On Apr 28, 10:38 pm, wrote:
We are ripping up some carpet and putting down some engineered wood
flooring (concrete slab foundation in home).

The problem is we have pets and kids and I do not want a floor that
gets overly scratched and damaged. It needs to be a very hard and
durable wood. So far, tigerwood, kempas, and Brazilian cherry seem to
be at the top of the list. The tigerwood seems to have some UV
coloration issues, but looks nice. The kempas is hard to find. The
cherry is more expensive.

Anyone have opinions on these 3 woods that might help out with my
decision?

Thanks.


You're on the right track using the engineered wood, due to the fact
that you're on a concrete slab. In order to be able to nail down 3/4"
flooring, you would have to put down 2x2 sleepers first, raising the
floor a total of 2 1/4" above the concrete slab, and it's unlikely you
would have the room to do that.

Your concern about the scratching is understandable. The newer
prefinished floors have the same type of finish as laminate flooring,
ie. they will have aluminum oxide in their finish. Does not make them
scratch proof, but it's actually better than the older urethane
finishes. (Does make them very difficult to refinish, because sand
paper is made from aluminum oxide, so they can't be mechanically
sanded down, have to be chemically sanded. As your better grade of
floors will have 25 year warranty on the finish, it's not likely
you'll ever have to deal with that.)

Laminate flooring is the most dent resistant, as it is the densest.
However, each of the wood varieties you mentioned is actually harder
than oak, and makes a great floor. A wood floor will dent (read:
acquire character). If you object to that, go look at some of the
newer laminate floors, as they will be more indentation resistant, and
the newer graphics are great, especially some of the newest Armstrong
laminates.

Tigerwood will darken with age, just like American Cherry does. This
is not considered a defect, just be aware that that will happen. I
happen to think that is one of the things that makes it beautiful.
Any one of those species will make a great floor.

Dale