Love it or hate it Twitter is here to stay (for the moment) and while I have some current stories of woe, here’s a positive one for you and how a “serendipitous” social media fad combined with the economic downturn and a companies foresight to embrace new social media has saved us potentially £1000′s (and they’ve been super helpful to boot).
Our plans have always been to place a good quality solid wooden floor in the main living space. The living area will be a high traffic area and somewhat of the centre of the house so whatever goes down needs to be durable, comfortable and fit with the feel of the house, and we ended up going for a “scrapped” wood as the unevenness of it along with some nicks and dents will help blend when the kids drop their toys on it.
In the UK we seem to be both blessed and plagued with cheap DIY options for wood laminate flooring options which has sprung up from the renovation boom of the past 10 years. I’m sure this is great for many people, in fact we have this on the floor in our current home and I have come to hate it! The cheap feel, the sound as you walk on it, the chipping of the covering etc etc it just doesn’t feel right but with prices anywhere from £8psm i can see why people do it. But it’s not for us, and that leaves “real wood”..
“Real wood” solutions in the UK don’t come cheap, and in France they certianly don’t come cheap.
Of course it’s not all about price but their has to be a compromise reached since the budget isn’t infinite and wow how times change! When we first started looking for this kind of quality floor we were being quoted £90psm + & but thankfully there are now suppliers online that’ll supply from £50psm. So here is some maths.
The lounge area is 7m x 11m ( 23ftx36ft approx ) giving a square area of 77sqm or 828Sft.
Cost @ £90psm = £6930 / $11365 ( @ £1 = $1.64)
Cost @ £50psm = £3850 / $6338
and this is where Twitter came in….
Searching around online and searching keyboards (hash tags) on Twitter we found @HardwoodForLess (honest i was searching flooring) a username of Lumber Liquidators based in the US. The name was familiar to the wife who swears she’s seen them on Extreme Makeover Home Edition (don’t hate her for her viewing sins). Being in the U.S. we couldn’t see them being of much use to us except maybe for some inspiration however a bit of reading & we find they ship to the UK but is it going to be worth it?
Looking at the handscraped selections we found exactly what we were looking for. Lumber Liquidators call it Virginia Mill Works 1/2″ x 5″ Potomac Plank Handscraped Pre-Finished Natural and it comes in at $4.29/sq.ft.
Again here comes the maths :
Cost @ $4.29/sq.ft. x 828/sq.ft =
$3974.59 / £2414.33
But how do you get in contact with a company that only supply a 1-800 number (Lumber Liquidators you NEED to change this) ? After a quick “tweet” out asking how i can do this using Skype i got a reply that using Skype i just simply need to dial 001 800 427 3966 . I managed to get through on the freephone number and there i was on the phone for 15 minutes to the U.S. for free speaking with an extrenely helpful salesman by the name of Robert Dworkin (details to follow) who then dropped the bombshell.
SHIPPING TO THE UK IS FREE!
Basically their is $150 tax and fees on the price, it’s loaded on the boat with all the other wood their shipping and then just go pick it up at Southampton and pay the import duty (@4.9% and then vat @ 15% ) and we take it away!
So with shipping, VAT, import duty how so the figures really stack up now ? (more maths)
Cost £2414
Import Duty – £108.63
VAT @ 15% – 362.1
Total Shipped to the UK = £2883.73
That’s a few £ under a £1000 saving and this can only get better as the exchange rate goes up & before i twist the arm of LL for a discount 
Like any renovation, every saving is a bonus and that £1000 is basically the cost of the windows in the 3 new dormers we are creating and that’s just another reason why we are sold on Lumber Liquidators as a supplier.
What about the quality of the wood ?
Of course as yet we’ve not seen it, touched it or smelt it so why would we be so crazy as to risk spending all that money on something we’d not seen? Well that’s where Rob has came in, a few emails with some suggestions of flooring and we’ve got samples winging their way to us at £0. Seriously the service we are getting from Lumber Liquidators is fantastic and once again I have to talk about the attitude of internet suppliers over traditional suppliers. Lumber Liquidators have taken the giant step to get their message out using Twitter, Facebook and its website and it’s paying off as we’ll be spending money with them that they would otherwise had not got.
Traditional suppliers really need to start to embrace technology, social media just as much as old media, print and shows more and more people of our generation (tech savy 30 somethings) are now shopping this way and i can only compliment what Lumber Liquidators have done. KUDOS to you all.
Well done Lumber Liquidators and please buy Rob a coffee!
Here are their details :
Website : http://www.lumberliquidators.com/
Twitter ID : @HardwoodForLess
How to get them on Skype : Dial 001 800-476-0007 x 7549 (you may need SkypeOut credit)
Who do you want to speak to : Robert Dworkin / rdworkin@lumberliquidators.com
We will of course keep you updated with what we diceide to buy in the end and the whole process of shipping, collecting and fitting. Watch this space
