I'm not a flooring expert, but we did float our floor in our house (over vinyl tile). As the others have suggested to you, first make sure that your floor is made to be installed as a floating floor. Our house is a concrete slab, with old vinyl tile under it, probably from the 60's is our guess. Definitely has black adhesive, and it's a pretty good guess that they have asbestos. We didn't even bother checking it -- we figured it would just be easiest overall to do a floating install regardless, as the thought of dealing with glue seemed way too messy and tough for us to handle. We used an underlayment called QuietWalk -- it has a moisture barrier attached on one side. They sold it at our local Lowes, so it was easy to find and purchase. You basically just roll it out on the floor, cut it, and tape the pieces together with a special moisture-barrier tape. The installation was a fairly easy process -- our brand (BR-111) requires that you use glue in the tongue and groove, so with my husband and I working together, I would glue the piece of wood, hand it to him where he was kneeling on the floor, and he would hammer it into place. At the end of a row, he would measure how long the piece needed to be, jump up and go cut it, we'd put it in place, and the process would continue. We became like a well-oiled machine :) Doing a floating floor like this is really quite easy, and I don't have any problem recommending it to a DIY-er, even ones that were brand new to home projects, like we were. One caveat -- our floors do have a slightly "springy" or hollow feel to them. I think a discerning person can probably tell that the floor is not affixed to the flooring underneath. Personally, we don't care or mind -- they look beautiful.

Sprice, I just love your floors so much! I found the post where you first showed them off and I got to see more of your floors and home. I love your beautiful home. I wish more of the floor was showing. Thank you for sharing. I hope some others will share their exotic wood floors that are wide plank or even just 3.25" plank since I am trying to make up my mind now if the approximately $700.00 extra is worth paying for the wider and longer boards. The BR-111 Triangulo is 1/2" thick when it is 5" wide versus 3/8th" thick when it is 3.25" wide. Both have a nice wear layer on top that can be sanded 2 to 3 times with a 24 year warranty. Do the darker boards really stand out with the wider boards. One of my friends in Canada who I called tonight loves both widths but prefers widths no narrower than 3.25" and likes widths even up to 7" wide feeling more of the grain shows and the floor is less busy. My other friend who I called likes the 3.25" traditional look. I guess I will have to make my own decision but I hope I get to see some more pictures before ordering the floor. I wish I had some samples boards that were at least a foot long of the 5" wide planks. I only have the foot long sample boards of the 3.25" wide planks that someone on this forum mailed to me and I paid her for the postage. Is the 3.25" wide floor still in style and popular despite wider planks being very trendy right now?

You are saying you DON'T like the first floor. So either REFINISH or replace it but not with a gray floor , please. .When I say replace, I mean rip it first. BTW, Stair to either a basement or a second floor can and probably should have at least a runner. You haven't shown the stair either, But a stair to a basement ? I'd probably paint the stairs Tread black, and risers white, and add a runner in a great pattern. If you want the look of the french oak everywhere, do it, and do it right. Rip.

1968 construction isn't older. I grew up in a pre WW I home that had actual wood parquet floors that I imagine were installed on site from pieces of wood. FWIW, engineered wood is hardwood - it is just not solid hardwood but has a layer of wood on top which is what is called the wear layer. The thicker the wear layer, the higher the quality of the wood would be and theoretically you would be able to refinish the wood two times approximately. I remodeled in a high rise condo and you should check what kind of rules there are for soundproofing of solid floors - e.g. wood or tile. My condo has very specific requirements so that I had to instll a sublayer of cork plus a sublayer of plywood and then the engineered boards. Not an expert but I think engineered wood is the preferred choice for installation on cement subfloors but a flooring expert could determine that as well as whether you woud install new floors over the old floors. I had wood floors and they were all ripped up and the new flooring was not just installed over the old wood floors.