Mannington Mannington Flooring Horrible Product; Warranty Worthless - Engineered Hardwood High Point, North Carolina

Mannington Blue Ridge Hickory Engineered Hardwood (premium, 25 year warranty) was installed in our new home.  Within 18 months the flooring exhibited cracks at the end of the boards and within 24 months the boards began peeling and cracking.  Within 36 months - the boards had severe cracks and splits; in fact - if you walked on the floor barefoot - you got splinters in your feets.  Mannington agreed to send an inspector who verified that the condition was throughout the house; the inspector indicated that the boards may not have been kiln dried as all environmental conditions were within the Mannington specifications (i.e. humidity was within the specified range, there was no excessive moisture, floor cleaner used was approved).  He stated that he would submit a report to Mannington within the week and we should request a copy of the assessment.  When we spoke to Mannington, however, they refused to provide a copy of the report - stating they paid for it and it was confidential!  And although Mannington reps confirmed that the report did NOT identify any environmental or installation conditions which could have caused the splintering - Mannington insisted that this did not mean that the product failure was due to a manufacturing defect.  This made no sense of  course...if the product failure was not caused by environmental conditions in the home or by improper care - the only other cause could be manufacturing issues.  To appease us, Mannington agreed to have the installer take out three boards and return them to the factory for analysis; per Mannington the results of that analysis were "findings of severe cracks and splits of unknown cause"; since cause was unknown  - the claim was denied.  They said that although their warraanty states that they warrant against buckling, warping, spearate of plies (and all these were present in our flooring) - the warranty is only valid if the home owner can prove it was due to their manufacturing process...and since the consumer has no way to do that - they rarely have to stand behind their warranty (yes - the joke is on the consumer). CONCLUSION- Mannington does not stand behind it's products.  The 25 year warranty is worthless.  Do NOT buy from Mannington.  Retailer/installer confirmed this has been his experience with Mannington and he no longer recommends consumers the brand.  CONTACTS at Mannington: Monica Miller and Rebecca Wiley (her Supervisor).