Wood dents. Wood scratches. The FINISH will NOT prevent dents...but it will deal with scratches. A solid hardwood floor will comply with the Janka hardness test (denting). An engineered hardwood will NOT comply with the Janka hardness test as the wood is NOT the same material all the way through. The "hard" wood on top is sitting on plied wood (layers of a softer material). Engineered can have more problems with DENTING than solid...but it depends on the species you are testing. So...that's the denting question dealt with.

The finish (polyurethane, urethane, acrylic, etc) will take care of SCRATCHES. The GLOSS level *shouldn't have any differences in the actual AMOUNT of scratches...but it will have something to do with how the scratches APPEAR to the eye.

Satin hides quite a bit. It camouflages scratches and minor dents very well. The glossier the finish the more you can "see" the scratches. The commercial finish, in theory, should have a better scratch resistance....but the gloss level will dictate how the scratches appear once they occur.

Again, wood scratches and dents. If this is something that concerns you, then it is possible that wood may not be the best option for you.

I'm not fond of bamboo over HDF. The Fibre Board core will expand and contract in vastly different ways compared to Bamboo. The fibre board core will want to really stretch it's legs, whereas the bamboo is quite rigid and won't like having all that expansion going on underneath it.

If you work with bamboo, please ensure your HVAC (heating/cooling) system has pin-point accurate HUMIDITY control. Bamboo has the smallest window of happiness whereas the HDF core has a very wide window of happy-happy.

I've seen this type of engineered bamboo floor have problems with the bamboo wear layer delaminating off of the fibre board core when the home is NOT kept in a very tight humidity range.

Like Cancork I'm not wild about HDF core floors but the makers claim they are moisture resistant.

Regarding hardness, as is written above, no finish will increase a wood's indentation resistance. My take on the contribution that a core adds to hardness, is between those above. Since a .444" ball is used to for the Janka test, most if not all engineered products would crush into the lower layers, making their hardness applicable. The Janka rating of the surface wood is more pertinent because people rarely apply enough localized pressure for the backing to absorb impact. Most indentations will be from heels or furniture so I imagine it wouldn't matter whether the center layers were pine or hardwood. Some engineered wood floors do have softwood cores.

You've picked two items from almost opposite ends of the flooring spectrum, one nicely crafted item from Mirage and a decent Bamboo from China. The Bamboo is a composite of Bamboo and binders formed under heat and pressure. The Bamboo is also wire brushed so in addition to being harder it would also hide issues due to the surface texture. Maple is very smooth and indentations can be readily apparent. I'm certain the Bamboo is a lot cheaper but I would consider how long I intended to stay in the home and determine whether I'd rather have a Maple floor or Bamboo floor to refinish in the future.

Wood dents. If you can't live with the fact of that, then I suggest a wood look tile. My last floor was an engineered Ipe floor, which is one of the hardest wood on the Janka scale. Even it dented, though only when I accidentally dropped a very heavy object on the floor

If it helps, we moved into a house in Florida five years ago, with engineered wood floors. I wasn't sure what the floors were but knew they were some sort of wood. They are dark cherry, almost blackish red. They are in the living room, dining room and a long hallway leading to the bedrooms. They are stunning!

Having moved here from NY and having hardwoods in our past house, I was curious about these floors. I knew they weren't laminate but never saw anything like them before. They are beautiful.

I found a bag of left over pieces in the garage and brought them to a flooring store and they told me they were engineered hardwood. He told me they couldn't be refinished.

Five years later, they are still beautiful. I don't know how old they are but I guess somewhere around 12+ years. We have a wild, active dog (English Pointer), plus Florida is full of sand which gets walked in constantly.

I damp mop the floors and they shine like nothing I've ever seen. No scratches that I can detect and we have dining room chairs on them which are moved in and out.

I'm planning a remodel and hoping I can match these floors to run into our front foyer and bedrooms.

Very impressed.

Jane