There are pros and cons of buying your flooring DIRECT from the manufacturer.

Let’s start with the cons, If you are a visual person that prefers to walk into a box store, liquidator (cough, cough) or a traditional retailer and see a host of samples and displays…then you of course will ‘pay’ for that presentation. And for many, there IS value to that presentation. How much value? Expect to pay about 25 to 60% above the manufactured cost. The convenience also of making your decision and going home with the material (in some cases) also has some benefit although hardwood flooring is seldom a spur of the moment purchase.

The pros are many, obviously cost, but let’s go deeper. When you ask a question, you will be given answers FROM the manufacturer and not from sales people that only repeat what they have been told, often 3rd or 4th hand from…yep, the manufacturer.  And each time information is repeated, it often looses content or gains a certain sales pitch…so for pure information…nothing beats the horse’s mouth! Also selection, or choice. No mater what store you shop at, you are seeing only the product they have chosen to sell and to be fair, they can only afford to show a small selection of what all is available. For example, as a mill, manufacturing 5 1/4″ solid American Hardwood  Cherry is an easy process for an established manufacturer such as Seneca Hardwoods yet to go into a box store and ask for it would be near impossible, and in this example, you will end up paying as much or more for a common product such as 2 1/4″ red oak as Seneca could have given you the wide plank Cherry!!! Other pros can be as simple as paying for shipping to your site and not having to arrange to pick it up and remember, no sales tax for out of state purchases. You may be required to claim the sale and pay tax, but that is up to you to report and varies from state to state (not a long line of people reporting that we can see).

So cost…yes, of course cost, it all comes down to your need to have your hand held throughout the process and what’s that worth. Although a quality mill such as Seneca Hardwoods , will go out of their way to assist you with advice and free samples, it’s still not the same as standing there talking to them. Is that worth the limitations in selection, sketchy knowledge and 25-60% premium in selling price? Your make the call But we know what we would do, we WOULD call the mill!  (by the way…607-594-4877)

Select Cherry

For fun, we included a couple pictures of Seneca Hardwoods products that are easy for them to produce and almost impossible to find at a store.

Natural Cherry