods, Bellawood has actually expanded its solid hardwood line. Bellawood carries a 100-year limited warranty. Unlike many home products’ warranties, which end when the home is sold, Bellawood’s warranty is transferable from one homeowner to the next.
Cons
While LL Flooring is seeking to increase its reach throughout the U.S., availability is still limited and inconsistent. Some states, such as Idaho, Montana, Maine, Iowa, Arkansas, and South Dakota, have only between one to five stores. In Rhode Island, one LL Flooring store serves the state’s population of over 1 million. Yet its stores are heavily represented in other states, such as Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Also, you’ll need to live in a larger metro area within those states. You need to live close enough to one of the retail stores to pick up the product. You can order online, but the company does not ship its online orders.
Tips on Shopping at LL Flooring/Lumber Liquidators
LL Flooring/Lumber Liquidators showrooms are low-pressure sales environments. Lumber Liquidators owns its own stores and does not sell franchises, so you will not encounter any commissioned sales employee steering you to buy more expensive flooring. The showrooms are small and simple. Weekends can be busy, so try to stop by on a weekday, if possible. One especially helpful feature of LL Flooring’s site is the product availability indicator. You can check ahead of time whether or not your local store has your product in stock and exactly how many boxes are available. You can secure the product by purchasing it ahead of time. LL Flooring/Lumber Liquidators does not install hardwood flooring (or any type of flooring). Instead, as is customary for flooring retailers, licensed and insured professional independent contractors can install your flooring. Of course, you can bring the product to your home and install it yourself or hire your own installer. The company suggests that you order a full 17-percent more flooring than needed. Overage accounts for cut-off ends and other normal waste that is a normal part of any flooring installation.
