The walnut solid planks and the walnut 3mm veneer will have the same rating. Keep in mind it is a soft wood to begin with so don't expect that you won't ever indent it. That is a trade off with walnut, its the most beautiful domestic species we have but it is soft.

Oh I know, which is why we're getting a version that is random width, lightly scraped, french bleed and medium distressed (I know, who would have thought I'd have found all those features in one version of this?!) - so I won't freak out at a dent like I would if we had smooth floors and one dent versus pretty evenly dented boards everywhere!

I am so bummed that I love walnut so much since it's so soft, but I console myself that at least it's not cherry! We've dropped a bunch (what I consider normal - keys, toys, plastic bottles) on our sample and while it has made dents, you don't notice them among the others. Because it's french bleed, if anything exposes any lighter wood underneath (haven't gotten through the coating yet with our abuse), we can fill it in with a stain pen or a black sharpie and it will look like it's always been there.

Inspector  you believe that the Janka rating is the same regardless of Solid or Engineered? I would *love* to believe this. I even wondered if the rating could be higher depending on the substrate. But it does seem logical that it could be less as well. Could you elaborate?

Vestirse  When ever I see a photo of a floor that makes me sigh, it always turns out to be black walnut. But I have not really considered it because of the janka rating. Would you please post exactly what you are buying? IÂd love to see it and see if it would work for us as well. Thanks!

Jeri technically the janka hardness test is a measure of how many pounds of pressure it takes to embed a .44in steel ball half way into the surface of the wood. In this case the 3mm veneer obviously isn't thick enough to even allow the ball to go that deep as .44in is about 11.2mm. However the substrate on this floor is most likely birch or eucalyptus. Although there are many different birches with different hardnesses it probably has a janka hardness it self of somewhere between 1260 and 1470 depending on species. That is already more dense than the walnut. Even eucalyptus with a hardness of 1125 is harder than walnut so in effect the hardness won't be any less. Basically the walnut is going to dent before the substrate starts to give and at that amount of pressure it would dent either solid or engineered product. The rating has nothing to do with the thickness. And keep in mind as well that the Janka chart is really only a qualitative measurement as there are standard deviations for every species. Its meant to give you an overall picture of how hard walnut is in relation to other woods.

Hi Inspector  thanks for the reply. However, IÂm still confused.... :-\

We have been concentrating on the engineered exotics (Cumaru, Jatoba, Cabriuva ) which are beautiful and at the top of the jank rating. Will these hold up better than the engineered walnut as far as dents go? IÂm lead to believe the scratches are all about the top coating and not the wood itself  so that is probably a push?

We are on a concrete slab and do not want to raise the floor level and cost by adding plywood subfloors  so that limits us to engineered. Also, IÂm telling myself that engineered is more environmentally friendly (am I kidding myself?)

Oh Vestirse  That is beautiful! I love it! Do you mind me asking what you will be paying for it? Are you going to float? I also love the random width look - it is going to be beautiful!

One of the reasons that I am shying away from distressed flooring is because it can not be sanded and refinished. I just worry that 10 years down the road a hard wood floor will need this. This is not our "forever" home (but long enough), so I have an eye to an eventual resale as well. Even if I can live with the floor not looking so good, it would seem wise to be able to refinish it for showing. But, I have never lived with hard wood floors (canÂt wait!), so this is all speculation. Thanks for discussing this with me. :-)

My pleasure as this *is* my current obsession, lol. The price was quoted at 7.41/sq ft, but because of the size of our job (over 800 sq ft with almost 30 stairs and some other work too) they seem to be willing to work with us on price.

I had the same refinishing fears, but in the end for me, I realized that I probably wouldn't be there when and if the floor needs to be refinished. Not to pas the buck, but I'd screen if it came to that - have you heard of screening? I'd probably recommend that for engineered hardwood. Garrison does claim that a 3mm wear layer can be refinished up to two times, but I think if you want to refinish you'd be better off looking into 4mm or higher. I have seen a few brands that offered that or higher. I looked at a brand called Portofino briefly with an impressive wear layer on many of their boards - at least 4mm and 5mm on some I saw (Quercia Mezzanotte had 5 from what I saw - it's a dark stained oak).

Of course that might be above your price point too. What range are you looking in? Walnut is typically on the more expensive side as you know. If you are DIY or into buying outside and contracting with a sub to install, I have seen better prices online for this wood if you like it. floorsbynature.com has it for 5.54/sq ft

Here is a link that might be useful: Floors by Nature - Garrison Da Vinci Walnut Carrera

Oh, we are planning glue down - that seems to be what most recommend here.