I just posted about this, on a thread on the main decorating side. I'll cut/paste my answer below for you.

Short version - I have Shaw Engineered/Prefinished Hardwood in my current home and I will not have it again. But everyone "values" different things in different ways. Some people claim to love this stuff because it's "real wood", but I don't get into the value judgments of laminate vs. "real" wood so that doesn't resonate with me.

Site finished hardwood is so far superior, in my opinion.

However, I personally would pick the wood-look laminate planks I had at a prior house over my prefinished/engineered hardwood. But some people appear to have a seizure when you mention "laminate", because it's not "real"....whatever the heck that means.

Different people value different things.....differently. Ha ha. So I have no idea what may work for someone else, all I know is, I do not like my prefinished wood floor.

Here is the thread:

http://ths.gardenweb.com/discussions/4957468/please-help-prefinished-hardwood-or-laminate?n=22

And here is what I said:

This is such a personal decision - it all goes to what "looks good" to each individual person.

I've had site-finished, engineered/pre-finished, and laminate wood-look planks.

Honestly, for me personally, I rank engineered/pre-finished last in
the cost/benefit analysis. It scratches more easily than my wood-look
laminate did. Plus engineered still can look like laminate when it is
installed - you see each individual board, if that makes any sense at
all. Site finished is finished on-site (thank you Captain Obvious!), so
there are seamless coatings over the entire surface. Engineered boards
if they start to move on you, even a little bit, show a bit of the
rough/cut ends.

If I had to rank them, for me - I'd pick site finished and I will pay
a premium for any home which has site-finished floors. (It was the
deciding factor in my last home search.)

I had a good quality laminate floor (wide planks) and I loved that
floor far more than my current engineered wood floor. I personally will
never again chose engineered.

But obviously different people have strongly different opinions. Which is why this is such a personal choice.

If you don't like the material, I would use as little of it as possible. You are still going to have to pay to remove it, even if it was "free" going in from the builder. If I was doing a tear out, I'd much rather be tearing out carpet than glued down engineered wood. Personally, I'd prefer a "no flooring" option instead of free flooring I didn't like or want. What a racket and a waste ... tearing out all those installed builder-chosen materials that no one wants.

"But some people appear to have a seizure when you mention "laminate", because it's not "real"....whatever the heck that means."

What it means is that one product is wood, the other is paper printed with a wood photo pattern. And in recent years with technological advances engineered hardwood can be installed that is equally scratch resistant to site finished.

So Patriceny, I definitely agree it's a personal choice and as always we all have our own opinions. However engineered hardwood is a perfectly acceptable option that in most cases compares quite favorably with site finished. That wasn't always the case but I think if you checked out today's products you might be surprised about your assumptions being no longer as valid as they might have been in years past.

Jellytoast....i totally agree. I wish builders would just build the base house and leave all the interior finishes to the homeowner. Or at least offer decent brands or several brands to choose from. I already know i will be ripping out the kitchen within a few years as the cabinets and appliances are junk.

DH thinks the floors may be ok for awhile since it's just us....no kids or pets.

Patrice....there is a laminate option...hmmm....i may ponder that. We were invited into the home of a couple who have lived there for almost three years and their wood floors looked ok and they had two dogs.

Thank you both!

Regarding ripping things out after the fact ... I am in the process of having engineered wood installed in my home now. It involved moving EVERYTHING out of the house and it will be a week before we can move everything back in. This is not something I'd want to be doing a few months or even a few years after I'd moved into a home. It's a big deal and a PITA. Just sayin'.

(FWIW, I'm happy with my choice of engineered (Mirage) wood!)

Joanie - I don't know if this will help but the house we recently moved into had Bruce engineered hardwood throughout the first floor. It was 12 years old and was in decent shape but it was blond and we wanted a darker red oak floor. The floor couldn't be refinished because it was a lower priced builder's grade.

This house is on a slab so engineered hardwood is the preferred product. Our contractor has been in the business for over 30 years and has dealt with this many times. He said he'd install another engineered floor over the existing one as long as the original floor was securely affixed to the slab. We picked a top of the line engineered hardwood from Mirage - we also have Mirage maple floors at our vacation home and they are beautiful - and expensive. With 9' ceilings we didn't have to worry about the slight increase in height and we were able to install taller baseboards too.

Decline the freebies and have site finished installed.

Maire_Cate......good to know they can go over a preexisting engineered floor. I suppose if i carpet the bedrooms now and do wood later they can lay plywood subflooring to get them the same height. It will cost at least $9,000 to do the bedrooms and it’s definitely not worth it since Shaw is not a good brand.

Cyn....doubt you can close on the house without flooring whether it’s tile, vinyl, carpet, etc....

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.

I posted on that other thread. I hated my prefinished wood floors. I was not sure that I would like laminate but bought a house a year ago that has it in two rooms. It looks great. I would do site finished if it wasnt such a hastle. but for the bedrooms we are putting in the same laminate that is downstairs. was able to track it down.

Funny Patrice- I loved the corian in my last house too and I do not like the granite in this current house :( harder to clean, feels cold and I don't like the pattern either :( )

I love laminate but then 'plastic' is not a dirty word to me. I think plastic has been an amazing invention-as was perma-prest no iron for clothes. I put laminate in every room in a sandy beach house. It was perfect 11 years later when we sold itl

I put laminate in 4 bedrooms of our Arizona house as I was afraid to put hardwood because of the dryness most of the time and humidity in the summer. I love hardwood and have it in almost every room in our Illinois house. It was site finished in the 60's and still looks beautiful. It was refinished once.

My problem with engineered is that it can only be refinished once or twice but some places cannot accept site finished or pre-finished.

Engineered fake hardwood and laminate is awful stuff. Looks terrible and wears horribly. I’d be ok if flooring manufacturers made as good of an alternative to hardwood as corian is to stone. They not. Biggest remodel expense in our house in rural California right now is rip and replace for bad carpet and laminate for the 20 year old house addition and refinishing of 1959 original oak floors. Refinishing 2000 sq ft if original good floors coating less than replacing 1000 sq ft of garbage laminate/engineered addition floors. When we are done both will be beautiful for 100 more years. Counters installed 2 years ago by last owners however are quite lovely but unnecessary marble and I would had been fine w Corian. Have to get their poor choice of cabinet match replaced. Bottom line - floors are the true foundation of your entire interior. Don’t skimp. Replacing them is painful.

My understanding is that in some places you can close on house and get COP without finished floors. I think it depends on local laws. It might be worth asking your builder if you can close without him installing the floors. If possible, he should give you a credit for the product he won't be using, but even if he doesn't at least you won't be ripping out and throwing away brand new floors.