Provenza Floors review: Quality 26

I also purchased Provenza Classico Antico floors for my new home as well. Please avoid purchasing these at all costs if you are in the market for new hardwood floors. I cannot express how heartbreaking it was for me to buy my dream home, splurge big-time on these hardwood floors, and to see them virtually ruined within the first year. I live alone, own no pets, vacuum/sweep twice weekly and have NEVER worn shoes inside my home. Furthermore, I placed thick felt pads on the bottom of absolutely every object (no matter how light) that touches the floors. After 1 month of living in the home I was beginning to see how, as silly as this may sound, I was going to be a prisoner of my soft hardwood floors.

I think the simplest way to convey how soft these floors are is to give you a list of the things that have left a visible scratch, dent or gouge:

- A dropped can of beans left a dent 1" wide and 1/8" deep.
- A dropped soup spoon fell off my kitchen counter and left a visible dent.
- I put a small 3' step stool with rubber feet on the floor to reach a tall cabinet; that left visible round gouges about 1/8" deep.
- I put a small ceramic pot that weighs approximately 1.5lbs on the floor and forgot to put felt feet on the bottom; it left so many surface scratches that it looks like I took a wire brush to the floor.
- I have 1/4" thick felt pads on the bottom of my sofa. After two weeks of use (I weigh 100lbs, by the way), the surface of the floor underneath literally looked like hammered copper.
- Workmen who enter my home wearing rubber-soled shoes and those protective booties have left numerous gouges and scratches.
- Sitting down on the floor while wearing jeans will scratch the floors, especially if one of the decorative metal grommets touch it.

I love my home and the floors are truly beautiful when first installed, but they've made my home unliveable and Provenza hasn't responded to the three letters I've sent them asking for help or suggestions. I am at a loss and out $20, 000 in hardwood floors that I describe to my friends as being "made out of butter."

Thanks for the feedback on the Provenza Classico flooring. Can you tell me what species of wood you have? For Runaround Sue I'm a little confused with your description of Provenza Classico Antico. The Provenza Classico based on the Provenza website says Mahogany and Provenza Antico say's Hevea. Floored1 can you also tell me what species of wood you have from Provenza? Thanks you in advance.

The Provenza floors that I purchased were Classico Mahogany in Tiger's Eye.

The Provenza floors that I purchased were Classico Mahogany in Tiger's Eye.

You should have chosen a harder wood flooring like hickory or oak.
Mahogany is on the extremely soft end of the spectrum of hardwoods. It dents and scratches very easily. On the other hand if your floors were hand-scraped oak, maple or hickory with knot holes and surface imperfections, some of those accidental drops the damage can be disguised rather easily to look like original distress.
Your contractor should take the time to sit down and ask you what you expect from your flooring. It is your living space and how you live in it will ultimately determine how well your flooring will compliment your lifestyle.
Do realize that all of these flooring products are engineered hardwood floors not solid 3/4 inch thick hardwood. They are plywood with a layer of hardwood material attached to the surface. The more you pay the thicker the hardwood layer should be and the better the quality of materials and construction of the product.
More money does not always mean a better flooring product. This is where your professional flooring contractor should guiding you. After all that's what he is supposed to be getting paid for, not just slapping your flooring in and tearing off his rear view mirror as he drives away from your home with his pay check.

We've had Provenza engineered hardwood flooring (Old World Collection) for two weeks now and the smell is horrific. It is coming from the surface side of the floor. Has anyone encountered this?

Update from my previous post. The smell is going away. Our contractor has met numerous times with 3 different reps involved with this flooring. We have been assured the product meets all environmental and safety requirements. We are proceeding with the rest of our remodel and are satisfied with Provenza's attention to our concerns.

I only wish I had read this board before I had chosen to install Provenza Catania. I found fractures on floor in May, 6 months after installation. The rep from Provenza insisted it was caused by high temperature and low humidity. They totally ignored the fact that the fractures was found before summer. I kept a box of extra wood in my bedroom where I had a humidifier. Fractures was also found on the wood in that box. However, they just ignored these facts and decided to blame it on the living condition. I had called the tech support of Provenza to check on the limitation of their warranty. The guy told me there would be no limitation or string attached to their 25 year-warranty they offer. But when fractures are found, the whole story was changed.
You would not even found any written warranty on their website. When you requested one from the rep, he said the warranty was that little paper they stick on the back of the sample product. As conclusion, this is an unethical irresponsible company you want to run away from. Do not buy from them even the product looks attractive. Because this company would find any excuse to avoid warranty responsibilities.
They claimed they would respond within 48 hours and had not heard back from them. I had to call the rep one week later and his attitude was rude as if I was bothering him. As a conclusion, do not do any business with this company.

After I had posted the above comment, I just went on Provenza website and found that they had posted warranty limitation about the humidity, etc now. I didn't find this before. I figured it was because I had brought this up to the Provenza rep when he came to my house to inspect the fractures this week. He didn't say a word when I told him there was no warranty description on their website. This proves very well that this company is unethical and cheesy trade people who don't care for customer service.

I love our floors! We have had them for 2 years with pets, kids, shoes, etc. and although they have some scratches and a few dents it compliments the imperfections that already existed in the wood. My husband and I love these floors so much (especially because they are not smoothe and perfect, but have a little personality) that we will be replacing the travertine In our new home with this wood, all 9, 000 sq. Ft. We are also always complimented on our floors!

WE remodeled a home in 2011 and covered the majority of our floors with Provenza old world antiqued Walnut. I have to say it was beautiful when we put it in. We have dogs and a child, and a life so when I spoke to the sales person who sold it to me, they said they were extremely durable.. Wrong! Within 6 months we had massive dents and scratches! So much so, that I had a representative come from Provenza to look at them. He agreed and we ended up having the entire house stripped and resurfaced! I was assured that would fix the problem. 1 year later, we are back to square one and the floors look horrendous! I have never been so disappointed with a product in my life! I ended up sending some photos to a man who has been refinishing damaged wood floors for over 25 years and he said my floors were manufactured improperly and there is nothing to do to fix it. Unbelievable!
So now I need to have them all replaced and am hesitant about wood at all! Anyone have any recommendations on a wood floor you can actually live with? Frank;y, I may go to tile that looks like wood. Yuck!

This is an update to the above review of Provenza Flooring - from texan1234. After Provenza denied my claim, I was able to get in touch with a very helpful, customer-focused VP of Sales at Provenza. I talked with him about my floors, and asked if I hired my own floor inspector to come out and look at my floors and do a report, would they consider the report? He said they would, and if my inspector found fault in the floors, Provenza would replace them. Long story short, the floor inspector that I hired spent more time really looking at my floors, taking pictures, testing samples, and he fully agreed with us that the floors were defective. We submitted this report to Provenza, and they agreed to replace our floors at no cost. We chose different floors (not with an UV Oil finish this time) and we LOVE our new floors. Provenza did hold up their end of the deal, and we are now very happy. If we had chosen these floors in the beginning (EPIC - Grey Frost with Polyurethane finish) we would have had nothing but great things to say about Provenza!
I still do NOT recommend Dalworth Fine Floors, however.

All wood dents. All wood gets splits and checks in low humidity. If you want a wood floor learn how to take care of it. And lastly, no one warranties dents!

This is a terrible wood floor! It has a very thin top surface and gets scratches so easily, no luster no wood tone, very dull and drab! I have it in my home for 6 months and looks like 30 years old! Plus they will not come out and stand behind their product. Do not waste your money!

We recently put in Provenza oil finish hardwood floors. I am just sick about spending so much money and feeling like I will have to replace them already. I'm going to live with until I just can't live with them any longer. I am having problems with the finish looking very inconsistent and random footprints/shoe prints everywhere. There are spots that look very splotchy like the finish has worn off. It is definitely not a nice, consistent finish. Provenza has come back a couple times. Once to buff and reapply oil (we had to leave for 2 days for them to do this). Looked beautiful until we started walking on it. Then they came back again and applied a light layer of oil to take care of the inconsistent finish and now in response to our complaints once again are saying they have to buff out the oil they applied to take care of the problem of the inconsistent finish. Something is quite wrong here. The company is not standing behind there product at all. They are saying it should look like a 50 year old floor even though I've had it only 2 months? Bogus! They honestly don't care about that one customer who is complaining because it really doesn't make a difference to their sales. They are a huge supplier in the flooring industry and that is not going to change.

I am so disappointed with my Provenza hardwood floors especially due to the price we paid. I should have listened to my installer when he said the quality of this product is not good. I have splinters coming up from the floor and my fear is that one of them will catch one of my children's feet when they come running in. I don't really know what to do. I would replace the splintered board if it was just one or two but we have at least a dozen boards with wood lifting. I would NEVER recommend this flooring company to anyone!

I have had my floors for less than a month and I have dark spots where food has dropped on it and left an oil spot. I have a family of 8 and was told by the salesman that these would be very durable for all my children. I have provenza Liverpool flooring. They are so beautiful, but I am sick now that I have spent so much money on a floor that we can't even drop one little particle of food on. I thought water would be my nemesis with these floors, nope any kind of food or oily item.

We are very happy with our flooring; we have had it almost three years and no dents, scratches, whatever. We purchased the Russian Oak wood product. My concern, however, is the sunlight has greatly "bleached" the color out of our living room floor, which is exposed to sunlight through our glass sliding doors. We noticed this when we went to replace the area rug and the area under the rug was 50% darker! Short of resurfacing efforts, what can Provenza recommend?

We had the floor installed in most of house, were not aware of sensitivity to water. Less than 5 months in, the floor started to de-laminate were ever the dogs had an accident. Even when cleaned up ASAP. $19, 980.00 down the drain. The factory rep offered one box of flooring to help get the matter fixed. Labor on us.

Provenza Old World Mink has a very delicate finish and will not last long. DO NOT USE this product. Even blue tape put on it for a few minutes will pull off the finish. So if you install it you have to hope that you will never have to protect it again. That means you can never do a remodel because you cannot tape down plastic to protect the floor. Provenza does not have any patch kits nor will they stand behind their product. It looks really good and would be a great ceiling product where it's not walked on.

Everyone - I am currently working on a class action lawsuit against Provenza.

Would love to connect and share stories...My story, product deterioration immediately and health and safety issues for my family. They won't stand behind their warranty either.

This activity by Provenza is affecting more than just me, and it is time to put an end to this.

Facebook Group has been created for us all to share and find additional class members. The group link is https://www.facebook.com/groups/3831058173649466

Email is: ListenUpProvenza@gmail.com

I look forward to everyone's response! Please send emails, an email from the firm will go out soon!