FIRST, short summary and then long details that can be skipped if it will prevent a reader from responding or they can read the details to learn more.

I had made up my mind on what I wanted on my floors (after the 18.5 year old wall to wall beige carpet is removed) but due to the store's change in mind on how they were to install my floor and how much extra it would cost to do it their way, I had other installers give me quotes and now I am confused on what to do and I am hoping professionals or members with knowledge can steer me in the right direction in what is best to do to get this job done. My light beige carpet in my home office is dirty again after 2 weeks and again I am having it cleaned tomorrow night. I hate cleaning it every few weeks.

My questions are if I need to seal the concrete floor first if I am to glue down the floor or is floating the floor OK with all my equipment and furniture that I have that I describe below. I do not want a problem in the future but I did have hardwood engineered floors here in two foyer areas for 18 years that never buckled up until my central air conditioner failed and squirted water everywhere that caused a flood on the floor inside the utility room and outside the utility room onto the Bruce Oak Engineered wood floor that is now all ruined. Do you recommend I go with the thicker 1/2" Engineered 5" wide plank by BR-111 or the 3/8th thick with the 3.125 MM wear layer on top by BR-111 or another brand or go with a 12 MM laminate that can float or go with a Mirage Lock Floor? Would it really be so bad if one day I sell my place and there are patches of light under my furniture that I will not be able to move around due to how heavy they are? I only get sun in front of my desk while the rest of my home office two rooms have no windows. My family room only has a wall of windows on one side but my sofa in 10.5 years has not faded and is still the same beige/taupe leather color. The installers all seem to try to push me away from Brazilian Cherry except for one installer. One wanted me to buy Lyptus Fire telling me it is stained and red like I want and will not change colors but I read on their site that it gets darker also. Another told me I would be happier with Santos Mahogany that has less of a color change. Another one wanted me to go with a natural oak wood telling me that would be best in my situation for resale so I would not have a different color under my furniture. The Amendoim could be nice since it does not have a dramatic color change but I fell in love with the Brazilian Cherry color of the samples I have here that rivkadr sent me.

OK here are the facts for more detail:

I had decided a while back on the BR-111 Brazilian Cherry Triangulo Engineered wood and got a good price from a local store that was close to an Internet Price except I have to pay sales tax which I am OK with. The installers they sent over here gave me a good price also and I was ready to buy everything (glue, flooring, felt for the bottom of the chairs, etc) from the store until the store owner told me the installers changed their mind and instead of moving the heavy cabinets a little bit away from the floor and pulling up sections of the carpet (is on tackles on the edges but the pad and carpet are not glued down over the slab) and gluing down the floor and moving the heavy 42" wide 5 drawer Hon putty cabinets back on top, they want everything out of the two room home office (dining room and living room) and everything out of the family room (very easy to do since I have light furniture in there and not much but a sofa, recliner, small TV stand, TV, and end tables and coffee table that are very light weight glass with cherry legs). Then they have to seal the floor and I have to buy an expensive sealer and wait a day to put everything back. So the stress of emptying four 5-Drawer 42" wide Hon heavy putty cabinets, two 4-drawer 42" wide putty cabinets, five 2-drawer 30" wide Hon putty file cabinets, my 72" wide Cherry Credenza, my big 72" wide cherry desk, my small computer cherry wood desk that is not attached, the two roll out drawers (desk is easy to move since I paid more to have the pieces that are not attached), two supply cabinets in a putty color, has me stressed out. I had thought I could empty the cabinets but not move the furniture and then replace everything at once when the cabinets are moved back. If I need to move everything out of here, I have a garage and a backyard with a patio to put the furniture on.

So I had other estimates when I just wanted the job done to see what should be done about my slab floor and a few others want to move everything out of here also but do one room at a time and glue down the floor with no sealer. One installer wants me to rent a POD to put all my furniture in until the job is done and that is my responsibility to move it in and out of the home.

Another installer wants to float the floor and had me go to his wholesaler to like other woods telling me he feels I should go with a 5" wide oak or pecan natural wood so one day when I move my furniture I do not have patches of light spaces but agrees that the Brazilian Cherry looked wonderful in my home office an my family room with the beige furniture and glass tables with putty legs. The natural oak or maple clashes with the tile I chose and the file cabinets. I need a little bit darker. Right now I have a beige rug that is darker than the natural wood and it is hard to keep clean. I actually like the Auburn Maple but everyone tells me it is too boring.

The other installer wants to float a laminate floor and tried steering me back to the Bruce Park Avenue Makore or Pradoo Laminate I was looking at. I wonder how sturdy this will be with all the furniture on top of the floor?

Then the installers at the store came back to me and wants me to buy the more expensive floating Mirage Lock floor from the local store they work with (Mirage Lock comes in only maple or oak ... now the store's price is a lot more than the Internet price versus the other product was a good price) or the Mullican floating floor (sliced cut Brazilian Cherry rather than the sawn face cut of the BR-111 or the Hartco Valenza collection I was looking at) that I can get much cheaper on line but prefer to buy from a local dealer if I get a reasonable price.

They want to float the floor and say they can move the furniture a little at a time their old way and save me in installation despite the extra cost of the materials. Another installer says they have to move all the furniture out of here anyway and get rid of the carpet to see how level the concrete floor is first.

Hence, I had a tile guy here today and the other day for estimates and today I went to Lowe's and bought the Rialto Beige tile and the grout (three sanded grouts to ask an installer which of the three he feels will be best with my tile: Mushroom, Marble Beige, or Parchment). Hence, I am ready for the tile for the two foyer areas but now what do I do with the two room home office floor and the family room floor? I want the damage out of the foyer areas NOW. It has been too long. I have engineered Bruce Oak very thin veneer glued down there that got damaged from the water leak from my central air conditioner/heating system failing a few months ago. The wood floor is discolored, warped and has buckled up. I was able to pull up a piece of this 18.5 year old floor that came up in veneered pieces of and the cement floor looked dry to me despite my townhouse complex being built on the preserved wetlands about 18.5 years ago.

OK, this is long but I am stressed that the project is not getting done since everyone is trying to talk me out of the Brazilian Cherry floors telling me I will regret the decision if I move. I am open to anything that will work at this point. I even thought the Amendoim samples looked nice with my furniture but worry if it will be too knotty since I can't see a floor in person.

So should I float the floor with heavy furniture on top of it? Should I choose an easier locking floor? Would laminate look cheap in my professional home office that has clients visiting? Would it be best to seal the floor that I really feel is dry despite my townhouse being built on the wetlands since the glued down foyer engineered Bruce hardwood floors never came up in 18 years?

I just want this job done ASAP and I am tired of not knowing what to do.