Engineered hardwood is all wood. It differs from traditional hardwood in that its layers are laid at right angles. This makes the hardwood more resistant to warping (when installed over radiant floor heating, for example). It is more expensive than hardwood. Unlike traditional hardwood, it can only be refinished 2-3 times. Laminate floor is made of synthetic (or a combo of natural and synthetic) materials. There is a glued on layer (or layers) that provides the "look" of wood or stone. The "Bruce" or "Armstrong" brand make a high quality engineered and laminate flooring.

HISTORY: New construction in 2001. Florida home, concrete slab. Cork in kitchen, nook, which flows into family room, to a small back vestibule that leads to garage, back door, and half bath. PROBLEMS: 1)Family room has three floor electrical outlets, which I think at the time they laid the cork floor, not the best job of carving around the outlets. Bummer is we never ended up using the outlets (like for a table lamp in the center of the room). It feels hollow under the outlets, but friends tell me it is no big deal, either aesthetically or otherwise. 2) Hurricanes in 2004: Who knew at the time that the back door in that vestibule was not well protected by exterior gutters and that area would take a pounding of rain, thus coming over the door jamb, and you guessed it, getting under the floor in that area. Now it is woefully peeled up, such that I must remove at least that area, and probably put down tile in the vestible and adjacent bath for continuity. It is lifting as well, by the kitchen door, right at the jamb, where it took some moisture, and I'm thinking of putting a half round of tile there too, for water protection. 3) PARAKEETS!!!!! Yes, I have two delightful parakeets who like to play on the floor in the nook, near their birdcage. Well, those little critters I now see, found an area of cork that they began to nibble on, and sure enough, the top veneer is gone in about a nickel size area. I also found that over where the cork meets the baseboard, they have been nibbling away. POSSIBLE REMEDY: Now that I see several problems, rather than patch the damage by the hurricanes with a carve out of tile by both front and back doors, I'm thinking seriously of tearing out the entire floor...this is a pretty large area, but geeze, I have the back end, the front end, and the outlets in the middle that are steering me to make such a costly decision. COMPLICATING FACTOR: Part of all that cork floor meets the dining room, which is tile. There is a threshold or maybe you call it a transom....2" wide strip of ceramic that separates the two types of floor. That is fine, BUT if I choose to tile where my cork is, I can not find the same tile now, as in the dining room, so that will look STUPID to have two obviously different tiles right next to one another. Plus, I have enjoyed the comfort of cork. Maybe I should rip all the cork out, put tile at the potentially wet doors, and then put hardwood down, which would look fine next to the dining room tiles, and I could take out the stupid floor outlets, or get a good installer who will do a good job around them for the next person who lives here and could use them. Maybe I should just plan on doing the carve outs and ignore the parakeet damage and the outlets? I hate to get rid of the cork, but I think I might make the floor too chopped up looking with little half moons of tile at the doors....maybe I should do a decorative medallion of some type at the doors in tile, and, you see, this is a big problem of several little ones, and I need your advice. Can you offer ideas on floors, that can butt up to tile, and how to protect the wet areas that sometimes occur. I will say that my cork around my sink and food prep and dishwasher areas, which sometimes gets some droplets from me, is perfectly fine, but I can see my spills and wipe them right away. Cork is under the fridge, which is a built in SZ, that I dare not pull out, so cork will have to stay there for sure. I do not believe the cork is under the kitchen cabinets. The storm damage occurred slowly over time. I must deal with it some day soon at that back door for sure. Maybe there is mold under that back door area too. Looks kinda dark where it lifted. Also, I may plan to sell this house in 5 years or so, so I would want something appealing to a future buyer...read: something routine and neutral. OK I'm done. Thanks for reading and please offer me some advice! Acey

Marti - we have floating engineered hardwood over slab. Can you get anyone to see of you have any old plumbing buried in the slab that is leaking? This is be of the things we did. We had floating engineer wood from Summitt Forest Products. It had a nice handscraped look and none believes me when I say they are engineered. They don't look site finished but do not look like Pergo either. We had it glued near transitions to tile etc. Looks like you are stuck in analysis paralysis. Consider delegating this decision to another person who will just research and get it done and then you can move on to other things. I found that in our remodel, DH and I needed to delegate to one another a few times to take a break and get some distance. Good luck!

I have had a Pergo floating floor in my kitchen for 12 years - it is wonderful - easy to clean, soft and warm to walk on, if you drop a glass or dish , they don't break. Looks amazing, people always comment on it when they see my kitchen - looks like marble/stone. When we built this house, the floors were installed before the kitchen cabinets - just make sure whoever is doing the "strapping" that goes underneath the floor knows what they are doing - I used Avenue Interiors in Toronto and they were, and still are, experts. Never had a problem with the cabinets buckling or anything else. Would never do a "hard" floor surface again.