What to Know Before You Buy

Where do you plan to use it?

• Kitchen and entryway: Choose a hard wood, such as oak or hickory, which can handle heavy foot traffic better than a soft pine.
   
• Bedroom and home office: Rooms off the beaten path are good locations for softer woods, such as black cherry or black walnut.
   
• Basement: Avoid using solid-wood flooring below grade, where high humidity prevails. An engineered wood floor is a better option here because it's more stable.
   
• Bathroom: Water can warp wood, making it a poor choice for baths with tubs and showers.

What's it going over?

• Plywood subfloor: As long as it's solid and flat, you can install any type of nail-or glue-down hardwood, as well as click-together engineered strip or cork plank floating floors.
   
• Existing wood floor: Thinner boards with long-wearing factory-applied finishes are better here to ensure safe, no-trip transitions to adjacent rooms, hallways, and stairways.
   
• Concrete slab or tile: Nails aren't an option. Consider a click-together floating floor or one that can be glued down.
   
• Radiant floor: Engineered flooring is ideal because it's thinner and more stable than most solid wood.