**How Much Did Our Shed to House Cost?** www.bettertogetherhomestead.com/report **Build Your Own Shed Design for FREE:** shedview.goupb.com/?dealer=1504

I’ve been installing floors for 6 years now (own business) and I typically recommend customers to our local flooring store. Big box stores like Lowe’s,Home Depot etc tend to have lower quality product(LVP,Vinyl Planks) unless you actually spend the $4-$6/ sq ft to get a thick MM and thick wear layer.. but will say those damaged pieces were definitely from the manufacture and not that Lowe’s store fault since they don’t open and inspect every box of flooring that comes in. You could tell by the type of damage it was manufacturing/QC issue.. Also for any other DIY’er, I can assure you that you don’t need a table saw if that expense is not feasible. I install Vinyl Plank 70% of the time with my flooring business and all that is needed is ur carpenters knife for cutting this stuff… when u have to rip a plank/make a long cut you just mark your measurements and then grab another piece of floor out of the box and use that as a straight edge. Line the “tongue” side of the floor up to ur marks u measured out on the piece of floor and hold it down with your off hand and then run ur knife right down the side of the tongue to cut the piece you are using. Then grab the piece of floor and start bending it where you just cut and work your way down the piece,bending as you go. It will snap right off. Install that piece and move on to the next one. Another tip is when you get to your last piece of floor in a row, no need to pull out your tape and measure and then make your marks on floor and cut it. Just spin your piece of floor upside down (not bottom side, just spin it so it’s the opposite direction floor is currently running) and butt it against the wall, grab ur knife and make a cut where that piece of floor that is upside down meets the piece you just installed . After making the cut with your knife just grab it and snap it off.. spin the piece to the correct direction and install. No need to measure, get up, use a saw,etc.. may take you a few pieces to be able to cut a straight line free handed but you could also just slide a square where ur two pieces meet and use that for a straight edge to get a straight cut on your end pieces.

Weird I just did a room in my house 15 boxes and ZERO damages. All from Lowe’s.

T-square and a utility knife are all i used to cut length wise and it worked perfectly for me.

Just go ahead and skip to roughly to the 9:00 mark to skip the rambling and sped up install footage to actually see what the video is about ...smfh

For your chipped planks, if their at the ends, save those for your cuts and try to use as much as you can, depending where the scratch, chip or whatever its at.

I always buy in store so I can view it. Secondly I have compared Home Depot to Lowe's and Lowe's has a better selection

I have been renovating this 2 story, 3/2 + basement for almost 2 years. Mostly shopped at Lowes because Home Depot is an hour away. I have had some issues with some items (not their fault) and they have happily refunded or replaced whatever issue I had. My Lowes is pretty good

Lowes put down my Luxury Vinyl flooring in my beach house. I had the kitchen, den, dining room and living room. That was a year ago, no problems. I did have to return 2 boxes as guys over estimated how much would be needed.

I just received around 30 boxes of the same vinyl and had zero flaws. Not suggesting you shouldn't be disappointed just that this may be a one off bad batch. We LOVE our SmartCore flooring.

Just did a room with 11 boxes of smartcore, no bad planks, looks great

Buddy buddy buddy. Use "them bad" planks for the ones where you need to make cuts. Just a tip to save you a trip 😘

Guess everyone has there own experience. I almost canceled my order when I saw this video. As it turned out I installed nine boxes of the Savanna smart core without any issues. All the boxes were delivered to my store in good condition and arrived earlier than expected. I checked every plank and no broken ends no damage. I’ve never installed flooring before and I did it in my daughters bedroom in one weekend. The only issue I had was the ends of the planks are beveled so depending on what angle you look it can seem that they might not be totally locked when they really are. My wife and daughter are totally satisfied with my job and you know if mommas happy everyone is happy!

We bought 40 boxes of vinyl plank flooring from Lowe's to do a majority of our house. Not one problem so far. (Still have 20 boxes left- still have to do the bedrooms) We bought the Procore brand that had the backing already on it. So far we are very pleased with it.

I bought the same flooring about 6 months ago and mine was in great condition and it still looks great on my floor.

I just did about 850 square feet of flooring with the Smartcore Pro, only had a few chipped boards BUT, i cut the ends off and used them to start a row, ALSO Lowes doesn't make the product or box it, They just sell it. Take them back and buy another box. Love how people blame the stores when it's the manufacture's fault.

I totally agree with you ! We got the exact same flooring you got. Actually after we measured our floor for the footage, the girl at Lowe’s told us straight up , get extra boxes because you’ll probably run into some chips on some of your pieces! No.1 so she actually knew ahead because it happened to others, No2. Lowe’s is our only choice we don’t have a Home Depo in Eastern NC - I understand your pain! 😩

When you started talking about chipped corners, I knew you must be talking about the Smartcore brand. It's a common issue that most retailers know about. I bought 500 sqft of Cali Vinyl Pro after hearing about Smartcore issues. Not one piece was damaged.

We just layed the SmartCore Cottage Oak from Lowe's in three bathrooms and didn't have any quality control issues at all. It was all perfect. So sorry your experience was not the same.

Big box stores don't sell quality product. In fact, a lot of products (such as plumbing fixtures) sold in big box stores are actual code violations to use in your house, but they still sell them.

Looks awesome. Thanks for sharing. Yeah chips and things are a pain but that’s why any project is recommended to estimate at least 10% over but your case is clearly well over that margin. I would like to say that the fault to the damaged planks is the manufacturer. If the missing/chipped pieces are NOT in the box then it happened before the planks were packaged (if the boxes were mfg sealed). Lowes should take onus to correct and refund but they didn’t manufacture or package those cases.

I've did my half basement in ProCore from Lowes. First shipment of flooring I got were great! When I went to do the bathroom, one box had all the groove pieces on one end cracked or broken. Again being shipped to the house, I assume it was just rough handled. Lowe's is great with returns so just always buy 10% more than you think you need, especially if you have to special order/ship it, and return unused/damaged product at the end. Also, as one user mentioned below, you can use those damaged planks for end pieces/special cuts. Nice job on the installation, it looks great!

Not all Lowes are the same. I've bought, and installed myself, over 1,000 sq ft of locking vinyl flooring over the last 5-ish years from Lowes. I've bought both the Cali-Bamboo and CoreTec brands. I ended up switching stores, though, because the one closest to my house seemed to end up damaging boxes. I don't know if it was the store's fault or the shipping folks, but after switching stores I haven't had any problems. I always refuse any broken or damaged boxes. You don't need to take those.

Good video. Not saying you're wrong but: 1) how do you know how much quieter it is with padding vs without? 2) how do you know Home Depot doesn't have similar issues?

If you returning only the damages one, I would assumed that the damages are from the customer. Return everything once the 2nd box contain damages items.

Glad I found your Video, thanks. I'm about to rip out our Carpet and put down LVP. I don't know what that product is that you used, but it looks really low quality. The one we are going with is the Lifeproof from HD. It's the 8.6" x 72" planks, 8mm's thick, with 22 mil wear layer. It has built-in backer and 2 types of mold/mildew protection and 100% waterproof. Yes, it's $3.19/sqft, but I think it's worth it in the long run. It's not always true in life, but with Flooring, I think you get what you pay for. Invest up front and you will avoid issues down range.

We've done 6 cabins at our resort over the past several years with no problems using Shaw flooring and the Smart Core product with no such experience, .Probably 2500 sq.feet, we inspect the boxes for any damages before accepting them and really haven't had to reject but a couple boxes.

The boards being chipped isn't a Lowe's problem. It's a manufacturer issue. They package, palletize, wrap, and label them. Then they ship them to the stores or a distribution center.

Never had a problem with Lowe’s.

I doubt the people at Home Depot would care any more than Lowes. Go to Floor and Decor or some places that specializes in flooring.

Better Together Homestead: I am so sorry you had such a bad experience at Lowe's! I have never had any problems with them. Years ago when I was searching for a toilet for a home that I owned they had better toilets and cheaper than The Home Depot. We have The Home Depot, and Lowe's, and Maynard's where I live. I have not been to Maynard's yet. I have noticed the differences in between The Home Depot and Lowe's here is that the Lowe's store is very clean and The Home Depot, not so much. I have also noticed that the employees at Lowe's were very helpful, a little more so than The Home Depot. I came across your video because I was looking for ideas on tiling two or three rooms in my home. The tiling cannot be permanent because I rent. I really want it to be scratch proof and waterproof.

I’m surprised people with kids are more concerned about spills on the floor than the amount of offgassing the floor has or what kind of toxic smoke it will put out in the event of a fire

I use Lowes peel and stick vinyl. Holds up fantastic and is $.98 per square feet. Looking at a closeup of the flooring that you used, it actually looks like the same vinyl planks I use, stuck to the click together flooring system 🧐... at any rate I have used the peel in stick in two homes now and very high traffic areas and it has been great. Despite the instructions, I will add a bit of glue if it will be in an area that is in the sunlight (i.e.) Peel and stick also has pretty good ratings. I always always base my purchases on the ratings and I take into consideration why individuals gave low ratings (sometimes it is error on their own part). When I was researching flooring I actually considered the flooring you are using until I started reading the reviews . Thank goodness I didn’t go that route. Thank you for sharing your experience!

The flooring looks absolutely amazing! You two kids are doing a beautiful job. But I am so sorry that you had to have that experience with Lowe's. I think that explains why Gary got the majority of our building materials for the house in Bandera County over at Home Depot instead of at Lowe's. I will end up buying a playscape from Lowe's and after they got my money I had a fairly similar nonchalant attitude from the box store here in Kerrville. Their response was, " That's a subcontractor. We have nothing to do with them once the sale is made and we send them the invoice". 🙄 Anyway, Beau,,that was an informative video. Hang in there and keep up the good work! God bless and have a blessed week with Kelly and the kiddos.

Thank you so much for sharing what happened with your flooring- just another thing us DIYers need to be mindful of when we are doing projects and making sure we get the right equipment for the job and check the materials we are going to purchase for the job thanks again but the flooring looks awesome YA!

Hello, My first time here. 👍🏽looking for waterproof flooring . Yep the first place we headed was Lowe’s. The price’s have gone up 🙀. You are a nice couple. Thank you for sharing 💕🙏🏿💕

I’ve been working at Lowe’s for just under a year and wanted to comment on your point about chipped/damaged product. To be clear, this is not said on behalf of Lowe’s, these words are my own. I recently switched to flooring and realized how much damage there is but I am aware of the many factors that play into why this is. Most flooring is shipped on pallets and how those are treated is usually dependent on the powered equipment operators and how they’re transported/received. It is not uncommon for pallets to be damaged upon storage as employees like myself are expected to regularly add or remove product from top stock and using our powered equipment given our narrow aisles is not easy. Then on the sales floor, product is regularly opened by employees or customers alike due to a variety of factors. This compromises what little protection these pieces have and the planks usually break shortly thereafter. It then becomes very difficult for both customers and employees.

You two should be proud.. the floors look fantastic. In fact your entire home is looking great at this point.. amazingly open and bright (especially for a shed build).. looking very nice..

I have bought products from suppliers over the years that I found to be crap and if they let it be returned without questions no big woop it happens. In my basement I just installed 660 sq ft life proof from Home Depot and the product was without damaged pieces and installed just fine also am just finishing up 350 sq ft Smatrcore pro Clairmount Oak from Lowes and it was also without damaged pieces installed just fine and looks great. Vinyl plank flooring does have edges that are susceptible to damage if mishandled during shipping.

GUYS! the floor looks AMAZING! So yeah we’ve had the same kind of disappointment with both Lowe’s and Home Depot over the years and like Kelly said they don’t even act surprised when you tell them about damaged product. It’s sad that the stuff is coming from the manufacturer in that state. Oh and don’t worry about the mess, it’s called life in a construction zone! We miss you guys!!

I utilized my chipped boards in closets and against walls. I was able to cut the chipped portion off to fit.

i just did my upstairs --55 boxes of smart core --i did not have one single knick or bad plank at all ---sounds like a handling issue with loews when you purchased

They expect you to zip those chipped ends off with your saw and then have to go back and buy a couple of more chipped boxes to finish the job. That is what the commercial guys do because they can't afford to stop and go back to the store. I used to work at lowes and you are right, they don't care!

How is the overall quality of the flooring? Seems durable? Would you buy the same type of floor again from another company? Thank you

Sorry you guys have had this problem with flooring at Lowe's and some of the comments of people claiming that Lowe's doesn't back their products. I have currently gone through 36 boxes of the ultra version and did not have any issues with any. I'm only halfway, but I feel confident I will not have any product quality control. The associates at my Lowe's have been absolutely spectacular during my repair and renovation of my home and the part-timers that work a trade at day have helped immensely. I am certain that there are stores that do not have such awesome associates as I have access too, and I feel sorry for you. I am sure there are other big box stores that could be described the same (good and bad) and hope you all can find that store that works for you. I would absolutely recommend Lowe's, at least my store anyway.

I love that you all film your real life. I love seeing the different stages. I appreciate your reveals not looking like an episode of fixer upper. I have 6 kids, we homeschool and have animals. We want realistic and that's what I see when watching y'all. Great job and I really admire you for what you're doing. Y'all rock!

I got 48 boxes of luxury pro core plus and every single one was perfect

This is a manufacturer issue. Not a Lowe's issue. They purchase the product in good faith. And I have had the same issue with Home Depot. I am a second generation flooring installer with over forty years installing. People want the flooring installed fast easy and cheap. The old saying you get what you pay for is true.

I got same experience..that is why I don’t go lows anymore besides some employees very rude..I like Home Depot

I had one bad plank out of 8 boxes. I took it back to Lowes and exchanged it. They had a few extras that were out of the box for this purpose. I haven't had any other issues and plan on doing my other two rooms.

How is the floor holding up since you've installed it? Great job on the installing video. Does the underlayment heat the Halo sound down when you walk?

I did a LifeProof floor in a 350sqft ish room and factored in 20% waste. Between double prints, small chips, and cut errors; I pretty much used the entire margin. Returned about 10% of the product (doubles + chips) with no questions asked. I think I spent more time deciding how to organize the planks from 7 patterns, of which 2-3 were literally reverse prints, than I did installing the floor. It came out great, but I would think real hard about tile next time if waterproof was a requirement.

If you dont like the flooring and packaging take it up with the manufacturer. If there were missing pieces, exchange it for a complete box. Lowes return and exchange policy is pretty good much better than Home Depot. I bought laminate flooring from Lowe's 20years ago and it still looks great.

I just did a kitchen floor and every board was defective. It was luxury- expensive Pergo and every board was screwed up. I left for two hours and cried and came back and made them work. But I had to nail and really pound- pissed me off so bad it made me insane. I have laid many floors bought from menards or Home Depot and the Lowe’s floor was a nightmare!!!

Watch Vid @ 2X speed. nice video, good info. Thanks

It looks like my comment is not unique but I picked up 45 boxes on a pallet from Lowes and 3/4 through the installation not a single plank is damaged. They vary in color a little bit like they are supposed to but they don't vary so much that one plank sticks out. Pergo Portfolio Wetprotect. The portfolio collection does require at least an intermediate skill level to install. The tolerances are tight and it does not snap together easy but so far the floors are rock solid and very nice to walk on.

I went with Lowes ProCore mainly because it matched the porcelain tile wood planks down stairs in color. It is working but I think a more expensive brand might have had a better lock in system.

We did the same thing with home Depot planks and had the same issue with broken planks... I think someone just dropped boxes or stacked too much onto them and that broke them... Home Depot didn't care and we're not surprised... We did just a thin plastic underlayment and the floor rips here and there after just a few months... Horrible qualify... Don't go with Home Depot!!!

If you have Floor Decor near you, they seem to have a wider range of Luxury Vinyl with many having the cork backing which would enable to skip the underlayment, at least on a concrete slab. I find the high quality vinyl flooring to be very heavy at about 50lbs per box.

I do all the flooring inspection and measurement assessments for Lowes in my market and we have never had any problems with this product. I would highly recommend you get a Laminate Cutter or AKA “Guillotine” when working with any vinyl thicker than 4 mm which in this case I think yours was 6 mm. Scoring it or using a circular saw can become difficult depending on the size of the job and the room layout.

I'm a building contractor w/23 yrs experience and this is the first time I've installed flooring from Lowe's and I'm in the middle of a flooring nightmare. Getting maybe 5-6 planks per box it's awful with very little costumer service and zero professionalism on the matter. This will be the last time for sure.

I bought the smartcore pro and it already came with the padding in back

I got mine at lumber liquidators.. they have a six month returning policy as long as you don't open the box..and it was cheaper than Lowes

We purchased the Cali Vinyl Flooring in all our house, had it professionally installed and it’s been a year 😢we need to replace it in the entire house. The side locking system is terrible

Wow…just bought mine from Home Depot….glad I did…

Wow! So glad I saw this! We were about to get flooring from there.

it's not just lowes, it's what you get buying from any big box store, the volume they move effects quality control. as long as they make it right its all good. (unless this is more about lowes vs home depot and their politics)

lowes delivery people damaged my vinyl plank floors .I had my floor down and ordered a dishwasher and they delivered it Sunday .They dropped the handtruck on it after the guy kicked the hand truck to get it out of his way .It fell over hard on the floor .I prepped my floors for 2 weeks to install the floors .I installed venice beach 5 mil tile look in my kitchen 15x35 feet of it by myself .Easy to do and only had 2 planks damaged in 28 boxes of it .I used them for cut offs in pantry .I am now not very happy because of the damage and it is in the very middle of the floor .I am still very upset by this .Waiting to see if they will do anything as they have not call me .The hand truck hit so hard that it broke the locking piece on several of them .Dishwasher is still sitting in the middle of my kitchen uninstalled because I told them to leave before they did more damage .I am 66 years old and over the years I have remodeled several homes I have lived in .This is my retirement home .I moved to VA from NJ .The laminate flooring was a bear to take up as fridge leak damaged it .It is just hubby ,myself and 3 chihuahuas and floor was finished 4 days before delivery and I warned them before they even entered the house .So watch delivery people closely Not many places sell tile look flooring .

i was debating lowes vs hd. good enough, i'll go with hd. thanks for the honest opinion. very good knowledge starting a diy project. nice work! looks awesome!

Those look really cheap and sub 8mm maybe around 6mm? Not sure how those are classified as “luxury”, they look more economical. The end result looks good, don’t get me wrong, I’m just speaking to the durability. I just picked up a pallet of Pergo timbercraft waterproof 12mm to install next weekend and those boards are hefty. Seems odd that those boards you had were bending under their own weight. I agree with you about the underlayment. Manufacturer recommend theirs at $60 per 100sqft and that’s pricey but you can’t skimp on underlayment either... as much as I wish you could. All in all your floors look good and I’m glad you were able to get everything sorted.

We unfortunately purchased Smartcore Ultra from Lowes in Tullahoma, TN and they use ServePro to install the vinyl, No damage to the vinyl but be cannot get it installed by them. We discovered a water leak from the bath tub in our master bath and to not void the warranty they said the moisture content of the subfloor must be below 8%. So since Nov. 2021 we have been waiting the moisture content has been around 5 to 6% for more than 2 months now. We used halide lamps and fans to dry the floor, but Lowes keeps wanting to just check the moisture content. It vinyl it is water resistant so the leak is repaired but they still have not installed the balance of the vinyl, I want to sue them for this service failure, and attorney reading this please let me know if you want to help me sue Lowes Box stores. Corporate lever.

This message could've easily been edited down to 3 minutes.

Home depot has the same issue | 400sq - big chips everywhere where you snap the edge in. I ordered 18 boxes and half of them are chipped. Its such a pain because these boxes are not light!! I was worried that these LVP would chip that easy after installion..its not the case.. They shipped them this way. And not to mention it takes over 2 months to order. HD does not care also. - Next time ordering and picking up my own boxes from a suppliers warehouse.

Well on thechipped planks you can cut the ends off and used as starters and enders. Home depot has same problems. 25 yrs installing floors

How did your flooring hold up? It looked like you didn’t leave expansion gaps.

I wouldn't purchase any flooring from any big box store. I ended up going to a local small buisness and got some mannington luxury vinyl and I love it. over 1500 sq ft for about $2800 and it came with underlayment on it

Great video. And you guys are awesome! Only suggestion would be to eliminate or replace the music you’re using during the install. Really obnoxious. Thanks for sharing the information and wisdom though.

I completely understand about getting something that came from the factory that way! Summer before last it took me three air conditioners to get one delivered, that worked! The first one looked OK but didn’t cool. That’s much more understandable than the second one that came in a totally pristine undamaged box, but the thin metal that houses the air conditioner inside that box was totally trashed on the back and side, like an elephant had stepped on it,... Which caused that housing to damage the fan motor! How could somebody not catch that and stop the packaging and shipping!‽ It’s unconscionable.

. The chipping could be a machine defect that's maybe why no pieces in boxes but the inspector was probably smoking crack

don't buy the flooring from store stock. The boxes have been handled by too many people. I used 75 cartons to do my basement I had ordered them and had them shipped to my home from the manufacturer, 11/2 pallets. Not a single chip anywhere. One plank was fabricated wrong (didn't have the tongue on the long side, used it as a rip along a wall). Also invest less than $10 for an installation kit. Makes your install soooo much simpler

Also watch out for Lumber liquidators, not only was the "luxury" vinyl plank flooring similar to these problems, I just found out it is probably HEAVILY contaminated with formaldehyde. Of course, I saw the 60 minutes expose and the class action suit when it was too late to do anything about it. It reminds you it is not only the problems you see, it is the ones you don't. Lumber liquidators had gotten together with Chinese manufacturers who were willing to go around US safety standards. Be careful.

Dude don’t use cushy underlament with vinyl flooring the flex is to much for vinyl flooring

I noticed at the end you say “sorry for the mess we live here.” Do you find it more difficult to keep the smaller place clean or more difficult in the larger house you used to live in? I live in a 600 sq foot home with 2 small children and it can get cluttered sooo fast!

Just the info I needed thanks

We had our hallway and two bathroom installed this month. The name of vinyl tile was smartcore ultra. It looked lk marble. After one week we noticed black specks. It looked lk someone took something. Sprinkle over the vinyl floor. We called Loews. They told us to take pictures. Lady told us. She will turned report in. She does not what they will say. The installer did a great job but it is manufacturer fought. We paid out this money. Loews wants us to deal with the black specks. I am waiting for results. We paying our hard earned money for black specks to be over the floor plus we found some on the vinyl that was not put on the floor with specks. We are on a tight budget. We will see

Very nice outcome! Yeah we had the same thing happen to us! They tried to say we damaged them ourselves but my husband refused to let them blame us and in the end we got our refund!

I finally got a video that help. I want to upgrade the flooring for my living room and kitchen. But the furniture and other stuff cant move out to empty the area. I find that you are at the same page as mine. Can you give me some tips to start and easy to work with?

It’s all flooring stores , thus why you order extra. Corner breaks turn into typical starter or end cuts

Hi...... Thank you 🎥👍👍👍

We used Lowe’s and did 1400 square feet and need not have any bad boards in 67 boxes. Thanks Lowe’s

Not the same type of flooring, but we had a lot more breakage in the boxes of tile we purchased from Home Depot for our kitchen remodel. My husband had estimated a 20% breakage and purchased enough to cover that but we ended up having closer to 40% when we opened the boxes.

Think each store and people make store. Live in one city, HD 👍 L😣 , where we are now, HD terrible L great. Did that same floor after much research without underlayment as the flooring is waterproof and quiet once down, our boxes were were great...and yes, and job...CLEAN.

I just bought one box of a Lifeproof from HD before I saw this video. I chose this because, according to the box, it has a sound barrier layer plus another that hides subfloor imperfections. I would not need an underlayment. Of course, I know I have to clean the floor first.

I had a bad experience with Home Depot. I returned ALL of it and went with hardwood. lol

So thankful for your being positive despite the challenges. Very inspiring and real! Just bought my flooring materials at Lumber Liquidators today for my family room, living room and formal dining. Wish us luck! Maybe I could share the results later...

This is not typical at Lowe’s. I work for a major flooring provider in new jersey and New York. We install thousands of jobs a year for Lowes. We don’t usually have issues with the products.

Your mileage may vary. I have heard great things about lowes flooring and some bad things. Remove lowes and replace with home depot, flooring store. I personally have couple of houses and have used lowes, home depot and other contractors, lowes always came through pretty good with their install quality. So YMMV

Purchased a different brand of flooring from Lowes and it looks great, no chips.

I don’t think Lowe’s is the problem. I think it’s the quality of the Smartcore brand. Choose wisely.

From an installers point of view Smart core is one of the most durable vinyl planks that Lowe’s carry’s The only way u get those chips is mishandling either by installer or delivery guy