I had a kempas floor installed in the dining room and foyer in my newly built home in 2007. It still looks GORGEOUS. I only use warm water and a microfiber mop to clean and it looks amazing. The color is so rich and complements my warm golden yellow walls beautifully. I have not experienced any issues that the above responses have thank god. That being said, about a year after I moved in I ran into a fiend whom apparently knew one of the installers. She asked me how I liked my floor. I, of course, raved about it. She then went on to say that the installer HATED IT. They had to purchase extra due to the splitting that occurred when they were nailing it. This was news to me. The installer did a wonderful job despite his frustration and the floor has performed beautifully.

In previous homes I've had hardwood, vinyl and ceramic tile in my kitchens. When we built our current home last summer we went with hardwood. I give it high marks for looks and comfort and so far maintenance has been pretty easy as well.My first kitchen was in a turn of the century dutch colonial and we refinished the original oak floors that were hidden under layers of linoleum. I absolutely loved the way they turned out but we also accepted the inevitable dings and nicks as part of the "character" of the home. In our new home we went with prefinished floors which are much more durable.So far we haven't had so much as a scratch but since it is a new house, I'm still pretty protective.Almost everyone takes off their shoes when entering our home. My hardwood floors do show crumbs, etc. but I had one of those handy electric dust pans installed in the baseboard, I just flick the crumbs in the general vicinity of the pan and they're gone. I would highly recommend them. I wish we'd had them when our pets were still alive.

Hi runninginplace (great name! :) ) - sorry, sometimes humor gets lost over the internet. :) What I was trying to say is that a lot of people whine about laminate that it's "not real." And I laugh at that, because it is very much a REAL floor. You can walk on it and everything! Ha ha. Yes I'm aware laminate has a printed wood-look face to it. I don't care. The "it's not REAL" camp doesn't resonate with me. Full disclosure, I like Corian better than some granites too. That statement also horrifies some people. Again, I don't care - it's a cost/benefit analysis for me and I'm not pretentious. All I was trying to say is I have exactly what this woman is talking about - a ~4 year old Shaw pre-finished engineered wood floor. And frankly I hate it. To me it has all the negatives of a wood floor, without hardly any positives. I liked my ~15 year old wood-look laminate plank floor much better than this current floor. So I explained why. Given that it is my opinion that I hate my current floor, I'm pretty sure that is a valid assumption. ;) If you have a prefinished wood floor and you like it, I'm genuinely happy for you. Different strokes and all that.

SJ McCarthy, our contract is stated we are responsible for the materials and we pay for the labor. Unfortunately we never met nor discuss with the owner but only discussed in details ( in the proposal) with the project manager who is the solely the carpenter.) We just found out there were a lot of the DETAILS from the proposal were not explained (per the PM,but who knows) in detail to the owner or almost like "bait and switch" - for example like item #2- he spent more time because the owner did not get him another helper to help him- I told him this should not be the customer's expenses-Anyway we are willing to pay for it. The owner was offering to renew and establish a new contract from the original contact ( we felt that he cherry picking the items from the proposal, we marked them up then again he decided not to included) for the unfinished works . Once he agreed in our 2nd meeting (another example: he agreed tiling our study room to be included from the original contact in our 1st meeting then when he write the REVISED CONTRACT- he wants to charge us ), but again we are facing the same old stories-he tried to change the wording. We were burned so many times and now we diligently review line by line knowing the owner's personality. He kept saying he lived by the contract-then I told him then he should honor the low estimated to install our engineering hardwood floor including removing the carpet-in the end he says he would honor but he did not including the cost in the new REVISED contract which we add into it - we are so tired with his games. So now we put a contingency - once we agree with the new contract, no more additional expenses from the previous work was done- and we do agree that we need to be notified first and need both signatures for additional expenses from the new contract. and no more point finger of "not included" since we have discussed in detailed and are in the contract. The new addition has a hardwood floor installed - with Dri-core. Once hardwood floor was installed- they are some areas squeak- we were told by PM -put a marked up then he would fasten without explaining to us-these would be additional ridiculous charges (PM told the owner, too-we told PM that they should explain it to us- ) Regarding the installing the engineering hardwood floor is for our existing rooms(concrete slabs that has plywood already)- we are told just to put a vapour barrier. Is it possible to let me know what brands for the glues have to be moisture resistant ($2/sf) or moisture PROOF ($3/sf).? The manufacture instruction suggests to use Franklin Tongue and Groove adhesive (cross linking polyaliphactic emulsion glue) www.titebond.com -any suggestions? This Applachian engineering hardwood floor - FLOATING only needs GLUE between the wood (tongue and groove per the manufacture manual ) then would be FLOAT - this is not to be GLUE DOWN on our concrete floor (could be glue down if necessary but not in our case). Here is the website- on PAGE 9 http://www.appalachianflooring.com/uploads/general/documents/engineered-installation-guide.pdf We trust the PM and we pay for it- we just want to move on and complete the project-It has been almost 10 months. We have to do what we have to do to protect ourselves now- The owner refuses to install our towel bar in our new shower without charging us, and we told him we will take care them by ourselves. I will update this post and hoping for a better solution. Thank you