We put in an engineered hickory floor by Hallmark Hardwoods and I cannot say enough good things about this floor. It takes a lot of abuse as it is at all the entries, the kitchen, the dining, the living room, etc.... We live in WI, which has harsh weather and sloppy winters. All kinds of stuff is dragged onto this floor. Add on my three sons who throw and drop and drag things all over the place, along with their friends. The installer said he was impressed that nearly every board was good, with few warped or damaged boards and plenty of long ones. Eighteen months into owning this floor and it looks better than ever. Specs say I can sand it up to three times. We compromised on this floor because it had the thickest layer of wood and the best flooring store in the area said they will not sell wide planks in solid hickory.

All wood flooring (and your cabinets, doors, frames, paint, drywall, etc) have these types of requirements. The "range" is up to the individual manufacturer to specify. I've seen bamboo that has the narrowest requirement of 45%-60%....for good reason. The GLUE that holds bamboo together is RIGID whereas the grass (bamboo is grass) is ABSORPTIVE so it MOVES. Engineered hardwoods are more specific because the layers create layers of glue...and glue acts and reacts DIFFERENTLY from the wood layers. If one expands but the other does not, you get DELAMINATION. The companies have tested their specifications under laboratory conditions and have found the BIGGEST window for "success" with their floors. They have then written those down. As for solid wood floors in old homes, remember this: the wood floors CUPPED and/or CROWNED and/or SEPARATED early on in the life of the floor. It could have taken more than a DECADE for the home to find it's equilibrium. The original owners SIMPLY PUT UP WITH IT (imagine having to 'put up' with crowned floors for 10 years...today's consumer REFUSES to accept this....so we have warranty requirements now that SPECIFY the 'happy place' for each wood product). Once the first sand/refinish occured (25 years later) the "problem" (the visual issues) with the wood were sanded away. One generation later, it looks GREAT. But no one took selfies of the floors in the '60's. And the cuts and widths were different (there is a BIG reason why 2" strip hardwood was sooooooo popular....and it wasn't because it looked good). And the wood was often sourced (and dried/racked) from local mills. And it sat longer on site before it was installed, and, and, and, and....you get the idea.

I'm still looking and getting closer. We will have geothermal and humidifier We installed Mannington Engineered 5" in our current home in 2000-2001 ourselves...It still looks good...[kitchen hall powder great room]. I'm willing to do varying widths. The hard part is getting it longer than 4' average lengths in the price and >3/8". I think it is possible. We are again installing ourselves so this is material only. We need close to 2200 SF [we are doing all main level except guest bathroom, and also doing stairs and upstairs hallway]....

@Trish Walter Wow, they are gorgeous! I love the amount of character and color and the plank width. I ordered several samples of the Hurst Hardwoods Engineered French Oak, but the colors were way off from what was represented on the website pictures. I mean way off, like a completely different color...a grey rather than a brown. And what were supposed to be four very different colors all looked almost exactly the same. I didn't ask for Riverstone, but maybe I will talk with them about getting a few more samples and see if anything works. My husband is doing the install, too, to save money. I don't want to get the HH unfinished and have him also have to do the staining and finishing on top of installing. Thanks so much for sharing the info and the pictures. Enjoy your beautiful floors!