Just checking. Anyone want to comment on this flooring?

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I have seen that installed but never installed it myself. It's not bad looking.... it appears to be a tavern grade with many shorts and a great deal of color variation. But, if one mixes it up real good it looks just fine. Milling issues ?.... I can't offer any help there but I would surely expect some because you always get what you pay for. For that price one can afford to buy a few extra cartons.

The fooring salesperson we met with recently told us that Bruce hardwood flooring is at the lower end of the spectrum for hardwood flooring and that Bruce laminate is at the top end of the spectrum for laminates. This may explain why you are somewhat underwhelmed by the quality of what you saw at HD.

Allow me to be the devils advocate. Bruce does manufacture some fairly decent lines flooring.... but, you will not see these better products on the racks of any big box store.

This floor only has a 5 year warranty, as opposed to the 15 year warranty on some of Bruce's other hardwood floors.

Friends of mine installed it in their hallway, and it looks very nice. It blends well with the 2" oak strip flooring that's used in many old New England houses.

Well, I am the OP and can now attest to the quality of the flooring. We are almost finished instaling about 3000 sqft of it (one room to go). We did the 3-1/4" oak from HD.

My husband and I were just looking at this flooring at HD. The price seems almost too good to be true, but the sample looked nice. To the OP (tom in sc) we would be VERY interested in hearing how you like the flooring, and any issues you had installing it. Thanks!

We installed a BUNCH of it, about 130 boxes (just under 3000 sqft). Over all, we are very pleased with it. When we were picking out the flooring, we found that the 3-1/4 was of more consistent quality than the 2-1/4. So, we went with the 3-1/4 oak. We also liked the look of the wider planks better. Not to mention installs faster. We ran into two issues, neither of which was widespread. Some of the boards had damaged tongues. We saved those for the last row at a wall. Toward the end, we got some boxes where the width was not consistent. If I had it to do again, I would still go with the same flooring. The price more than makes up for the issues.

An earlier poster described this flooring as "tavern grade". Bruce says it is 80% #1 common or better. I would disagree with both. I'd estimate it as mostly #2 common. It does have the color variation, which we really like.

I can email you pictures if you want.

This is our personal experience, of course. Yours may vary.

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the follow-up and info. We would love to see pics of the installed flooring. We are going to be doing approx. 1300 sqft (3 bedrooms + large family/bonus room) all fairly high traffic areas. Would be curious as to how you are finding the floors wear (realizing that you just finished installing them.) We have a very active 5 year-old son and 2 cats. That said, I don't mind an occasional bang or nick in a wood floor. To me those add to the character of a floor/house as it ages. We also like the color variation in the wood.

Also would be interested in knowing approx. what percentage of the boards you found to be unusable due to damage, warping, etc....

We are going to be buying some unfinished oak stair treads and attempting to match the stain color to the "marsh" color. Don't know if you did anything similar, but if so, would appreciate hearing what stain worked best.

Thanks again for the info!

I had professionals install about 1900 square feet of this hardwood in 2005. Of all the non-bruce flooring i've had in my previous home and my two daugthers home, this is the best floor system. I did install this hardwood in my kitchen and still looks as good as the floor in the unused closet. Great finish on this floor.

Hello tom_in_sc,

Not sure if you are still active in this forum. How is your flooring holding up? Your last post is from 2009. Are you still happy with Bruce Plano Marsh after 6 years.

Anyone more currently bought and have experience with how Bruce Plano Marsh held up?

We put this flooring down in our living room, dining room and hallway 6 or 7 years ago and it still looks great. there is a lot of color variation but that is what we like. It is very durable. The look is top notch quality compared to some of the cheap laminate stuff, you can tell that it is top quality. We always check the price on it when we go into HD and grab a few boxes when it is on sale. We are collecting it to do our upstairs bedrooms and hallway. Unfortunately, I think they quit selling it as you can not find it on their website anymore or in the store. We have the 3/4 2-1/4 wide C134 boards. I think they have the 3-1/4 boards now. Just buy all that you need now, because nobody else sells this. It is made exclusively for HD, so when they discontinue it, it is gone.

Hmmm, I saw it in our store a couple of weeks ago. Wonder if that is a regional thing, we're in Michigan. We installed it almost 10 years ago in the living room, pantry, hallway and entries. We LOVE it and it has exceeded our expectations. We installed ours on our own, there are plenty of long boards not just shorts. Actually, it was a better variety than the Brazilian Walnut we installed in our kitchen (from Lumber Liquidators). Some of the boards weren't exactly straight, but many could still be used and there really wasn't too much waste. It has a nice warm look to it, it cleans easy, never looks dirty and has a beautiful finish. It also looks good with everything we put in the room. We too prefer the variation in colors; it makes it unique and adds interest; we get compliments on it all the time. If I had to offer one negative, it would be that I would have chosen no bevels if that option were available. I also would have loved to have the wider boards, but they weren't around when we installed. Other than that if it's available in your area still I would not hesitate to buy it.

Hi! Anyone still around from this thread? I am looking at installing the 3 1/4" or the 5" plano marsh in my home on the 3rd level of my townhome (all bedrooms and a hallway). Anyone have the wider boards they can share their experience about? Does it still look as beautiful years later?

We're looking into the 5" plano marsh. It looks great at the store, but the excellent price worries me a little. Any comments would be appreciated.

We just ordered the 5"Plano Marsh yesterday for our master bedroom. Hope we like it! We've been very pleased with the Bruce Gunstock Oak our builder installed 18 years ago on the main level of our house, including the kitchen.

We had the 2-1/4 width installed throughout our house 8 yrs ago and it is still beautiful. We have a very busy household with a lot of traffic in and out. I recommend the Bruce hardwood floor cleaner, it works great

I'd call this the insidious series. Buyer beware. Per an earlier post from an insider the components that make up this series is likely equal to their brand best. Say what? Yeah.. that means they found someone to sell all their mistakes, so they don't lose on their investment. Yeah, this is the less than good, not perfect, of all the pieces in their manufacturing process and HD is selling it to you at bargain basement prices. I've found maybe 10-25% of each box to be equal to just simply laying down and installing from a more quality series.

Most pieces if you are lucky have color imperfections, but the wast majority have structural defects as in bowing. longer the piece the more pronounced. If you work through it find and replace most of the imperfections as in you have the time, it may still be a bargain. If you are going to have someone install it, prepare for this series specifically to look like crap and likely no fault of the installer, if you trust the installer.

We installed about 1400 sq feet of 2 1/4" Marsh 134 from Home Depot about 8 years ago in our downstairs (Slate floors in the Kitchen). It has held up really well to this point
We are now about to install another 1200 sq feet in the upstairs and we are selecting the same. I am pretty picky, so for me to recommend this hardwood is saying something. Is it perfect? No (some mineral "stains", but this actually looks pretty cool and gives it character. Not an issue AT ALL). It still looks really good and has held up well (1 dog and 1 cat, and 3 kids, who are now out of the house!).
You can disregard the "naysayers" here I think, although I'm sure some will have a "bad" experience with anything, but I hard to imagine what they are expecting. Great value.

Oh, BTW. The only real negative I found with the Home Depot Marsh 134 color is that you cannot buy prefinished treads if you are going to do your stairs. You have to match the color and polyurethane the treads, or select a completely different contrasting color.

Just finished this room (about 150 sqft) and have 450 sqft to go. It's a 4/5 imho. Some pieces look spectacular while some are scrapable but I expected that at this price. We got the 5" ones and it was $3.79 a foot at home depot.

Our floor has been down for for 9 years! I an very happy with it. We have it throughout our house.

So glad to see the positive comments here. I happened upon 27 cases of the 3 1/4 in marked down to 96 cents a sqft or 21 a box at HD. They gave me three boxes that had minor cardboard damage for $10 a box. I’m going to hire someone to do two bedrooms and can’t wait to get it put down!

Purchased from home depot(3/4"x5" Bruce plain Marsh) approximately 700sq.ft. all cupping its 6 months since

We have the 2-1/4 for the last 16 years and we love it. Holding up very very well Even in the kitchen and powder room. We are currently doing our upstairs hallway in 2-1/4 and the rooms in 5”

The house we moved into recently has hardwood flooring in some rooms and carpet rest of the house downstairs. We are looking to change carpet to match the hardwood. We think it's the Bruce Plano Marsh. Local Home Depot says they can order and install but I don't see any promotions going on. They are coming in tomorrow for measurement and hope they confirm that it is Plano Marsh.

Love this flooring so much.. installed Dec 2005 and planning to buy again for other rooms now- Aug 2023. Installed ourselves but looking forward to paying for installation this time.

it’s tough and looks terrific still.

Self-installed/nailed the Bruce Plano Marsh 3 1/4 inch in December 2006. Updating other rooms now (Aug 2023) with the same since we have been so happy with it.

15 years later, and still nobody can answer the question "Does anyone have a stain match for the Bruce Plano Marsh?" Can someone answer this question?

Dennis, sorry late to the comments but we had Bruce C90 installed in our new build in 1993 (very blonde color) i didnt care for it so had our floors sanded and restained in 1995. The guys mixed a light and dark stain for a custom color which I have loved for 30 years, now i am replacing the carpet in the family room (only non wood floor on the first floor ) with this, its pretty much an exact match.