That is great to know that BR-111 is now selling direct to the public. When I am ready to replace my upstairs carpet with hardwood floors, I will compare their prices plus shipping to the prices at retail.

I paid no freight and got a great price per sq. foot for my engineered BR-111 Brazilian Cherry Flooring, 5" wide 3 MM wood floors purchased from TrueHardwoods.com last year in July 2009. They only delivered it to my driveway but I paid helpers to bring in the boxes for me that were not too heavy.

I learned that having the right installer is so important when installing a floor. The right installer also will not use bad boards and will follow instructions not like my first installer. I fired the first installer when I ran out usable boards, and hired someone highly referred. My 2nd installer did a great job as well as adding baseboard trim and painting my walls.

lynn2006, were you happy doing business with truehardwoods.com?
I'd love to hear about your experience.

Thank you for posting this. I was just about to order from Hurst Hardwoods. Their price is only $.05 less though so maybe it is better to just go with BR111.

blondie859111, I was happy doing business with truehardwoods.com and felt they all worked as a team to accommodate me. They even made an exception to take back a roll of the floor muffler I did not need due to the first installer not using it correctly by placing it up the wall. When I called BR-111 for questions on their wood product, I was also pleased with their customer service. I would find out the total price of both and then make a decision since either company is good. I also heard good things about Hurst Hardwoods. I went with True Hardwoods due to the good experience my neighbors had using them for their wood floors.

I was just looking at the BR-111 site. What the heck is Tarakan Teak?

lynn2006,
Thank you so much for the info.

Given that a BR-111 product has been on my "short list" for hardwood flooring the past month or so I have been on their website just about everyday and was ecstatic when the new version launched with direct selling at significantly lower pricing! Case-in-point is up until that point the best price I could get locally for their 5" engineered Zinfandel Tigerwood was about $8 and there were a few online merchants selling it between $6.50 and $7. Now BR-111 is selling it direct for $6 and the online authorized dealers are selling it between $5.49 and $5.69. In the end I was able to negotiate even a better deal than that directly from BR-111 due to my order size. ;-)

Bloozeman - you have to come back and post a picture. Tigerwood has always intrigued me. :-)

Uniquewoodfloors, ironically one of the primary reasons I ended up buying directly (and also was considering off the Internet from an authorized dealer) was the fact that the BR111 rep for AZ and CA deals with Golden State Flooring out in CA which is the regional distributor for BR11. Not only were they out of stock of the Zinfandel Tigerwood they could not offer a price lower than around $7.50 per sqft which the local flooring business would mark up to $8 for their profit.

Now that BR111 is selling direct Golden State is trying to renegotiate some sort of contract, etc. so I was told that it would be at least 4 weeks before I could place an order. To add insult to injury I would also end up likely paying about $6.50 a sqft. I actually considered it because the local hardwood flooring company I have been dealing with and totally trust (they have been in business for a long time in the area) said if they supply the product they will go to bat along with the local BR111 rep if any warranty arises. They will also do an install only contract (which I am signing this week) but in that case if any situation arises and warranty comes into play I will have to handle that on my own with BR111.

I figured it was worth to take the small risk and go direct because not only am I saving over $1 per sqft but I also will have the flooring tomorrow and will have it installed the second week of July. If I waited for Golden State and ordered it through the local hardwood flooring company I would be lucky if I got it installed before August. ;-)

-Ray

Ray,
I have to say you are making a sound decision to buy directly. Nowadays, online dealers are caring more about their reputation and service than local dealers. The rating system online is so available. So if a business wants to sell online, it'd better have a good strategy to handle unexpected, like shiping delay, vendor relationship,and warranty issues of course. Otherwise, it will not be in this business long. Knowing what to expect, using common sense, you should have a great experience buying and saving online.

I hope all of you know that you should still by br111 through your local exclusive br111 dealer as you will save money vs direct....Thought you ought to know that before you waste some of your sheckles. Our br111 business has increased 3 fold since they went direct. Just a thought...

echoflooring, I like you to elaborate your comment. Why do home owners save more buying from their local exclusive dealers than buying directly from BR 111?

Unique, the statement speaks for it self...And I'll say this..on some products , I can save customers a couple of dollars per foot minimum,. It is not fair to dealers to elaborate much more than this. It may be way too late for you unique.to jump on the bandwagon...Plus you do know that BR111 is not a manufacturer of flooring correct?

PFSM73/4 3/4 x 7 3/4"

to unique floors...1 final thought then I will leave it alone...just thought you ought to know that they have eliminated distributors and still sell whole sale to exclusive floor dealers. Example is Santos Mahogany from br 111 as an example.. My price would be 10.99 sq ft plus shipping to the consumer.. You will find on line that the direct price is 13.99 per sq ft. So a consumer would save 3 bucks a foot through an exclusive dealer.. Just so you know.

Will someone kindly post the URL for the BR-111 buy direct site, as I am only seeing the "find a dealer" link. Thanks in advance!

Ashmatt,
just follow the link below, chose your flooring and then add it to cart. There is no special link for purchasing. However, it might be worth it to sign up to receive communications from them as they occasionally send out a shipping special.
Not having a dealer anywhere in my area, this is a good choice for me.

Here is a link that might be useful: BR-111 web site

We still sell it as we applied to be an authorized dealer. We beat the pants off of their direct prices so you really shouldnt buy direct from them. I'll tell you the truth, I wish they all did it this way as our margins have increased since they went direct on it.

Please read the BBB review of BR-111, does not have a good reputation. Compare it to any other company in terms of reviews. Do the research before purchasing as it is a large investment to make.