Reviews & Ratings for Pianeta Legno Floors Usa Inc

03/09/12

Stay away from This product!

by Lux Contractor

BEWARE! See other reviews on the internet..... Others are having the same PROBLEMS with this material!

I am a carpenter by trade and acting contractor. I have installed many floors over the years and recently decided to install a Pianeta Legno floor in my own high end NYC condo. This is verry expensive flooring albeit laminate. It is impressive to look at and it touted as a much stabler and pre-finished (oiled) alternative to solid woof flooring. The flooring material (and most of what they carry) has a solid 1/4"+ veneer over what appears to be a solid ply substrate (backing) for what amounts to almost 7/8" thick engineered flooring.

This is the worst material I have ever installed PERIOD.

After 9 months of installation about 25% of it has splitting laminate and at least the same percent of it is de-laminating (it is cupping and when it does so the veneer is lifting off the ply substrate or backing). This was installed over a new 3/4" subfloor secured to a 20 yr old concrete deck with a vapor barrier between the concrete and subfloor and the finished flooring was then applied with their provided two part epoxy and toe nailed. This is the most expensive and best installation you could do. (It was for me a contractor so I wanted the best installation) The reps will only tell you (After the fact of course) that they require apartments or homes to have or maintain at least 50% humidity levels year round in order to not have problems.

There certainly isn't a home 've ever worked in where this is realistic to maintain particularly in the winter (At least not without a heavy duty humidification system.

To cut to the chase JUST install natural rift and quartersawn 3/4" flooring of your preference for your high end project. The laminate type is no more stable and the effects of natural material movement can be devastating to the end product. Natural materials do move and wider plank floors will cup and show gapping in the winter months but they will always fall back and tighten up in the summer months and NOT deteriorate in the process

For those interested in the minutia of this review, further analysis of this problem leads me to believe that the real problem with this flooring lies in what appears to be its marketing strength, the fact that this engineered floor has 1/4+" natural wood laminate that can be sanded (unlike most thin laminate floors) In practice, the wood veneer is actually too thick and when it moves with the change in temperature and humidity, the body of the material laminate is actually stronger than the glue thay use to bond it to the substrate or backing. It makes me realise that thin veneer engineered floors will perform better than the fancier thick ones, particulary with wide plank dimensions....

Hope this lengthy review helps someone!

04/25/11

Floors Split and Warped. Horrible! Buy Elsewhere!

by bikecuba

After listening to the Pianeta Legno Flooors (PLFloors) sales pitch, we installed an estimated 800 sf of flooring. After a few months the planks started splitting and warping leaving sharp points protruding. Efforts to have Pianeta Legno remedy the situation have been in vain. Today, April 25, 2011, they claim we should have known the flooring needs humidification systems installed in the house. Had the retailer told us that we needed a humidifier we would not have purchased the flooring from Pianeta. A humidifier costs money, has to be maintained daily, drips water everywhere, needs space, can’t be left on when on vacation, can be tipped over and looks unsightly. My suggestions: if you are going to install hardwood floors, buy it at a large home center. Their products are vetted and they stand by everything they sell. I have purchased more than half a dozen homes in the past 5 years and time after time I have had nothing but good experiences in getting remedies from the large home centers. If you would like to see photos of the cracked floors and bowed wood you may do so at Poconos4Sale dot com.