“I bought the Soho Base for use in my mudroom, kitchen, dining room and hallway, all connected. While I'm only about 20% done, I feel I can provide an objective review.
The planks are so well machined, the accuracy is incredible. They fit together with super tight joints. Note that when you're installing, you have to be sure to tap the new pieces with a block to assure that the joints are tight, both on the sides and from the ends. The floor has to be nice and flat, otherwise you could have problems later on.
I wanted to have the consistent knot free look of high end white oak floor, and it seemed that SoHo was the best match. I get that everyone has a different goal in mind, and I guess that's what Modin was aiming for when selecting boards to photograph. My beef is that they could have had more variety. You go through the pile and will find the same knots over and over, just in different locations on the 4' long plank. For my purposes the small tight knots are OK, but for some reason they included a plank that had a tight split (check) and knot in it which appeared in about 5% of the planks.
If you want a random pattern with knots, you can just empty out a few boxes at a time and arrange them as you wish. But to get a knot free floor, or perhaps with just a few tight knots, you will need to be more methodical. Here's how I did it.
I emptied all 22 boxes and sorted them into piles. I had a pile of planks that had no knots at all (about 50% of the total). Another pile had knots at one end, or the other. I had a pile for planks that had knots at both ends, one with knots in the middle. Finally, I had a pile that had a lot of knots, including the planks that had the split/knot pattern.
In my case, I had places that I could put the knotty planks, under the washer/dryer, fridge, DW, oven, the backs of closets, etc. I'd measure how much clear stock I'd need and find a piece in the pile that had a knot I could cut out, and I’d use that under the fridge/etc. Depending on which way the flooring is going you might have knots under the dishwasher, with the clear end into the room. I'm going to be putting small tight knots close to the toe kicks in my kitchen which is mostly out of view.
I'm confident that I can make this work. If you are careful, you can have minimal waste. If your room(s) are mostly open with no place to put the knots, I'd suggest you buy more than the suggested 10% waste factor.
All in all I think this is a superior product. I just wish they would offer patterns that are totally clear, or perhaps with a smaller variety of knots, and ditch the planks that have the check (split)/knot in them. As a master cabinetmaker, I can tell you that it’s not hard to find veneers or even quality plywood that could be used for the the photos. If you are manufacturing 100’s of thousands of square feet of planks, the initial cost of materials for photography is minimal.”
“I was unaware that Soho Base would be nothing like the Soho Signature sample l had to order since Soho Base not yet available at time of ordering sample. It seems an average to good quality floor but with delivery cost and hassle l could have paid less for same quality locally. Colour variation much greater than pictures show - about 50% of planks were darker or mottled.
I'm sure it will wear well and it was easy to install.”
