Home Depot has poor service in EVERYTHING!
Anything anywhere else...

I am currently putting one of these floors in. It looks nice and is easy to install. So far I have noticed the vinyl smell when the windows are closed. I think the new vinyl smell will go away soon. Another thing I noticed was the feet of my very heavy granite dining table made impressions in it. I will have to get little coasters for them. My couch has not made impressions in it.

I am very much interested in this product. Can it be used in a 4-Season room where temperatures may fluctuate. Will it contract or expand eventually leaving spaces where the planks are joined?

To everybody interested in the allure resilient vinyl by trafficmaster(manufacturer is Halstead of New England)-Home depot in Illinois(I'm not sure if all districts can get it or not) but I work at the one in Peru, IL. and I was browsing on the homedepot website doing so research on allure myself, since so many csrs were asking about other styles available-and all of a sudden i saw all of these different styles avail on site! So I called out to halstead new england, got a hold of our rep, cate french, and asked her if it would be possible to get samples in case csrs want to s/o those styles, and she said yes, but the sample boards were on backorder(due to the popularity of the product!) and she would put our store on the list, and in the meantime, she would cut up pcs of the planks and send them with little labels for csrs to at least see a pc of the planks. So I was so happy to get those little squares from her, and we had a lot of csrs come in and look at them. However, we didn't get our first big sales on the stuff until we recieved our large sample boards, with a lot larger version of the planks on them. So far, we have done about 4 large orders for the s/o in our store. And I'm sure a lot more. Granted, this stuff is what it is, don't expect miracles, but the best thing about it for us, is that its the only TRULY waterproof floor in the entire store. People love it also because anybody can lay it down, as long as you follow a few simple directions(such as leaving an expansion gap around the perimeter; letting the vinyl acclimate to the humidity and temps of the room you will be installing in; rolling the entire floor out with at least a 100lb roller; making sure to get the seams as tight as possible; making sure that you install it in a room that has heat vents so that it doesn't start to buckle-unless of course you like that look). The reason that it is waterproof is because the "grip strip" of adhesive on the sides of each plank interlock, and when the are rolled out, and firmly pressed together, if water or any liquid happens to spills directly over the seam, there is Literally no where for the liquid to go-it just beads up on top of that overlap. I also recieved this really helpful book in the mail from the company on allure, and it has helpful hints for install, care and maintenence, and all kinds of things you can't find on the web. Halstead also make a more commercial and more expensive line of resilient flooring called Metro Floor. They make planks and tiles and all that, but they all have to be glued down, just like the armstrong planks, amtico planks, roppe planks, etc. This idea has been around for a long time, but halstead has made an affordable, durable floor for most normal residentials floors that are guaranteed to not delaminate or wear through the top layer for 25 years. I think people misunderstand warranties on flooring a lot. When they say 25 year wear-that doesn't mean it WILL NOT scratch. It will just hold up a lot better as far as denting and gouging, compared to your traditional sheet vinyl and vinyl self adhesive squares. People need to remember to keep an eye on their animal's nails, make sure they are clipped correctly, to the right spot on their nails, and at the right angle, to prevent them from putting scratches in any hard surface material they walk on. Ok, I think I have gone on for far too long, but I just had to let everybody know that there are other options for trafficmaster, just go to your local home depot and let them know they can call cate french, they just need to call halstead(that is the vendor or manufacturer of this product) and they can do that by looking on their computers under the product description, and then click f10, and then click vendors, and it will give them the 800 number to call, and they should be able to give the associate the number to cate french. Any other ?'s feel free to ask!

Installed the Allure Floor Tiles (3 to a strip). Looks good and installed easily but the vinyl/rubber smell is horrible. When will it go away...or will it? Even with window open it is awful.
If it doesn't go away in a month, I'll be thinking about removing it.

i live in Massachusetts and have been working with a Home depot in west springfield on getting samples of the allure interlocking floor planks or tiles and they have been leaving messages for Cate French and she has not been returning the calls. Does anyone have a good number for her so I can give it to the person I'm working with. We are both very frustrated at this point. I don't want to have to purchase another type of flooring but if it takes any longer I may have to.

I am very interested in this tile. Can you put radiant heating under it?

I have used this product in three houses now. I really like it. I don't think my installer left expansion room at the edges though..make sure you tell yours to do so.

The smell goes away pretty quickly.

I used the light yellow bamboo color in one room and found that the seams are more obvious because the sides of the product are black and show up as hairlines at the seams. Not a huge issue but not as seamless-looking as the darker colors.

You cannot buy some colors in the stores; must mail order from the web and pa huge shipping costs. Annoying.

My husband & brother-in-law installed this in our basement family room/play room about 8 months ago and we LOVE it. They put in about 300sq ft in less than a day. The vinyl smell is awful for about a month, but it's worth the headache. You can also feel the little imperfections from the cement floor through the vinyl, but we didn't have the time (or energy) to do an entire skim coat prior to putting down the floor.

The vinyl does a surprisingly good job insulating from the cold cement floor, and we're in MN. I expected to see more shrinkage over the winter because we don't continuously heat the basement, but it wasn't bad. The small seams that did slightly open just made it look more like "wood" in my opinion, and less like laminate.

We have three boys under 4 AND three dogs over 75 lbs. Despite the abuse, potty training and various accidents the floor looks like new. If I was building a new house, I could run this through everywhere and not stress about dog toenail scratches or the kids scribbling permanent marker on the floors - or even dropped glasses breaking. It is soft, absorbs sound and easily patched/replaced.

I really need to pull up my carpeting in the living&dining rooms - my dog has peed too many times to get the smell out. I would like to put down an inexpensive but wood-like flooring (I plan to sell the house in 2-3 years and figure if the buyer hates it they could easily re-install carpet or anything else) - I am wondering if Allure Vinyl would be an ok option. I would still have an area carpet in the living room, and perhaps one under the dining room table.
Is it true the smell goes away after one month? Will dog claws scratch the surface easily? Will the flooring look good enough for the rooms?

I live in a log cabin with concrete floor. I did alot of research on the TM Allure. I also worked for Home Depot for 4 years and was responsible for buying store inventory; including this product. So I was well educated that this would be the PERFECT solution for concrete floors as it would hold up to moisture the best.
I layed down 2 rooms of the oak. Not 3 months later, my seams have curled up and the adhesive will not hold.
Had a mfg rep out this morning. We shall see where this goes but at this point, he seemed to be blowing it off as intallation problem....I like all the others followed those guidlines to a T!
I intend to follow thru until I get satisfaction. I did note that even if they cover refund of the product, getting re-imbursed for the money put out for initial install was not their problem....I will fight to have HD insttallers install my new "true" laminate....
I think we have to all step out and speak loudly...mfg are ever so good at blowing off the consumers rather than provide good customer satisfaction.
If anyone has a good outcome from such a situation, please contact me with advice........I have seen the name Cate French mentioned but no email or phone #.
dyanfree@live.com NOT to be used for solicitation purposes!

we bought the light bamboo allure trafficmaster plank flooring @ home depot for laying on flat concrete flooring, that may get wet, so was told this is the ideal product. our contractor had the boxes in our building for at least 2-3 days to acclimate to temperature (in southern california, not much variation) then proceeded to cut and lay down the product and suuposedly left enough room for expansion. it looked great until about 2-3 weeks later the edges, that were supposedly supper sticky and would not come apart, started lifting. not just near the walls but also in the center of the room. we talked to home depot and they said they never heard of anything like this before. our contractor tried rolling heavy roller like other vinyl flooring to help stick which didn't last. our contractor insists that the product is cheap b/c made in china and is not their fault. i see this problem on the interent and everyone mentions halstead as the place to contact and hopefully they will send a representative down to cure the problem or simply give a refund. this was a huge project for us and it sucks that everything looks great on the complete renivation except the floor which one of our guests has even tripped on. what should i do??? glue it or replace it completely. it is coming up in at least 15 different areas.

In late December we had a washing machine flood four rooms. The damage control was immediate and very effective in terms of dehumidifying the affected areas. We had to have the flooring removed in the laundry room and bathroom in order to effect proper drying.

When it came to replacing the flooring we were initially going to use under-laying with linoleum flooring on top. At Home Depot we were told about this "new" flooring material which was a peel and stick product. It was thick, didn't require under-laying of any sort and was supposed to be easy to install. The brand was Allure and the style was Corfu.

It was installed in the first week of January 2010. Immediately a strong nauseating odor was noticeable. I thought "out-gassing in spades". I opened the windows, closed the doors to other parts of the house and put towels under the doors.

Three months later it still stinks. There may have been a slight reduction in the intensity but that could be olfactory fatigue. Every time I enter those rooms anew I smell the stench.

It is a very nasty, chemical smell which reminds me of formaldehyde. I don't think it is safe.

I called Home Depot who passed me on to Halstead. I have been in contact with Halstead 6 times. On the fifth time after getting no follow up emails to my concerns I got a customer service rep. who basically said we will refund your money for the tile but that is it. Our warranty says we are not responsible...... etc.etc. etc.

I said that was not acceptable and suggested that they were vulnerable to class action as I had a sneaking suspicion I wasn't the only person affected by this nauseating stench.

It is my intention to send off samples to a lab to get an analysis of what is in the product. Reprocessed vinyl from China. Could be interesting.

I just wanted the flooring replaced with non-sickening materials. I don't think I should have to pay for replacing a conspicuously defective product. That one customer service rep. trying to stonewall me... i.e "any one you talk to will tell you the same thing" really got up my nose. I now feel quite energized on the subject in a more publicly spirited way than I did previously.

I have the name of a Rick Taylor and his phone number who is their customer "director" which is not his official title. I was going to post the number but having not yet called it to confirm its accuracy I will wait.

Any business which is more interested in making sales than getting customers has the seeds of its own downfall.

So for Allure. I say ease of installation yes. I say appearance, so far so good. I say health and safety ummmm...... really good question.

i put trafficmaster in two rooms. the bathroom (onyx) seems fine, but the enclosed back porch (dark cork) which gets direct sunlight -- the smell is AWFUL! it smells like a DEAD ANIMAL. it's been three weeks and every afternoon when the sun comes in the windows and hits the floor the smell is nauseating. i have to rip it out. it sucks. also, the dark cork shows EVERY SINGLE FOOTPRINT in white dust. not that that matters because i have to rip it out because it smells so terrible.