Okay, in a former home we had Bruce Hardwood flooring, 3/4 inch oak. We had it sanded and refinished when there was water damage done and it looked pretty good. We went with the natural color of the wood, so scratches were not obvious. In our present home we were told we could not put "real" wood down in our basement since we could not hammer into the concrete (without costing a fortune and taking forever), so we had Luan laminate flooring installed. It looks beautiful and supposedly will last longer than our hardwood oak in the kitchen.... The kitchen wood needs to be refinished now, but I'm waiting until it looks really bad to convince my husband to switch to the laminate...
I used to be a "real" wood snob, but have seen the light. The "luan" brand I believe is manufactured in Canada. It is expensive, but looks beautiful...I picked the Hickory for wonderful shade variation.....would replace every carpeted room with this if I had the $$$$$s....
