Personal preference mostly. With solid unfinished, you can do better apples to apples comparison. With prefinished, you need to look into what kind of finishing process was used. Both the prefinished types will typically have a beveled edge to hide small differences in thickness where unfinished is sanded to a uniform plane. With engineered, there are a lot of different levels of quality, i.e. how many layers used, how well made. It should be the most dimensionally stable product if you go with a good manufacturer, but I tend to be bigoted in favor of site finished floors because I prefer that look / feel / flexability / refinishability. Of course you can get crappy unfinished flooring too, so whatever you end up with, do your homework. (If the place you went to only does prefinished, they may not be the most experienced place to start shopping?)

As I said first, personal preference - and I am no expert in anything, so I'll let those who are, chime in with their thoughts.

There is a pretty good overview of prefinished versus unfinished on HardwoodFlooringGuide.com, see link below. I personally prefer engineered wood floors with the UV-cured urethanes finished at the factory.

Here is a link that might be useful: Prefinished vs Unfinished Wood Floors

Prefinished = nice for the homeowner during installation. Unfinished = nice for the installer during installation.

After installation, which is a short time in the scheme of things, you have to live with the result.

Prefinished = used to be the stronger finish, less perfect a surface.
Unfinished = now can have an equally good finish, has a perfect surface if done right.

So personally, I would always go for a floor finished in place. I hate the bevels and I want a perfectly flush floor. And I have the Aluminum Oxide finish on some floors and it's harder, but far less aesthetically pleasing. It seems to float on the wood like plastic, whereas the other finishes seem to penetrate. Some people care, some don't.

What is the equally good finish that an unfinished floor can have?
We made the mistake of having our wood floors finished in a water based satin. We would like to have it redone.

Gabi06,

What is it about your site finished floor that you did not like?

A couple of selling points on engineered wood flooring that appeal to me:
1- Because of the way the layers are cross-grained in the engineering the floor won't expand and contract like full-dimension wood so you keep a tight look as opposed to the cracks that develope with full-dimension.
2- The finish is baked on in the factory on the high quality products and come with a great warranty (Mirage brand is my favorite.) Some are even rated and warranted for commercial applications.
3- The profile is lower so the transition to adjoining flooring is a nicer fit most often.
4- When you count out the time between refinishes you usually get at least 30+ years out of the flooring.

I purchased my "new" home in June 2008, after only two weeks my floors were looking very bad. I have a very calm golden retriver that has nails groomed every month. I have real hardwood stairs, but engineered wood floors over my concrete slab. The stairs are great, no scratches, the engineered wood, completely trashed. Within 2 months it looked like I had lived here 10+ years. The protective finish on the engineered floors is very weak. I called the installer, they had rep come out. Of course they say it is working up to warranty standards. They are crap, I have had hardwood floors in the last 3 houses, with the same dog and no problems! I don't know what to do, but at least to tell you, "don't do it". My neighbors with smaller pets all have the same floor and the same problem. We are all completely sick over this since we live in a very nice neighborhood in a pricey area, with trashed floors. Hope this helps others.

Not all engineered wood floors are equal. Same thing applies to solid wood floors. There are a lot of variables that can make a big difference in the performance of a floor.

Traci64 could very easily recoat the floors and perhaps switch to a matte finish. Hard to know what they used but almost all prefinished uses an aluminujm oxide finish which is very abrasive resistant. Some floors show things much more due to clear grain etc, or the way your eye looks across the floor etc. If you had site finished your would still have the same problem. No finish is guaranteed against scratching but the problem is easily rectified if you wish to recoat.

I can only tell you what My Eyes have seen!
Today, our parlor and dining room were finished with BR-111, prefinished, 3/4" Brazilian Cherry, and "NOBODY" will ever be able to convice me that there is Anything more beautiful!

I will Never go with anything else!

No more pergo, engineered or unfinished hardwoods for me, Ever again!

The most beautiful wood I have ever laid eyes on!

Mc

I have real oak hardwood in my kitchen, and three years ago I installed engineered, handscraped hardwood by Appalachian Hardwoods in my bedroom. The engineered hardwood is superb. It didn't even scratch when we had heavy, sold bedroom furniture installed. These pieces require four people to move, and at one point it was dropped on the floor: no scratches, no dents. We now have felt pads on all the furniture for more protection, but the engineered wood has held up well. It's also easy to clean. It was more expensive than some hardwoods: $8.00 per square foot! Since our home was built to look like an old Louisiana antebellum home, I wanted floors that looked old and had character. The handscraped engineered floors fit the bill, especially when compared to the price of real, reclaimed wood from old homes or barns!

Now I'm replacing all the flooring in my house with the same engineered wood. I'm even removing the oak plank in the kitchen. It has not held up over the years. The finish is gone in some spots, probably from wear and the use of things like vinegar, grease, etc. Some things really seem to eat away at the finished oak regardless of how quickly you remove a spill. It also has some dings from me dropping heavy cast-iron cookware.

So, I can only speak from my experience, but so far the engineered hardwood seems to be the better choice for my home. Plus, it was faster to install. If I had done raw hardwood, the contractor said he would lay the wood in the house for a week to let it "cure" before finishing it. I live in a high-humidity area (NC). I'm impatient and didn't want to wait.

My two cents, I've had Bruce prefinished oak solid, Bruce prefinished oak engineered, and site-finished oak solid hand scraped. All installed by builders, fairly good quality, not the cheap stuff.

Engineered is at the bottom of my list. A couple of the boards dented in because the plywood underneath had a cavity (apparently) and when it needed to be reinifhsed there wasn't enough wear layer to sand; also, it is veneer, the wood does not have the look of depth of real solid wood.

The Bruce solid prefinished was much nicer to look at, the only complaint was, just like any other wood, black marks in the kitchen where someone didn't wipe up water drops fast enough. (Same problem with Bruce engineered, also in the kitchen, except much worse with the engineered.)

The site-finished hand scraped incredibly dark (to me ugly) wood is holding up like a tank. It shows no marks whatsoever and takes abuse incredibly well. Never mind that I can't stand the way it looks! LOL. (we didn't select it.) (It is NOT in the kitchen so that's one abuse it doesn't have to take here.)

Hope that helps.

your engineered most likely is a rotary peeled veneer. If you got a sliced veneer the look is indistinguishable from a solid. Just advice for the next time.

There is one other category that I don't think was mentioned here yet, and that is sliced veneer 5/8" thick engineered unfinished Owens Plankfloor. Looks exactly like a solid, can be finished anyway you want and has the advantages of an engineered.

Thanks boxers for reminding me when I get engineered wood floors to find out what cut of the wood it is since I have seen pictures of both and I just prefer the sliced veneer look rather than the rotary peeled veneer look.

Glenn, they are finding out the hard way, that the thick slice , so called engineered, has no benefits over a solid wood.

The thick slice over thinner different species of wood, act just like a solid board glued to plywood. It cups, and it can buckle, unlike balanced engineered boards. Shearing is their new term for delamination.

floorguy (or anyone else with knowledge or who had time to give me input), would a 3MM BR-111 Brazilian Cherry Engineered Wood floor still have benefits of an engineered wood floor with being better over a concrete floor that has no basement since the townhouse was built on the preserved wetlands since the real wood top layer is only 3MM? What would you consider a balanced engineered wood board?

So far my floors seem to be dry due to all the work the builder did filling the swamp land and adding an excellent sewer system. I never had water problems in my home if you don't count the time my central air conditioner unit failed and squirted wood everywhere. When Hurricane Floyd was in NJ, my townhouse complex did not get flooded like the roads did a few blocks from me due to the great sewage system the builder installed about 19 years ago.

Also which would be better for less cuppingand less buckling: Mirage Lock Maple or Oak approx. 4" wide, almot 1/2 thick, 2 MM real wood over a laminate type of material that does not use formaldehyde or BR-111 3/8th thick with 1/8th (approx. 3 MM) of real wood on top, 3.25" wide or BR-111 1/2" thick with 3 MM real wood on top 5" wide?

Thank you to anyone that can provide input.