There are several misconceptions here. There can be site finished solid wood or site finished engineered wood. Having it finished on site is the variable. The two are not mutually exclusive. Foundation type often demands engineered wood, and that does not mean accepting a lesser quality material. As long as an adequate budget is in the picture, quality in either type is achievable. Site finished has everything to do with finding the right artisan. Prefinished has everything to do with the company that creates the product. It is a shift in emphasis for responsibility of a successful install. A NWFA accredited installer and installation for site finished is likely to be several notches in expense above the install of a medium quality prefinished product. Choosing to use a lesser skilled finisher simply because of budget, will likely have results that you are not happy with in the long run. Engineered wood, if it's a good quality, is indistinguishable from solid wood to the naked eye. IF it's installed as a Permanently affixed nail down or glue down. Floating floors are a whole other category of installation and often perform unsatisfactorily because of improper site prep and low quality sound pad. That is regardless of the material being floated, including laminate. Any floor that is not flat enough, and experiences bounce, is not flat enough for Any floor but carpet to be installed. Deflection though, often has more to do with the joists being inadequately specced to the lowest allowable by code rather than the subfloor thickness. When hard floors are desired, the home has to be engineered to accept them from the design phase. This is one area that being "code compliant" results in too many problems down the road because the code is inadequate for the construction level that most homes now wish to have. The use of a good quality vacuum is a recommended care routine in addition to dry dusting. If there are no other issues in the home, such as inadequate kitchen ventilation, a vacuum will remove dust from any micro bevels in a prefinished floor---or the inevitable micro gaps in a site finished floor.

Thanks mikeyvon. We have tried out a few stains and are leaning towards a medium to dark red mahogony. The color we liked the best was a two stage process - a coat of dark brown (walnut? I can't remember) followed by a coat of red mahogony later. It gave the wood grain a two-tone look that was nice. The finish made a difference - it had a purple hue until the tung oil was applied - don't know why. Since I am going to mix the stain in with the first coat of Waterlox, though, I won't be able to use a two tone stain process. I haven't tried the stain/Waterlox combo yet on any scraps. Probably will next week. Minwax makes a red sedona that is also a medium reddish brown color that might work. I like just finishing it natural, too, and just let the finish mellow out on it's own. The wood has already, in just a few weeks since I started, darkened up a little on its own. In fact, some of the cutoffs I had to make were where a board sitting in the pile got uneven exposure because it was covered by another board. The exposed parts were noticebly darker.

I am torn between oak and exotics as well. I have realized that I lean more toward the warmth of browns than the reds of cherries. So I am starting to lean toward staining oak. Woodhaven Lumber has a tremendous selction of woods and can also order any exotics... Here is a link that might be useful: Woodhaven Lumber

I thought about this a lot too when I was trying to make the decision. I ordered a sample of pre finished oak and tested it. Aluminum oxide may be tough, but it does scratch pretty easily. And the worst part of it is that once it does scratch, it is very difficult to repair. It is a baked-on finish and cannot be done on site. I don't like the micro groves of prefinished floors either. I think since you already have some site-finished oak there, the contrast would be pretty great between the two, one having a smooth surface and one having micro-groves. I have 3 house dogs. two don't count, since they weigh less than 10 pounds combined, but the 3rd is a very active pit bull. I know she will scratch the floors. So I have decided to go with Waterlox finish. It is easy to DIY, and it is VERY easy to spot-repair. You can't really say that between waterlox, aluminum oxide or poly that one is better than the other, they are all just different. The same smooth finish can be achieved with any of the 3 of them. As far as why some installers don't like prefinished? They have to be too concerned with scratching and damaging it during installation.