I had site finished red oak in my 3 previous houses and was pretty happy with it. In house #3 we had 3 dogs and they did scratch up the floor a bit. Those were coated with poly.

Current house (#4), built 2021, is on a slab so we needed to use engineered. I picked a medium brown with some distressing and it works really well to camouflage any scratches and dents. For the engineered floor I went with a hard wax oil finish and I really like it so far.

The combination of the engineered hard wax finish and some distressing, so far is much more durable than the site finished smooth poly in the 3 other houses.

What is underneath the wood floor? Cement? Plywood? ???

How many mm is the engineered wood?

If, you do not have moisture issues, use solid wood flooring. The wear layer is much thicker compared to most engineered flooring.

First where the floor is going is it a concrete slab or wood framing with subfloor.? Then I am curious about the 1/2 person . You do not have pets so less of a worry and what is the price difference and is this your "forever" home ?

@Patricia Colwell Consulting it's going on concrete so would need a plywood subfloor for real wood. 1/2 person is my bonus daughter who joins us two weeks on/two weeks off. She's 10 so she's past the toys age.

This is our forever home.

Price difference depends on what engineered wood I get. If I do the Malibu Wide Plank 9/16" 3mm veneer, it's $6 a foot for materials and about $10 with install. There's another beautiful engineered wood that's 9/16" and 4mm veneer but almost $10/ft for just material so I don't think that's worth it once you add install.

Real wood is $11/ft end to end including subfloor.

For me, hands down site finished hardwoods. I’ve had both and if cost is not an issue, go with the real thing. Even in different climates- I’ve had in New England, Texas, California and Chicago. It has always looked classic and held up well.

To do real wood on concrete involves a substantial process that does NOT include applying any plywood to the slab. You have to treat the slab with a roll on moisture barrier, test it, and only then can you glue to the slab. Putting plywood down on a slab is a quick way to have a rotten subfloor and rotten floor. Your flooring installer is disqualified right now. Not to mention that he is too cheap by far.

For wide plank, engineered is FAR more stable. A good brand of engineered has as much of a wear layer as does solid wood. Find a different installer. Find a better brand of engineered wood.

I would vote for engineered, especially on a slab. I’ve had solid wood plank finished in place in a few homes. The engineered I currently have has held up much better. The factory finish is just better. We have two dogs and two older kids and none of us are particularly careful with the floors. I don’t notice any issues with the engineered after six years. In our other houses we had to have the floors buffed and recoated about every 5 years. I also prefer the look of my current (engineered) floors. My mom has had engineered floors for 10 years with an enormous dog - they still look brand new.

On concrete I would only use engineered wood.

What was the flood from? What state are you in? if you are in a flood zone or in a subterranean termite state, the I highly suggest you look at LVP, luxury vinyl plank flooring. I would never use wood on a slab in a termite area.

Another option, not mention (and usually more expensive), is site finished engineered floors. Unfinished engineered wood floors get installed and are then stained/finished on site, so you get that continuous poly layer that some people like

Plenty of options available to get the right product for your location and family.

And no micro bevels will be present with unfinished, unlike prefinished engineered floors. It's typically out of the price range for many once it's all over with, but wowza!

3/4" unfinished engineered. American made

Here's a 7 1/4" clear White Oak stained and finished in Stone Mountain, GA

I’m curious about the site finished engineered - I’ve heard one of the advantages of engineered can be that it can have a more durable coating applied at factory. Is this true? If so, do you lose that advantage if you do site finished?

Mirage brand hardwood

Engineered is the only real option on slab. It is also the better option for most installs in the US. Good engineered is as good as solid.

Unfinished engineered floors all day long. 3/4" thick, not 1/2 or 3/8".

Cheaper and better to go directly onto slab with engineered versus installing a sub and water proofing afterwards.

Thank you all for your responses! We decided to go Engineered. We're deciding between the Alston Bora Plus Oak that's a European Oak stained in a beautiful oil based finish with 4mm wear layer

https://www.alstonflooring.com/boraplus-oak/

Or unfinished Engineered white oak by a brand called Beasley

So we went with real white oak floors because the concrete sits on the main level. I’m so happy with this decision!

Now I’m deciding on baseboards and between these two:

5 1/4 ogee with a bit more detail

4 1/4 with less detail

What’s your vote or do you have another suggestion?

I like the style of the first one, and also the fact that it is primed pine. I like the style and height of the second one, but, dont like that it is primed fiberboard. I know its used a lot now, and its probably fine, but, I have had both, and I prefer the pine.

For baseboards? How high are you ceilings? I prefer taller ones in most cases. However if everything will be painted the same color you may not notice the height.

Ceilings are 9’, 10’ and 22’

8” would cover the 7% rule for your 9’ and 10’ rooms (7% x 108” = 7.56”; x 120” = 8.4”). I would choose one height for the whole home. Of course 8” baseboards are more expensive than the standard ones, so make sure your budget will cover it. Style will depend on the style of your home.

Thank you! I didn’t know about this rule

Does anyone have a suggestion for stain? I want to stay natural or light but not sure how to make a custom stain.

My house has 10.25” ceilings on the first floor and 9’ ceilings on the second floor, my baseboards are 8.25” tall and the proportion looks good. While you don’t want to go too big, you really want to avoid them looking skimpy. The profile you choose should go with the style of the house.

Also, your floors are great! I put hardwood floors (finished on site)on a slab in Florida. For twenty years they have held up to kids, ride on toys, cats, dogs, water spills, you name it, and they look wonderful. I think they were the best decision I made for the house. And if anything does happen to them, they can be refinished, (again and again).

You will need to test stains to see how they look with your wood. Your floor installer should be able to mix a custom stain if necessary, but they may have so many to choose from you don’t need a custom color. Do you have inspiration pics you can show the finisher? You definitely want to test with your wood in your space (and lighting conditions). White oak is pretty in its natural state, but it depends on the look you want. We have very dark white oak in our house (it’s what my husband and I could agree on - I preferred light), but it needs to be cleaned more frequently because everything shows on it.

Where do I find tall baseboards?

Hi Shazia, you could do a quick internet search for baseboard of the approximate size you want in your area and see who carries it. Lumber companies, flooring stores, workshops that specialize in millwork and trim would be typical places. I don’t think it will be too hard to source. A millwork company will probably have samples of the various sizes and profiles on display, which is nice.

You don’t have to buy stock moulding. You could get just plain wood that is 8” (will likely be 7 1/2”) and add a profile (or 2) that you like. It’s usually cheaper to do this and many finish carpenters who install it will do this instead of buying the stock pieces. It’s pretty common where I live for people to just install 8” pieces with no ornamentation at all. Mine just has a chamfered top, otherwise plain.

" Where do I find tall baseboards? "

Real lumberyard.

Also get wood for the baseboards. I wish I had.

Time for voting!! Which one do you like?

Country white with Bona classic
Bona Natural
Bona Classic
Bona Nordic

And if you have any other suggestions, please share! Style is light, airy, coastal with a bit of glam. White shaker cabs with large white oak island and white stone counters, champagne bronze fixtures

This should work

@G & S Floor Service (or anyone who wants to weigh in) - quick question! we did solid 4" #1 white oak flooring and after samples are doing the following combo for staining:

2 coats Nordic Seal

1 coat Traffic HD

We are low traffic, no shoes, no pets, no littles in our house household.

Is this combo ok? Another flooring company said we must put Mega One between Nordic Seal and Traffic HD but our flooring person didn't mention this. I want to trust his work but learned it's better to check.

They started the process today so appreciate your help on this! THANK YOU!

Two coats of poly minimum. Use two coats of HD. have your guy read tge bottle and ubderstand it

On white oak, I used Bona Classic Sealer plus two coats of Bona Mega Satin. I also used Bona Dri-Fast Natural Stain but I think the floors would have been a bit lighter without the stain and should have skipped it.

I used simple 1/2 in. x 4-1/4 in. x 96 in. MDF Primed Baseboard Moulding which is also available in 5-1/2" height. I bought wood moulding for the bathrooms where I didn't want to use MDF but I had to order it from a lumber yard. The old baseboards had shoe moulding (blecch) and were shaped like this which I thought they were too fussy.

They’re doing two coats of Traffic HD, thx!

How did they turn out ?