re: Engineered Wood floors

Engineered Wood is not wood.
Bamboo is not wood, it is a grass, and it makes a good floor.
If you want cheap the go with oak.

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Engineered Wood is not wood.
Bamboo is not wood, it is a grass, and it makes a good floor.
If you want cheap the go with oak

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So your opinion is that Bamboo is better than Engineered wood, but that you do not believe it's better than cheap hardwood? Because I've heard different, that cheap hardwood will warp and, especially in LA, it's better to go with a bamboo or Engineered.

Engineered wood is most definitely wood. All the way down to the core unless you buy one that has an HDF core. The top layer of engineered wood is either rotary peeled, offset rotary peeled, face sawn, or rift and quartered.

Has anyone posting never heard of applying a thick coat of 'Gym Coat' over solid wood flooring? It protects the wood for many, many years. If applied correctly (which isn't hard at all) you will more than likely never had to refinish your solid wood floors.

The wood tile is a good option, however it is hard and extremely cold. It has to be installed a certain way due to the natural bow in tiles over 18" or you will have a lot of lippage. My parents wanted to put tile through their entire house even after I told them not to and they regret it. While it looks good it is hard on their feet and cold too. Something to consider.

My boxer destroyed our engineered floors. The actual hardwood layers is so thin, I am not sure you could actually resurface it, even though they say you can. Wish we would have just stained the concrete.

I put down cheap laminate in our starter house. Our year old lab never put a scratch in it. Now we moved up in house and this one came with engineered wood. House is only 3 years old. Our dog really hadn't caused any damage as she's calmed down, but you can see marks from the previous owners everywhere. I will not put it back down if I ever have to change this floor. Either wood tile or real wood. Could just be cheap engineered wood, but I've gotten a bad taste for it after seeing this.

do not put solid wood on a slab. Engineered wood can be glued down or floated over a dense liner. also, choose an engineered which is hard to avoid dents from fat chicks with high heels.

Unfortunately the chick doesn't have to be fat to dent it. A 100lb woman has over 1600psi in her high heels when she takes a step. That is more than an elephants foot print. So the heftier the woman the more damage. 200lber could sink a boat.

1 stay away from bamboo its a liability not an improvement
2 slab do not let them put any type of flooring on the concrete for 90 days after it was poured & DO NOT let the flooring contractor charge you for a leveling agent that bill goes to the concrete guy.
3 hardness of the wood is relative to the finish, you can get maple floors but if it has shite for finish you have wasted your money
4 look at brands that offer a warranty & installed properly, trust me diy network may make it look simple to install some flooring products but if you have a warranty claim I can guarantee you that if the floor failed it was the installer not the product. if you can't afford a quality floor engineered or solid look at LVT &
stay away from lumber liquidators.
5 yes you can put hardwoods on a concrete slab there are incredible adhesives & moisture barriers out now That are tested & guaranteed.
6 wood will move gaps will show up in the winter close up in the warmers months
7 doing it right the first time is cheaper than doing it wrong & fixing the problem. $$$