I have engineered wood floors in most of the downstairs of my house including kitchen. I have lived in it for 18 years and it still looks pretty good except for a few high traffic areas. One time my washing machine flooded the floor in the breakfast room and there was no permanent damage. It is Harris Tarkett Engineered Hardwood. I am working on refinishing it now. It is definitely not as good looking as solid wood but you have to know what to look for to spot the difference.

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I likely wont install engineered hardwood again - at least not while i still have kids in the house. I'll either decide that its worth going for real wood, or go with laminate if i ever have to do it again.

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Very interesting. We have laminate right now, but will be replacing soon (due to flood damage). I dislike the laminate (previous owner installed it) – it chips and scratches easily (IMO - I don't have anything to compare to though), and seems very thin/flexible. However, we have a 2.5 year old and spills are a daily occurrence. Do you know if there are "high quality" laminate options?

unless you're buying engineered hardwoods made from tightly compacted Chinese newspaper, you shouldn't have a problem with spills (as long as you clean it up quickly).

Ive been reading more, and they make it sound like locking floors are pretty standard these days, and replacing certain areas is possible, you just may havr to take up a whole room worth of floor to do it, then replace the pieces and re- lay the floor. This is for a floating floor on some underlay material, not glued or nailed.

mine were glue down so I don't think changing out small sections would be a realistic option.

We are now leaning to a nail down traditional hardwood. Is nail down as good as glued down? Worse?

Personal opinion.

There will be more pops and squeaks with a nail down, but you can also remove it, remodel and replace pieces without scraping **** off of a slab.