Junkers makes a clip system for solid hardwood floors. They also only use FSC certified woods. Here is their website: http://www.junckershardwood.com/homeowners.html Good luck!

ok, this is an area where I actually know something! I sold and spec'ed hardwood for a custom shop before my mommy-life. The information you are getting here is correct. Engineered floors will give you 1-2 refinishings ON A PERFECT SUBFLOOR. One of the issues that sometimes arises if there are inconsistanies in the height of your subfloor. Because there is thinner wood wearlayer (before you get to the engineered wood) there is the chance that you can damage the floor irreparably when you sand it. Now I only saw this saw this happen twice, once on a loft job and once in an older home. The loft was more subtle as it was over concrete, the old house more obvious as they were DIYers and picked engineered flooring to try to negate their irregular subfloor (they neglected to tell us that that was why they chose engineered, we would have talked them out of it had we seen the floor first) Neither of their claims to the manufacturer were fully settled because both times they did not follow the guidelines for floor prep. The loft job was also a materials only job for us with their GC laying the floors but he insisted he knew what he was doing. A good engineered floor will not be cheaper than most of your nail down options because the production costs are higher. Now having said that, GOOD engineered floors certainly have their place in places where you can't put traditional hardwood due to height restrictions or concrete subfloors. My boss had a great engineered floor in his basement and it survived a flood remarkably well (it was ash, Kahrs brand out of Scandinavia and one of the beefier engineered floors and one of the pioneers) My Grandmother also had a Kahrs floor in her ground suite condo and she LOVED it and I was impressed by the milling. I'm considering it for our basement because it's warmer and less echo-y than laminate There has been a lot of 2nd rate engineered flooring coming out of China and being labeled for all sorts of different companies. You should be able to tell an engineered sample because the layers are sandwiched together and the tongue will be a different wood than the top (showing) layer. Distressed finishes are usually more expensive because of the extra step in manufacturing to make it distressed. That is different than just getting a lower grade of hardwood like a rustic or tavern grade (in solid hardwood). Those grades have more character but they often don't carry a warranty and generally have a higher waste percentage. Another thing to think about---if you ever have to replace part of the floor, you will always be able to replicate 3/4" thick hardwood but engineered floors are more like tile, they change and get discontinued over the years. You could go pre-finished, save the hassle of site finishing but with the thicker wear-layer a 3/4" nail down floor offers. Only you will know if you can handle beveling or not. The changes in milling the last 10 years are huge. The bevel in your better milled wood is tiny. I like Canadian mills, Model or Mirage for pre-finished. Remember that if you ever re-finish, the bevel will disappear and you will, essentially have a site finished floor. One benefit that many people don't know about? With a prefinished tongue and grooved floor you can have a good installer cut out a single board (or more) from your floor if it gets damaged which is why we did a fair bit of pre-finished in new homes since inevitably we would get call-backs at move in to repair trade damage (@#$%^ plumbers and their big wrenches!). Prefinished hardwood deals the best with shinkage and expansion issues because the finish is on individual boards. Site finished floors are more labor intensive but the materials are cheaper (apples to apples). They are what many people consider the gold standard however there are more steps and you don't always know how it's going to look until it's done. There is more chance of finish contamination and trade damage during the rest of the building process. We refinished 100 year old floors. I loved the idea that there wasn't 4 generations of carpet and crap in the landfill. Definitely a forever floor and it can usually be re-sanded for all but the very worst water damage (think entire house under water for a few days) If you are going with a wide plank, keep in mind your species and humidity level (and your ability to keep humidity stable). The wider the plank (with 3/4" thick flooring), the more obvious shrinking and expanding will be. If you take a 2" wide board and it shrinks 2%, it isn't very noticeable. If you take a 6" wide board and it shrinks 2% the gaping will be more noticeable and in the case of a site finished floor *could* pull your finish apart. You'll need to find a flooring contractor in your area with lots of experience. Most of the best hardwood shops ONLY do hardwood. Beware of carpet shops and many of the big box stores in many instances. Make sure they are accredited with the NWFA (national wood flooring association) http://www.nwfa.org/member/ good luck!

Well, If it's just to get the house sold, engineered wood might be good. I just never want to live with it again. The seams between planks weren't tight (with the floating click floor) and the edges were slightly beveled, so crumbs and dirt would get stuck in there. If they weren't completely flush next to each other, our dog's claws hooked the edge of a planks and they got tiny chips. We had to kind of baby it and catch every drop of liquid right away; around the sink/dishwasher area the wood grain kind of raised because of the moisture in that area, also near the fridge's water dispenser and the dog's area. A few of my friends have similar wood floors (I think one is glued though) and we all chose to keep old dishtowels on the floor at the ready for quick drips. I'm not the average buyer. In our present whole house renovation I'm choosing finishes that are easy to maintain and durable. If I could have a house I could just hose down, I'd be happy :-) Your realtor is probably your best advisor regarding what your target buyer wants. I have the perspective of what 7 year old floating engineered floor looks like, not the average buyer that will swoon over your new wood floors :-)

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.