Best Floor

Rating: 5/5

1440 S State College Blvd
Anaheim, CA 92806
(714) 520-9900

My wife and I were remodeling our new home. After months of research (brands, flooring types/designs, installation), my wife insisted that we get laminated wood that also comes in a FLUSH stair nose. This instantly narrowed our list of choices to just a few, good manufacturers: Quick Step and its parent, Mohawk. Apparently, flush stair-nose laminated wood is hard to find, and most floor sellers don’t even know they exist.

Best Floor was recommended to us by my manager who installed laminates himself. He raved about Shawn’s knowledge, patience, and low price. Nearby Platinum Flooring was recommended by a friend for their low price.

Before I go detail our experience with Best Floor, let me first share our shopping experience and provide some tips to help those who are shopping for floors themselves.

During the entire process, we indicated to every vendor that we were going to install the laminated wood ourselves. We never installed flooring before.

Experience With All Vendors

We searched the entire strip of vendors on State College (and some others), looking for the colors and designs my wife and I would both be able to compromise on. The first step is to choose what color you want. In the initial weeks, we absolutely had no idea what we wanted. My wife and I were at odds with one another — she wanted something very dark. I wanted something very light or something with “pop”. We looked at a LOT of manufacturers and colors.

To keep our 1-month-long hunt story short, we eventually found a sample from Mohawk. Nearby Belmont Flooring indicated that it provides the 5-in-1 molding that allows for flush stairs — they were the only ones who said this was available. Naturally, we wanted to confirm with other vendors before placing any large orders, but were unable to do so. With ONLY Belmont claiming that the Mohawk we wanted came with flush stairs, we decided to go back to our initial choice: Quick Step.

With Quick Step, we then spent a couple more weekends looking for the right color, and found (and 80% liked) the Modello UE1030 Roasted Coffee Oak design. We went back to our list of vendors to check for final pricing before we’d place our order. Belmont and Best Floor were our top choices, and we checked with Belmont first. To my surprise, our Belmont salesperson said, on our 5th visit, “Ah, you two! [Then turning to his associate] They just waste my time.” I was a bit taken back by it — I wasn’t sure if he was joking or if he was half serious. I’ll be writing my review on Belmont later to detail that experience. We shared that we were now in the final stage, got our pricing, and then headed over to Shawn at Best Floor to do the same. Shawn gave us a slightly lower price, and with that (and other factors — see below), we went ahead and placed our order.

Experience with Best Floor

Shawn’s prices were among the lowest of all vendors, but what we really liked about him was his patience and friendly demeanor, just like what my manager said. He made everything very easy, and we couldn’t be any happier.

Shawn always took the time to walk us through some of the selection processes, answered every question, and also gave us some installation tips. He was, surprisingly, the ONLY vendor who really spent the time to help us pick out colors close to what we were looking for. He never gave us fuss about our back-and-forth with colors and manufacturers. He seemed to understand that as rookies, we had difficulty in finding the board we both would like.

The only minor complaint I have is that Shawn sometimes forgets what he said he’d check for us, but whenever we called to follow up, he’d immediately remember and take care of it right then. Granted, he probably forgot because we bombarded him with so many questions :)

The shop is small when compared to his nearby competitors, and as such has a mom-and-pop store feel. They also have a 2nd store in Orange.

Since our initial order, we went back to purchase more flooring. Like before, he was very patient and provided good guidance.

Floor Choice

Although we initially only liked (at about 80%) our Quick Step UE1030, now that they have been installed, we LOVE the colors at 100%. Our friends/coworkers agree, except for an elder relative of mine.

Tips

• Floor samples
  • Most vendors take a deposit
    • Ask in writing that it’s refundable. There are stories about shoppers not getting their money back
  • Check the sample at home in day time and evening. Lighting changes how it looks in your home
• Measure how much flooring you need. Add 7% as extra
• Let your new wood sit in the rooms for 3 days to acclimate BEFORE installing
• Installation
  • Yelp does not provide enough space to write about how to install, but we referenced manufacturer sites, YouTube videos, and importantly: flooring sellers
  • Some sellers were once installers, and their experience gave us some very good ideas