I doubt if you will be happy with walnut, the softest of hardwoods. There is no finish that will make it much harder. It is what it is. The opposite end of the hardness scale is the ipe you mentioned. If you want a similar grain you may consider red birch, a beautiful light cherry colored wood much harder than walnut. Birch, as with all close grained woods, does show the indentations it gets more readily than the more textured woods like oak. This is because the smoother surface makes them easier to detect. No finish is perfect. Aluminum oxide is slow to wear through but also harder to repair. We have in our house a lifetime guaranteed wear through finish (Trustor WearMax) but I would not use it again. No sign of wear through but we do have indentations etc that I can not touch up to my satisfaction and I'm an expert at that type of thing. I suggest you walk through this with a competent professional to find a combination of ascetics and durability to suit your needs.

We recently just finished installing and finishing utility grade mixed solid hardwood oak floors from LL (.99/sqft) all DIY. It was our first time installing any type of hardwood flooring DIY. Looking at the Elastilon product, I wouldn't suggest using the very rustic utility grade flooring unless you plan on nailing it down due to the extra fitting/fussing it can take to install it. Also I would be concerned about possible movement with the heavy sanding machines/buffing during the finishing process. I would think an engineered or prefinished hardwood flooring would be better to use with the Elastilon. Laminate (depending on quality) may hold up better with kids and pets as far as scratches. Prefinished hardwood may have a stronger finish (factory) than site finished too. However solid hardwood can be refinished, it may hold up to liquid issues a little better than laminate, have more value, and if you get a rustic character grade flooring the imperfections will blend in. Even with my dogs nails clipped on the site finished solid hardwood, I can still hear the click of their nails, however it's not as loud as it is on laminate floors. If you really want to do site finished utility grade rustic solid hardwood floors, it might be possible to build a proper subfloor accounting for the moisture, on top of the concrete slab. Someone on the Hardwood flooring talk forum may be able to offer some more information on this, I have no idea how easy it is or how well it would hold up. http://hardwoodflooringtalk.com/forum/ Hickory is harder than white oak, so it will probably be more durable, but the lower grades of hickory can have more pattern to them and I don't think hickory takes stain as easily as oak. With a good professional grade finish, I think an oak floor would be fine. With natural oil finishes (100% tung oil, linseed oil, etc.) I think it depends on the finish, after considering it for our floors and researching it, I decided against it. Natural oil finishes can smell and the odor can linger for a while, they may take a long time to dry/cure, and are not as durable as the water based poly finishes. However the natural oil finishes are repairable, which is nice. I've read that in high traffic areas the finish can wear faster requiring recoating once a year or every couple years though. I know my mom has spot repaired old wood floors with poly, but it's probably not as easy as using a natural oil finish because you have to sand. We went with the professional grade floor finishing products (Bona) and decided to use a water based poly (Bona traffic HD in extreme matte) so far with two dogs and two visiting dogs racing and sliding on the floor, it's been wearing like iron. The extreme matte finish gives it a very natural wood look (not really plastic) and is extremely durable, the matte finish also hides more imperfections. The rustic floors also being custom stained with different light/medium brown shades (Bona drifast stains) really helps hide tons of dirt and dog hair. Our floors

I prefer to match the stain to the finish. If you want a water based polyurethane then it is best to use a stain that is PRODUCED by the same company - or at least a stain that is produced for another water based poly. Too many times we see professionals using the Minwax (cheapo cheapo) stains together with water based finishes (because the homeowner wants VOC friendly finish) only to have the chemicals have a reaction and the finish fails - badly. So...I like to stick with chemicals produced by the same company. Sounds logical, but it doesn't always happen. When it comes to number of coats for the finish, the magic number is 3. That being said, there is a caveat to this and that caveat comes with "sealant". Sealants are often needed when working with water based polyurethanes being applied over White Oak or other woods with "tannin bleed". If your floor is going to use a sealant then it COUNTS as 1 of the 3 layers. Therefore: 1 coat sealant + 2 coats of finish = 3 total coats. As you can see, the number "3" is still preserved. Now...how much VOC content to you want in your space and how long do you want to have the strong smell of "newly finished flooring" in your home? Do you have migraines? Chemical sensitivities? Asthma? COPD? Heart problems? If you have any medical condition that makes you sensitive to odours, then the oil based finishes are very tough to live with (for the first few months). Very sensitive people have found that oil based finishes have forced them out of their home for MONTHS (someone on Houzz was forced out for 4 months before she could move into her home). Water based finishes do NOT have these issues. The odour is often gone inside of 2 days. Loba 2K Supra AT has a 5 HOUR window of odour and then it is gone. That's impressive. Compare that to 4 MONTHS. Hmmmmmm. Oil based = turns orange and has a STRONG SMELL (months and months) Water based = no colour change and very LOW ODOUR profile (a few hours to a few days). Now that you know what each one does, you will need to ask yourself a WHOLE BUNCH of questions before choosing a finish.

I guess I would ask them what their idea of a "fix" would be for your flooring. Have they even been back out to look at the areas of concern? If it needs to be resanded and finished, then I would think they could do it sooner than the 60-90 days. I would be suspicious in having to wait that long. Are they hoping that as time moves on, you'll be less likely to want to live through the chaos again and accept it "as is"?