My wife and I are looking to install wood flooring of a concrete subfloor in South Florida. It's a one level ranch style house with no basement but plenty of ambient humidity due to the climate. My internet research had led me to believe that engineered wood was the way to go and that it would hold up better to the humidity, however, my wife had a professional installer come out today and he basically said that engineered was worse in a humid environment, that the wood layer on top could separate from the base, and that we should install solid hardwood flooring. This advice seems contrary to what I've read so now I'm more confused than ever. Can someone provide some guidance on the best type of flooring for a high humidity environment like this? Is solid wood a viable option? Thank you in advance for your replies.

Howdy mjguflaw, here is a recent article on the subject.


http://www.fcimag.com/Articles/Article_ ... 0001148710

This is a case where both people are correct. Using an engineered floor reduces cupping problems but can introduce delaminating problems unless you choose a high quality product.

Some other solutions would be to:

1) Choose narrower boards, less width means less movement per board which makes problems less noticeable.
2) Choose wood species less susceptible to water problems such as brazillian walnut or pecan.
3) Choose quartersawn wood, would take too much time to explain why here.
4) Use Bostik Best adhesive.

If it were my house I would choose engineered flooring, but would research which are the best at resisting delamination (not a big problem here in St. Louis so I don't know this off-hand). I would then use Bostik Best to install. I would also ensure that all the drainage around my house was functioning very good, ie. downspouts plumbed to drain fields, soil graded properly away from house, etc.

I did install a brazillian walnut floor in an ocean-front house in Clearwater and it worked very nicely for them even though it was a wide plank, but it had a wood sub-floor/basement which is less risky than a slab sub-floor.

Most importantly is choosing a good contractor, which is hard in Florida, at least is what I hear. If a contractor can talk to you intelligently on the 4 points above, he is probably a good choice.

I am including a link below that goes to page that goes over the different species and give the pros/cons of using them.