3/4" x 4" Maple, - What brand to choose?

I decided to go with 3/4" x 4" prefinished solid wood flooring. Natural maple look.

So far I looked at two brands:
- Bruce
- Northern Woods

Where Bruce goes for arround twice the price of Northern Woods.

What brands should I look at?
What is the difference between brands?

 

IMO. I am not a big Bruce fan anymore,nor am I a big "wide plank" fan anymore I have seen too much cupping on the wider planked hardwoods. But if I had to go with a wide planked hardwood the one I have seen that seems to be a good product is Mannington. There again this is just my opinion

 

I'm not a huge fan of the wide boards either. I recently laid 150 sf of 3/4 x 3 1/4 maple prefinished and have been relatively pleased with the outcome. No cupping. But, I find that on an ocassional board there's a squeek when I step on it. Maybe the subfloor there is lower or maybe I didn't nail far enough to the end. But, I have never had a similar problem with the 1500+ sf of 3/4 x 2 1/4 oak that I have installed.

At any rate, I used Muskoka by Tembec. They are Canadian. The quality seemed very good. Almost zero waste and high precision milling it seems. The very tiniest of bevels.

You should try to stay away from the made in China stuff. It just doesn't seem to be as high a quality product as the US and Canada brands. I don't know if the Northern Woods stuff is Chinese. I was just mentioning that as a general rule. On the other hand, if Northern Woods is LL's own brand, you should be leary of that as well apparently.

 

Thanks. Any other brand recommendations?

 

Tarkett is good also. US and Canadian. Somewhat smaller selection.