Solid hardwood is milled straight from the tree. It is solid throughout (like a 2"x4" is). Engineered is like plywood, but made out of the type of wood that is advertised. Engineered Wood Flooring has roughly twice the dimensional stability with changes in climate (moisture and temp), and will expand and contract aboput half as much a solid wood flooring. Solid wood flooring can be refinished many many times. Engineered wood flooring has limited thickness to be sanded and refinished. If going with engineered and you are looking to the future for refinishing, I recommend a very hard wood to limit wear and denting. The Janka Wood Hardness Test is one of the best measures of a wood species ability to resist denting and wear, however, at some point a wood species choice may become harder than the finish going on it. This can prevent future sandings needed if it ever needs refinished, so a harder wood may be able to be screened and refinished saving time and money from sanding becasue of its hardness, where a softer wood that is worn and dented might need a resanding PLUS rerfinishing. Here is a janka hardwood list then you can reference that with the products you wish to view/buy Hardwood Flooring Wood Hardness Scale prefinished hardwood does not require sanding. Site finished does. Mowhawks hardwoods are prefinished so they do not require site finishing to be installed. However, some years down the road you may with to have them refinished If no retailers around you have felt led tips, get your felt at an arts and crafts store, rag shop, or sewing shop and cut your own.

I am so new here and am not sure where to post my question -- maybe you can help. Another question about Aladdin Silk at Home Depot-- I brought samples home and on the samples is written "Mohawk smartStrand BCF 3GT polyester with Dupont Sorona". I guess I am confused since I interpreted a prior post on another thread to mean that Aladdin was made with the Canadian PTT SmartStrand which wasn't Sorona. Does is make any difference in real life?? Also --Does anyone know the relative DENSITY between Aladdin Silk, Command I and II, and the Organic Luxury line? How would one judge quality between the lines? Thank you, Thank you soooooo much!

With over 37 years cleaning carpets professionaly, I have found that the only fiber the stands the test of time well is Nylon. Polyester and all of the other "Smart Fibers" do not wear well at all. It's very uncommon to find a 10 year old non nylon carpet that looks decent after cleaning. It's very common to find a 30 year old Nylon that looks like new after cleaning. .. Nylon is about 25% more expensive but it's well worth it. The major advantage to non nylon is that it's more difficult to permanently affect the color due to bleaches or dyes. Personally I'd pay 200% more to have Nylon.

I would love to hear any responses to this as well. All of the bad reviews I have read are from before they released their “forever clean” and “all pet” carpet a few years back. I’m interested to see how significant that difference is!