Meet Jeff Frye, Owner of Floor Depot North in Scottsdale

Floor Depot North is a locally owned Arizona flooring store. They have a huge selection of engineered hardwood flooring. They also carry name brand USA made carpet, laminate and wood look vinyl flooring. Don't settle for cheaply made, low quality flooring for your home that you find at the large discount stores. They supply flooring materials to the trades: installers, general contractors, design professionals, and real estate professionals. They are open to the public.

How did Floor Depot North start?

Floor Depot North as it is today started 11 years ago in 2012. Out of college, I was a sales rep for one of the carpet manufacturers and then I decided to try my hand on the retail side. So I opened up the store and most of our business comes from people in the trades, designers, Realtors, general contractors etc. They send their customers here to pick out flooring. Most of our business is wood floors, engineered wood floors. We also sell laminate, vinyl, and carpet. A lot of places don't sell carpet so that is how we are different from other stores.

What are the pros vs cons on vinyl vs wood flooring?

Vinyl is more of a budget friendly option. So if you have a starter home or a rental, that is a great way to go. Obviously wood is a natural product and adds more value, so if you are looking to increase the value of your home, wood is the way to go. Wood floors are a great option for Arizona. A lot of people don't think they are, they think they have to go with tile but because of our aired climate, wood is a great for our climate weather. I have heard that a top desires for a home are wood floors. People love wood floors!

What are the different types of vinyl floors?

There is a stone floor which is usually a lower priced vinyl. Those are a little bit thinner and also considered commercial grade. They are a great way to go if you are not going to be climatizing the house all year. If you leave for the summer and turn the AC off, this is the way to go. There is another floor called WPC which is a little softer and more comfortable on your feet, a little more expensive, but you do have to maintain the AC in the house all year. Then you have laminate wood floors which are similar to the old pergo type floors. You still have the individual planks but vinyl is the rage because they are waterproof and a very easy care type floor.

What are your top sellers?

One of our top sellers is the Newport shell beach wood floor. The herringbones are popular is you want to do those in an entry way  or an office to set apart the space a little bit. The Mediterranean collection is our most popular medium to high end wood line. It is true French oak where the trees are from one region in France. They actually use the bottom part of the trees for wine barrels and the top part for furniture and flooring. They actually double smoke these to get all of the nice color options. So none of them are actually stained, there is a process where they use reactive agents smoking to create all of the colors.