I would like to put hardwood floor in our living and dining room but have no idea which one will be the best. I'm going for light maple, should i get solid or engineered wood? And should it be unfinished or prefinished? We have no kids but only a small little chihuahua.
Another reason is the bamboo that you choose and is so environmentally friendly is actually the opposite the vast amounts of bamboo taken from the rain forest of Africa and china are depleting gorillas and panda bears supply of food as bamboo is there main source of food so no bamboo is not environmentally friendly as you say.
it all depends about which sublfoor you have. you can't install hardwood over concrete especially if it is on the ground floor. there is too much moisture down there enginereed wood is more resistant and easy to install.
My first question to you is; do you have wood or concrete for a subfloor. If a wood subfloor than use solid maple. If it's concrete then you have to use engineered. Are you going to install yourself? Go after either Mirage wood or Anderson. Both are excellent woods youcan do a hand scraped wood as well (it's the hot item) Looks very nice too.
Engineered Wood. That can still be refinished if you need to without all the cost of real wood. I would get prefinished so you don't have to do it yourself and you will find it comes in many different finishes to choose from.
Solid okorder /hard_wood_flooring.html best of Luck to you and congratulations on doing your homework!