re: Engineered Wood vs. "Wood" Tile Floors

Glue down bamboo direct on slab is fantastic.

No issues. Looks great.

I currently work at Lowe's in the flooring department and I also worked at home depot in their flooring department, my title is flooring specialist.

The wood look tiles are very popular at the moment. They are a grade 1 porcelain tile that cost $1.49 - 3.50 s.f.

Home depot charges 3.59 s.f labor

Lowe's charges a little less but their materials are more expensive.

Ask me anything you want to know about either store or about flooring and I can answer your question.

Vinyl is very expensive because the cost of material. HD installs it for 1.49 s.f.

Most vinyl cost around 2.49 and up

If you guys want new flooring the best thing to do is purchase the materials yourself and find a handyman to put It in. Most of the time they charge around 2.00 a sq.ft. to install and don't hit you with the ticky tack stuff like furniture moving and demo work, haul away, and won't upcharge you for a staggered design. They can usually install it quicker too. Just make sure you hand select all your materials.

Lots of bad information in this thread.

A quality engineered hardwood floor in s the way to go in our climate. If you don't mind the look and feel of the tile, that's fine.

Don't even consider bamboo.
Vinyl plank has a tendency to sun-fade much quicker than other floors.
Nail down is OK, but if your slab wasn't set for that originally, it's a mess to do it later.

Engineered wood floors are REAL WOOD! They are made for southern states and the moisture issues we encounter DAILY. If you go with engineered wood floors go with a hickory/pecan hand scraped. That way if it does scratch you can get a stain pen or sharpie depending on color and blend it with the character of your scraped floor. Hickory/pecan are hardest American species. You could also go with an exotic wood, but it would be more money. Installation is around $2.50+a sf not including floor prep if your slab has major imperfections. Wood floors are natural, warm, have unique characteristics, don't have pattern repeats, etc. Wood will scratch easier than tile especially if you go with a birch, elm, eucalyptus. (Cheap) wood is also susceptible to water damage where the tile isn't. I personally would stay away from bamboo.

Wood look tile is popular as well right now. Labor is about $2.50-3.00sf plus floor prep, plus sealing grout. Tile has come a long way in the past 5 years. They have some very realistic wood looks you almost have to touch to see if it is wood or not. However tile is cold, hard, has pattern repeats, and can crack if house settles or if something gets dropped on it. Contrary to popular belief you can scratch tile or any floor for that matter.

Flooring isn't something you should skimp on. It is the most used and abused surface in your entire house. Hope this helps.

Just don't expect anything to give you the look and feel of solid wood planks installed by a craftsman. I have a large area of flooring in my house that is pushing 90 year old pine planks and it is beautiful, in other parts of my house we have recently installed reclaimed pine flooring stained to match. Over the years it all gets scratched from the dog, walking on it, etc, but its still a beautiful real wood floor, beats the pants off of anything else. Not cheap, and the company that installed it in is an exceptional outfit. It will last and maintain its characteristics for a long time to come.

In my previous house, we had the engineered stuff that at about 12 years old, just looked crappy, so if you go with the engineered stuff, make sure someone directs you to some high-quality product.

We have that "wood" ceramic tile in an upstairs spare-room bathroom that I almost never have to see, and it nowhere near approximates the beauty and foot-feel of the real thing. Of course part of that has to do with the fact that my house is pier and beam construction and we have subfloors, etc. that plays a big part in how the wood floor feels under foot, but point is, in my opinion, the ceramic stuff is just ceramic tile that doesn't fool anyone, and doesn't feel good under foot.