I’ve been living with my mirage Nordic white floors since February. They scratch, especially in the kitchen and there is an occasional dent but I have to get down on the floor to see them. The other areas of the house have far fewer dents/scratches so, clearly, we live harder in the kitchen. Even in the kitchen, the only time I notice the scratches is when I’m cleaning up spills. Our last house had 200 year-Old heart pine floors with a satin finish poly and they dented/scratched. Ironically, the least scratches we’ve ever had on wood was a new white oak floor that we used a penetrating oil stain finish (no poly or other top coat) and it still looks perfect two years later. And dirt and dust don’t show on it as there is zero sheen. So it’s the finish that scratches but I realize not everyone wants a wood floor without a top coat (and in the house where we used the oil stain on wood, the floor in the kitchen is limestone). I would imagine less sheen equals fewer scratches. But on my Nordic white maple floors, it’s really not noticeable. Of course, I have marble counters too so, clearly, imperfections don’t bother me! Hope this helps.

A high quality engineered floor will have the same or longer wear life as a solid wood floor. This isn't usually a big deal in residential as you are talking at least 45 years of life... Engineered wood flooring can cope with changes in moisture better than a solid wood floor, but if you have a good HVAC system and monitor the humidity in your home, both will be fine. Solid wood floors are not recommended below grade, for example in the basement. Our standard 5/8" thick engineered floor will give you 3-4 sand and refinishes. This floor can be glued to the slab and will line up with carpet and most tiles. This means you don't have to drop the slab (money saver!) or use transition pieces. Some areas where it is very dry have had issues with the thicker engineered floors (3/4" with 6mm wear layer) as the plywood base dries out at a different rate to the wear layer. One of our clients (Flooring installer) in Arizona is replacing engineered with solid as it handles that climate better. Since it sounds like you are doing a remodel, you are probably best to go with an engineered floor. A 5/8" thick engineered wood floor from our company has a 4mm wear layer and will give you 3-4 sand and refinishes. This you can glue to the slab and will take up around the same amount of thickness as the travertine did. This means you will not have to replace the trim, cut off the bottoms of doors etc. Typically a solid wood floor is installed on a plywood sub-floor. On a new build the slab would be dropped on those areas to allow for the extra thickness. A quality engineered wood floor is not inferior to a solid wood floor in anyway. Once it is installed you will not be able to tell the difference. If you have further questions, feel free to reach out! We are only a email or a phone call away -- debbie@woodco.com // (210) 298-9663 Keep safe! -- Debbie George | WoodCo www.woodco.com

I installed DuChateau (Riverstone Collection in color Sava) in January 2022. We have been very happy with the floors and they have outperformed any expectations I had and worn much better than the site finished floors I owned before. We have 2 adults, 2 large dogs and 1 small dog in the house. This morning my husband saw a dried blob of vomit on the wood floors. Our small older dog had vomited in the guest bedroom, but I don't know when it happened. I grabbed some damp paper towels, let it sit on the vomit for a few minutes to soften it up and it wiped right up. No stains or any marks on the floors. The larger dogs drool on the floors regularly and there are no stains from the drool. I wouldn't hesitate to use this particular DuChateau floor again.

I had tile in my last home and moved to a home with carpet everywhere but the kitchen (yes, even the bathrooms had carpet (yuk)). After 20 years my joints could not withstand the impact of living on tile floors. Choices were to replace the carpet with Carpet - It is soft and quiet. It gets dirty and is hard to get clean. Muddy paws from an active puppy while delandscaping the yard was a nightmare. Hardwood - much more expensive - harder than tile or LVT to maintain, would require purchase of area carpets to protect. LVT - cost efficient - low maintenance, limited lifespan (20 years ish) I'm 59 - 20 years I won't be able to see what it looks like. Can add area carpets for aesthetics, but can eliminate the trip hazards of area carpets as I age in place. Engineered hardwood seemed to have the same cons as hardwood, but cannot be refinished over and over again - thin layer of wood. I decided to replace the carpet with LVT, I am doing one room at a time as I renovate, but am very happy with my choice. I bought Downs H20 from Cloister's Flooring America. It is waterproof and is manufactured by Coretech for the CCA Family of flooring companies. Same product, different name at each company website. Different price at each store (store not company level, two different Flooring America franchises had 2 different prices). Difference from highest price to lowest price was a difference of $2.00 per sq ft - I was covering 2000 sf, so this was a substantial savings. I loved the franchise I picked - Cloister's Flooring America. Other franchises really pushed the professional install - Cloister's seems to cater to the DYI folks (Owned by a Mennonite family). For $75.00 they send one of their installers out for 2 hours to teach you how to lay the flooring and they will rent you a tool kits that has everything you need to lay your floors. I bought one box of each of two colors and could exchange the one I didn't pick when placing my full order. I also got an additional $500 off because I hadn't placed my order yet and they called because they were having an anniversary sale. I hadn't called because I had a heart attack and was in the hospital when I got the call. They gave me the $500 off and told me I could call when I was home and feeling up to ordering even though the sale was just for the week. They even helped me with the layout plan. Told me to use graph paper and tracing paper. I drew out my floor plan on graph paper and traced the outline of the flooring pattern on the tracing paper. You place the tracing paper over the floor plan and move it around until you have a placement that doesn't leave you with little 2" strips anywhere. You do have to be exacting in your measurement and drawing of the floor plan and lay out enough pieces to get exact measurements for your tracing. I didn't find this method on the internet anywhere - most have you plan from the center of the room, but this worked out really well for me.