You can get an engineered floor that is as good if not better than a solid product. We produce solid unfinished flooring but we also produce unfinished engineered flooring as well. Solid flooring typically has a 1/4" (6mm) of "sandable" or "usable" surface. Basically after you get 1/4" deep you'll hit the nail heads and so you can't sand below that point. Our engineered unfinished product has a 5mm wear layer. However, the engineered product is already pre-sanded to 80g which means once installed the amount of sanding that takes place is minimal. On a solid floor, most contractors will need to do a rough sanding to get the floor even, then one or two more cuts to get it smooth. Even if you have a very talented sander he is going to take 1/32 off in his sanding on the solid floor. That equates to roughly 3/100 which is nearly the difference between the 6mm and 5mm usable surfaces we began with. So in essence, you are getting very close to the same "usable" surface. Not to mention the engineered is more stable, will keep you from having to install a subfloor as it can be glued directly to concrete, eliminates transition issues between hardwood and tile or carpet AND should take less time to install. My two cents. Sam @ Real Wood Floors realwoodfloors.com

kge9, Thank you so much for letting me know! I think 4" trim would look nice if it is above the floor. Right now I have almost 3.5" trim that is partially covered with the thick rug and padding so 4" not covered will look nice and wide for me. I would love it if it came primed. Maybe I can suggest if I buy it and the installer installs it to save money. I feel I can also paint the trim but not the walls. I don't have baseboard heating (wish I did) since I forced hot air heating with vents on the floor. I would love it if the quarter rounds could be skipped! How much space did you leave from the floor to the wall? I can't believe all the furniture is out of those three rooms and I can't believe how much furniture I had in those rooms. I definitely plan on just using my dehumidifier to keep some back files in my garage since I don't want to move 3 of the 5-drawer 42" wide file cabinets back into my home office rooms. I want more of my walls to show and more space to walk. kge9, any pictures of your new trim with the tinted white you planned on using.

ajsmama, your Brazilian Cherry floors are beautiful and so is your trim and steps. Thanks for sharing. The trim looks so nice since I am used to half my carpet covering my almost 3.5" trim. Laurie, That price sounds great and the height and width sounds perfect. I will have to look into this since I want my baseboard to be self-primed. My floors are now totally bare. My brother owed me and he finally decided to help me out by removing the carpet, pad, tackless, and trim (he labeled the trim to save but it is not in the best of shape). He left the trim and quarter rounds on the Porcelain tile foyer areas and told me the flooring guy will have to decide what to do with that since my brother sells, repairs and installs carpet for a living. He removed all the bad CVT tile in the utility room so someone can install tile that was not water damaged and cracking. He left the destroyed trim there that is so water damaged. The flooring guy can't come by until Thursday. I have to try to clean the floor again since it was SO dirty. I got all the nails off the floor and one layer of dust, plaster and dirt and the little Styrofoam balls that must have fell from the ceiling and were under the padding under the carpet from 20 years ago! I swept so now tomorrow I will vacuum. I hope a painter can start before the floor is installed. Squirrel, I agree with you that I invested so much money into a new floor that I also feel I would be happier with new taller trim or at least new trim. Thank you everyone! Anymore input and/or pictures would be appreciated. Thanks for being there for me. My little dogs are in my bedroom with me since that is where my computer is now. I can't work and I need to work. I ran out of toner and all my files are downstairs in the hot garage. I really wish someone would start my floor first before the painting since the dogs and me are all stressed out seeing the ugly cement floor everywhere downstairs. I wish I was also removing the torn linoleum kitchen floor but that is a project for next year, along with a new dishwasher since mine is almost 20 years old and leaks and does not match my stainless steel French Door refrigerator.

That is a pretty rug! I’m thinking of changing out most of my previous furniture since I had a lot of old world looking things that don’t look well with the rustic...maybe a more transitional, restoration hardware look. The floor is by Villa Blanca and is Andalucia color. It has a 6mm top layer and is fumed white French oak. Every batch they get is different tho due to the fuming. Mine turned out a bit darker and more brown that most other batches...and unfortunately in my view, more knots, but I like it in general.