Usually if I can afford something, that raises a flag for me too.

That's the company, thank you very much for this inf just I was looking for

;-9 Glad to help!! They are Canadian made and wood is sourced from N. America = a good place to start. Now it is up to you and your personality and your expectations for how a floor should look. For me that's the only stumbling block I can see from a producer like this.

Certainly more helpful than any salesperson I've spoken with!

I do want more of a rustic lived in look so it may work for us. I think I would just have to buy more overage. I emailed BSL with the specifics I'll see if I hear back regarding the grade.

Hi Monica i was wondering whether you ended up by using Bois BSL. we are in a same situation as you were and wanted to know whether you were happy with the outcome. thanks 😊

I just installed 600 sqft of the Bois BSL engineered hardwood flooring. I went with maple in the bombay stain. Prior to my experience I couldn't find much feedback online about this product. Overall I'm on the fence if I like it or not.

The engineered product comes in "alliance" grade which was not listed on their website. Here is the description from the PDF they sent: Expect distinctive character in all Alliance floors with classic hardwood knots to a 4mm veneer over Baltic Birch plywood. Alliance grade offers beautiful color variation with random length planks up to 80”.

Positives:

- Made in Canada

- I contacted Bois BSL a couple times via email with questions. I received timely and helpful responses.

- The plywood base quality is very good. Fewer voids and imperfections compared to most of the competitors in the showroom. I had no issues with with tongue/groove damage or funky plywood. This resulted in very few installation frustrations.

Negatives:

- Average plank length was a lot shorter than expected. Very few planks over 46" and far too many under 30".

- A lot more rough knots than expected. Many of these knots were significant enough that the finish didn't cover these properly and resulted in pits and voids.

- Stain was inconsistent and often splotchy even when the underlying grain looked quite good. Some really nice planks had some ugly sections.

- Several planks had orange paint embedded under the finish. I assume it's what they they use to tag the raw lumber and wasn't trimmed off.

- Several planks had sections with rough sandpapery finish. You can feel it with your feet.

What started as a small "save for the closet" pile of ugly pieces turned into a significantly large collection. Overall I think it's a decent product that could be made great by improved QA. Budget for 20% waste.

Hi Greg, We're exploring similar option as that is what builder is providing for and anything above it would be an upgrade. We ended up chosing Bombay Pacific too as a color. How has been your overall experience in last 8 months. Do you like the color? does it come out as nicely as in sample as it is tough to find any pictures online of the same.

This response may be too late to be helpful to you, but perhaps someone else. We have been very pleased with the overall color and style of the floor. It's "gray" enough to be modern but warm enough that I think it will age well. I'm still bummed about how many imperfections there are in the product, I keep finding more little knots and cracks that are rough to the touch, along with some finish imperfections that cause the floor to reflect differently there. Considering the hardness of maple, I was surprised to find the floor collected lot more dings already than our solid oak floors collected over a decade or more. Do be careful when dropping anything!

I don't regret the aesthetic choice of the floor. It gets compliments. That said, I can only recommend this product if you are on top of the installation process and are careful to prune out the bad pieces. I tossed 15-20% and still ended up with a some that I wish never got nailed down.