Hay guys!
This is Denny from LORD PARQUET, welcome to LORD FLOOR TALK SHOW today! Nowadays, due to the Covid impact, more and more indoor requirement both in life and in the works, construction and building material become hot business all over the world, These years, We have many inquiries from some new players in the flooring business.
China nowadays has become a world factory, 90% of the wooden flooring and Vinyl Floors are made in China.
So today our topic is: How to import flooring from China? This seems a simple but actually not easy to answer. Let’s go check one by one.
O.k, when you are going to buy flooring from China, firstly need to see what is the purpose for the use of the flooring products.
By the way, Maybe you are a flooring retailer/installer used to buy from locally, or you are a builder/contractor need flooring for your construction projects. That will be a nice trial to import directly from China suppliers. Which can lower your unit cost per sqm, or get something unique for your job.
But if you are just building your own house, or maybe just focus on one time buying/ year, unless you have a rich experience in working with overseas suppliers and import business, or maybe you can not find anything satisfying your needs in the local market, it’s might be not a good choice to import directly.
Why is that , is actually the flooring products are regarding as “Heavy cargoes”, Normally the most econamy way is to ship by sea with containers. From 20-40ft containers, we can load about 1500 to 3000sqm. But if you are just buying less than 300sqm, you will have to load it buy LCL, and it could cost double than to ship by full containers.
Another reason, is if you are buying a small quantity, there might be some more or less issue in production, If you get less during your installation, to supplement 3-5sqm will be extremly difficult for factory, and even it works, color or finish could be some different from the first batch, that will make you feel crazy when everything is waiting for the flooring. So in this case, better to choose the floors in locally where these ditributor/retaillers have stocks.
O.K, So, if as we said you are going get a big volume purcurment, or long term buying, it really worth to buy directly from China. But you have to be well noted by below aspects:
Firstly, You need to narrow your choice by confirm what types of flooring you want to use for your job, or in your business.
Normally nowadays in the flooring industry, you can get: Hardwood Flooring, Engineered Wood flooring, Laminate Flooring, Vinyl Tiles, and even some bamboo flooring.
Actually even they are all flooring products, the way of production, suppliers or professionals are totally different. For example, a vinyl floor supplier may not even able to distinguish timber species, And a wooden floor supplier is not able to find decor papers for laminates or vinyls, because there will be thousands of color in vinyl.
Unless you can find a professional team who has very rich experience in both field.
There are many ways to find suppliers nowadays, such as from the Google, from B2B sites such as Alibaba/Global source or even from Instagram or Linked in.
And another way to get more professional flooring suppliers is to go to some Trade shows: Here we introduce some good shows globally in wooden floor business:
The first one, will be the Domotex fair, There are actually many times of Domotex happen in diffrent places in the world ever year, such as : Domotex Hanover, Domotex Asia, Domotex Turkey or Even Domotex U.S, if you want to find an asian supplier, to go to Domotex Asia is a briliant choice. You can not even find Chinese/Asian suppliers to talk about the requirement, also some famous flooring brand in the world to check about the latest trends.
You can also attend some other shows such as Surface in Lavagas, or Big 5 in Dubai or even some local fairs. Such as Korean building show, Japan building show etc.
Now let’s firstly talk about how to work with Hardwood/Engineered Wood flooring suppliers.
When you found some suppliers you think they could be good, or maybe you are interested in some of their colors or texture. You can starting to talk with them in below aspects:
Ask for the photos, videos of their factory, make sure what specifications, styles they can produce and sell. Ask for certificates, testing report, or even some business reference, such as which market or country they are supplying.
You might found some trading brokers, not directly factory, that doesn’t matter. The most important thing is the supplier you are talking with, is a professional one and their price is reasonable and within your burdget.
Regarding to the detail of the products:
First thing will be the timber species you want to get, normally in the world wooden floor industry, nowadays 80% of the floors are made by Oak due to it’s flexibility in color staining and treatment. You can also easy to get some popular species such as Walnut , Burma Teak, or Hickory, Or even some exotic species from South America, or Africa.
Whateve you think is good, there will be 2 principal you need to follow:
Firstly, you have to do more of the market reseach, to get clearly about what is mostly popular sell or what is your company or store want to display to your buyers.
Then the most important is to make sure the species is stable in supply, here we can give some advice that: Oak, Walnut, Teak, Ash, Hickory are normally stable in supply. But some south east asia species or African species may get disappear in several years, you never know. That is depending on the loggin insdustrial, most of the Western countries are loggin timbers in legal and sustainable way, by the same time, most of the tropical hardwood species they are logged in the illegal way.
Secondly, is the structure:
Hardwood Floors are normally the most traditionally one, you need to take care of the way of installation, and moisture barrier.
But talk about Engineered wood flooring, there have many different structure in the industry, such as 3 layer engineered wood flooring, multi-ply engineered wood flooring, or even vinyl structure with timber veneers.
For which sturcture is more suitable in the market will be related on your Market positioning, Burdget cost, and climate locally.
According to our experience, 3-layer engieneered, will be more suitable in cold/dry weather condition, while multiply is suitable for most of the climate condition all over the world. But there also have different plywood system, Such as: “Eucalyptus”, “Birch”, “Poplar”. you need to check more details with your supplier.
Vinly structure are good in moisture resistant, but it’s normally very thin for the top layer, otherwise the floor will be easy to get some delamination, cracking issues, as thicker timber is not be able to hold by just plastic or PVC .
You also need to check about the specifications and style: This will reply on what size of the room/house for your projects or your target markets, for example, we know that asian countries mostly using narrow sizes, such as 125mm , 150mm.
While the Western countires are more after 190mm or 220mm, or even wider floors. You can also discuss with the supplier about different ranges for your different market.
Diffrent sizes can make the floor into different way of installation, such as ”Planks” , “Herringbone”, “Cheveon”, “Tiles”.
Most of the suppliers can do regular specifications, there also have some professional factories can do super wide planks such as 4000mm, 5000mm, or even bigger sizes.
Then let’s talk about the color and surface:
You may able to find many different colors/styles/treatment in the internet, or on the trade show. But the most important above all is: you need to talk with the suppliers by the “Physical sample”.
Because any color/style, will be looking different by different screens, so it’s not possible to discrible the color dark/light, shining/dull, smooth or brush only by photo, that is not professional at all.
You can ask the supplier to send you the colors you found from their website or from your competitors, Then you can discuss with them about the detail based on both of you have the sample on hands.
It’s important to check with them about:
Treatment by UV lacquer/UV oil or Hardwax oil.
Glossy level , from extra matt, semi-matt to high gloss, such as 10%, 20% 30%.
Surface treatment, such as: light brush, medium brush, handscraped or just smooth.
The more detail the supplier can offer you, means they are more professional.
If you are looking for some specific color for your projects, you need to discuss with the supplier if they can make you some counter samples. Normally in China, most of the suppliers agree to make counter samples, as long as you discuss with them about the scale of the job, detail specifications etc, But most of them will ask for the delivery cost by courier or express. If you are buying some special floor such as Versalles Parquet, or Geometry Parquetry, You need to prepare to be change more on the samples. Becaues each pcs of sample might cost $100 or even more.
Then the next step is to check about the milling profile. In this part, you need to talk with the supplier about:
Tongue and Groove or Click system.
Size of the Bevel. (from squre edge to full eased bevel).
You may need the new supplier to follow the profile from your old suppliers, so again to commuicate based on the samples will be the most safe way.
If you are looking for some special floors such as “Panel Tiles” or “Geometry Parquetry”, You need to discuss more of the detail and we can introduce this in another topic.
The next step could be most important part, is the timber grading. This is also the difficult part that most of the buyer gets confused from the grading standard and stop buying in this step.
In different part of the world, people may discrible the grading in different ways, such as in America, people are saying “select”, “Natrual”, “Character”. In Europe, people is using ”Rustic A, Rustic B”. In Aisa, most of the suppliers are talking in AB, ABC, CD or EF grading.
It’s not easy to tell you about everything in grading rules in this topic, But we can tell you how to fix the grading with the supplier and never gets wrong.
First, check with the supplier about grading standard chat. Everyone in wood business should have a detailed grading rules of their own product, to discrible how big is the knots and volume of knots, how long is the crack, what is the percentage of the sapwood etc.
After checking the text version of the grading, then check with them if they have the photos for the raw/unfinished timber veneers, at least 8-10pcs to show you by the photos or better by videos.
Please be noted, the raw/unfinished veneers will be the most clear one to show you the grading standard. As nothing can be hide on it.
But with a stained finish, or grey/dark finish, some of the defects can be hidden by the coating.
Also the filler repair colors/stlye for the defects will be very import to discuss too.
Lastly, to put grading rules on the proforma invoice or contractor will be much helpful to protect you get messed with each other about the grading.
So,
Before you make the final purchase, also need to talk about the way of packing. Normally for the first time purchase, you can ask the supplier about packing detail, such as how much sqm/pcs per box, what is the overall size of the box, then you can use the information, to get your desginers to get a packing design for you.
Check about container loading with the supplier, for example how much sqm in 1x40ft container, or maybe you want to mix different specifications/items in each container, you can also ask them to check for you.
Finally you can ask the supplier to issue a proforma invoice, but also the last thing is to get clear about the trade terms, such as FOB, CNF, who will be in charge of the shipping cost? Normally Chinese suppliers are more willing to offer FOB cost just to avoid any risk in the shipping.
On the invoice, don’t forget to mention about the delivery time, payment terms port of destination etc. Otherwise their might be some miscommunication and cause big trouble.
Normally if not a very difficult floor or very busy factory, Chinese suppliers can finish and ship them within 45-60 days. And payment terms are mostly 30% in advance, with balance payment against copy of Bill of Lading, that means you can make the final payment once the container on the Sea.
Now you arrange your deposit, to get a go, Make sure you check with the supplier, ask them to keep sending you updates every week by photos/vidoes, to make sure, your floors are under production without delay.
That’s all for today’s topic about how to buy wooden flooring in China. Wish you a good luch and found long term partners!
LORD PARQUET is professional in wood flooring business for 15 years, you are always welcome to check with us about any questions, purchase requirement, we are always ready to work with you guys!
