We are getting ready to install Stuga Shell in our upstairs. We loved a few of the other samples but it came down to color and also wanting an oil finish that we can easily touch up as needed vs a poly finish.

Hi Holli, will you post pictures of your space when it’s finished? Would love to see!!

Well, we took a friend’s advice and ordered a couple boxes of the floors before ordering the amount for the whole house so we could really get a better idea of how they’d look and sadly we’re not loving them. The color is completely different from the samples we got, even the large sample we paid for. 😕

Sadly we chose not to use Stuga. We absolutely loved the samples but the actual flooring looks very different. Hard to tell in photos compared to real life:

Those do look very different. How disappointing!

Looks like a different floor. The finish looks completely different. 😳

Is that Stuga Ingrid in the sample?

We just got our estimate for a Stuga install. $31k. This would include carpet/tile/baseboard removal. But it seems a bit steep for an engineered wood. The estimate for solid hardwood install was $32k. 1800sq ft + stairs. For anybody else who has used Stuga, what was your install cost or did you DIY it?

Ok... This is a good price for the work being done. If you imagine the stairs are worth $200/tread...it means the FLOOR portion reduces by that amount.

Eg. 10 treads x $200 = $2,000. You remove that amount.

Eg. $31,000 - $2,000 = $29,000 for floors.

Good. That gives us a TOTAL = $16.11/sf. NOW we are cooking with fire!

What is sitting in that #?

Remove Old floors = $2/sf

Subfloor prep = $2/sf

Install labour = $4/sf

That is a total labour cost = $8/sf

Leaving you with $8.11/sf for the wood.

Nothing wrong with the quote. A VERY GOOD engineered hardwood SHOULD be more expensive than solid!

It looks like you have found a good wood. Do not expect to save money with engineered hardwood. That's not its primary function.

Thanks for the breakdown. Appreciate it a lot!

Hillary - Which one did you decide on? Excited for your project and can’t wait to see the end result!

Lucy, that was Stuga Shell. We are only considering floors with an oil finish.

We ended up going with solid hardwood. We are having roughly 2,500 sq ft installed for about $26k and using Rubio oil for the finish.

Stuga would have cost us about $18k diy but we liked the option of being able to do it room by room vs now we’ll have to clear out the entire house.

Holli was the Stuga flooring one that was supposed to be oiled after install? I read that the oiling is what brings out the color at the end and I'm wondering if thats what could explain the color difference. We're waiting on some samples this week.

Robin, your Ingrid floors are gorgeous! 4 months later are you still loving them? Did you have to add a finish on the floors after install? What’s the maintenence like for this specific floors. I have a beachfront condo but not much traffic. I have my heart set on these floors but want to know if they are worth the cost. 🥰. Some of my friends are trying to convert me to LVP.

Did anyone have an issue in Stuga charging a different amount than quoted on their website? Was the shipping free? I’m considering buying Stuga Ingrid for my remodel but don’t want surprises at the end

Hi Jan! No surprises in terms of pricing for us. Shipping was free and they were offering a 10% discount when we purchased last fall.

Thank you!!

@Holli Adams What hardwood did you go with? We are considering hardwood instead of engineered. I used rubio for dome walnut treads at our old home and loved it.

We used a white oak character grade solid hardwood…from a local mill, so not a manufacturer I can recommend. We didn’t end up using Rubio unfortunately as we didn’t realize it doesn’t work well on character grade. It was all kind of a nightmare as we had to get our new floors refinished and ended up with Bona matte. They are gorgeous and we are super happy now but in the end I’m realizing how much quicker and simpler using engineered would have been!

Holli Adams,

Would you be so kind to share the picture of your floor? have a really hard to choose the right engineered floor and really thinking go with hardwood

@Robin S Hi Robin, Your floors look amazing! I, like so many others here, are wondering on the quality and durability of the Stuga floors. How are your Stuga Ingrid floors are holding up? We have small kids who spill and drop food all the time so the finish durability is really important to me. Wondering how the UV Acrylic finish compares to Aluminum Oxide?

We are considering Stuga floors and the sample we received just feels a bit rough underfoot. Has anyone experienced this with these floors?

@ayoshino We still love our Stuga floors a year later! They’ve held up great. We have them upstairs only so not in the kitchen but they’ve weathered plenty of dropped toys and books and other items!

Just had the Stuga Shell installed. @Holli Adams the reason your floors looked completely different is because Shell is unfinished when it arrived. You have to put down Satin Oil (they sell it with the floors). The samples come pre-finished with the Satin Oil already on it. The Shell is one of a few "natural oil" finishes that Stuga sells. Personally, I prefer the feel and look of this finish vs the acrylic finish. You should probably put a disclaimer on your post with the pictures because your post is a bit misleading.

We did finish the boards with the provided satin oil to see if that changed the look and they didn't look any different. Maybe you shouldn't make assumptions? We contacted Stuga and were told our sample boards were from an older lot making them look very different from the actual boards.

@Hillary C. Did you end up getting the Stuga floors?

@ Josh W how are you liking the floors? Did you glue or staple?

My Stuga samples arrived today and I have to say I'm a little disappointed. For the price, I was expecting better quality. The very top layer is beautiful, but it is a very very VERY thin layer. Most of the material is pine and it feels very cheap. When I opened the box there were a bunch of little chunks of "wood" in the box. I examined the wood and the interlock system is super cheap (it's all pine). That is worrisome to me. There were missing pieces throughout the interlock system (because the interlock system is soft wood). This flooring might be wood but it isn't quality... the top layer is beautiful though. When I read more about this flooring online it sounds very temperamental. When placing the flooring it says: when installing the floors tap along the middle of it never the edges. I can see why because the interlock system is very fragile. Also this flooring doesn't hold up with water and can be easily damaged. The company says on their website that any water, even the smallest film must dry within a minute (which I know wood floors don't handle water well... but a small film.. come on things happen).. And they recommend: don't wear your shoes in the house! ..... after looking at the samples... if you have pets with nails or children I would avoid this flooring and go with a high quality vinyl (I don't have children but the quality of this flooring makes me concerned about my little yorkie's nails). It's a lot of money (almost $25,000+ and they just announced a price increase on instagram) to splurge on something this fragile. It's not worth it too me. I'm currently searching for a better quality flooring in white oak like shaw (or other renown companies). I love the very top layer but that thin layer isn't worth the costs to me. Just because it's wood clearly doesn't mean its quality.

We just installed ours and love them! we have the Shell version and also have a Wetsie and a 19 month old son, they have been fine. Fun to install

Do people generally just click them and separate between rooms? Or staple them to the underfloor?
PS: I didn’t see anything about a price increase. Any idea when it goes into effect, and how much?

We stapled them and did the whole house except bathrooms. You can float and glue too

I ordered multiple samples, they all shipped seperately. They were well packaged, but all of them were damaged. The top layer is beautiful but the underlayer is very, very soft low quality wood. It felt like it could crumble in my hands. There were chunks of splitting wood along the seam and missing in some areas. the support/base is just thin layers of pine. It’s very very expensive for such soft wood. I hope this is just the sample style… i ordered 5 different kinds and it was the same low quality for all of them. I can’t imagine boxes of this stuff arriving in one piece. Or this holding up over time, how long have you had yours installed for?

Amanda-

I would recommend you call Stuga customer Service, tell them your concern about this, and see what their reaction is.

I know they reuse the samples in an effort to reduce waste so keep in mind those samples have likely been shipped back and forth many times. Our floors have been installed for about a year and a half and so far are fantastic even with two kiddos testing them daily :)

We ordered 46 boxes and none were damaged so perhaps they do something differently with the samples

Thank you so much for your insight! I appreciate you responding since you have their flooring

I also received samples and this brand definitely does not appear to be a premium product. I ordered tons of samples and only Stuga samples were chipped and dented. Also was the easiest to dent/chip.

Yah i even ordered a few more, in seperate orders, and all items were chipped with pieces floating around in the box. it crumbles when you touch it. This isn’t an issue with packing or shipping this product has the lowest quality backing i have seen.. it’s the softest wood. I cant see this lasting 10+ years and for the price i would need that. I am honesyly surprised there are people on here saying they haven’t noticed this

Here’s just a few more examples. they arrives one at a time so its not like they were bumping into one another or in a crate be handle by a lift. i can’t imagine ordering large shipment of this. i love the very very top layer though. i just can’t risk it for the price.

Absolutely love the Ingrid color, but even the 3 mm top layer had chips and dents in my samples!

And as far as these samples being reused they don’t have that service and it would cost a person quite a bit to send this back (because of the size). i dont see anything on their website about a recycling program and it would probably be a bad business move to send out used, damaged products. I agree isepa i ordered many, many other samples none of them arrived in this state. i think i’m going to go with Twelve Oaks or Garrison. If you’re looking for another option these are a similar in style and higher quality and they meet all the safety standards.

Hi, I just stumbled across this thread as I am considering installing Stuga's Fika floors. Does anyone else have any feedback? I understand from Stuga that these are actually Kahrs products hand selected from their European ranges. I have Kahrs currently and they are in good shape for being 25 years old and are super well known in the industry. I have been searching for a wider plank board (at least 7"), longer boards (Fika are 89") and at least 5/8" thick with a 3 mm wear layer at a somewhat reasonable cost, around $9/sq ft and these fit the bill. While I am a little nervous about the locking mechanism being a little flimsy, I am not so concerned as long as the wear layer is in good shape and the rest of the board is quality. I'm going to have my floor installer take a look at the product. @Amanda, I am curious what you went with and the price. I asked Garrison for a price list, but I haven't received anything. They seem pricey?? I think for this price point, with wider and longer boards, Stuga is a good option. I really wanted to see Greta, but they are sold out until the end of June.

I dont know how it compares to Karhs but i know for instance costco and lowes carry Shaw (typically a high quality flooring) but its a lower grade so this may be a similar situation. If i were you i would order samples and show it to an experienced flooring expert, someone who has been in the field awhile. They will be able to tell you how stugas’ flooring compares to high quality brands. i’m sure they have the most knowledge and can sense immediately if there may be problems. I did email stuga with questions about the wear layer. So i know if you tell them about your household they can answer that question and suggest specific styles that will fit your needs. Depending on the wear and tear of your household you might want to choose a darker or rustic floor—they hide scratches better. I have a yorkie (no children) and when I did reach out to them they recommended the Shell flooring versus the lighter Greta/Fika/Moonlight shades (which would show scratches more). We have several projects going on and we are trying to do everything in the correct order. We decided to have the oak floors in our home restained so we are currently in the process of refinishing them. I’m excited to bring our 1990 mahogany stained oak floors to 2022

Does anyone have any recommendations for installers in New Jersey who've worked with Stuga flooring?

I don't have any recommendations for installers, but I did want to follow up on quality. I ended up ordering Fika and they were the same as the samples and great quality. These are Kahrs floors rebranded by Stuga, not a lower brand of Kahrs. I would have never picked this particular floor based on the Kahrs website and I didn't see if at my local flooring shop when looking at Kahrs. Stuga also carries some Kahrs floors that aren't readily available in the US. So if you are ok with Kahrs floors you should be ok with Stuga. Most installers are familiar with Kahrs. There's a link on the Stuga website for an association of wood floor installers that you can search.

I do not recommend Stuga flooring. We purchased and had it installed last year for a remodel and we completely regret it. The top layer is very thin and has very little durability. Come to find out that Stuga isn't even a flooring company. It's just a brand name that uses a flooring product imported from Kahrs in Sweden. Stuga has a great name, logo, imagery, and copy on its website and marketing materials, but in the end, you are just getting Kahrs flooring. It even comes in a Kahrs box. Now, Kahrs is a well-known and respected flooring company but something tells me the product that Stuga is getting from Kahrs to sell as Stuga flooring is not some of Kahrs's best product. If I were going to do our floors over again I would go for something way more durable.

Hi, we are considering Stuga engineered hardwood floors. Can you elaborate what product you have, how it was installed, and how it failed you? What durability issues have you seen? We were thinking about "shell" (1/8 wear layer) in a floating installation. Thanks for sharing your experience!

Hi, we are considering Stuga engineered hardwood floors for our house. Would you please elaborate on the durability concerns? What product did you use, how was it installed, and what issues have you experienced? We are looking at "Shell" (1/8 wear layer) in a floating installation on top of an old hardwood floor with an extra layer of underlayment. Thanks for sharing your experience!

@HU-971213970 did you end up going with Stuga? If so, thoughts you could share? thanks in advance!