I would like to remove my carpet and get a nice tough wood flooring.
The most durable - tough flooring is either maple or oak - very durable - in terms of engineered flooring - I just put in a composite flooring that had a 1/8 thick hardwood veneer on a plywood base - prefinished. It went in great. 7 wide x 84 long pieces - tongue and groove - Good luck
If you install engineered hardwood the species of wood you use will make no difference as to its durability. Engineered is always prefinished and it is the durability of the finish, and the type of installation method that you need to be concerned with. Engineered hardwood can be nailed or stapled, glued to the subfloor, glued together and floated, or simply locked together and floated with no fasteners or glue at all. Of these methods it is best to always fasten the floor down. Nail, staple, or glue the boards to the floor and you will have a much more solid feel, and the boards will be much less likely to separate. Of the floors I have seen the best looking and toughest is Br-111 exotic hardwood. It is not outrageously expensive. Armstrong also makes some good hardwood, but steer clear of some of their products such as Bruce LocknFold or other floating hardwoods.
