(I may not like the answer to this......)

Our new-to-us single story 1959 concrete slab house has polished concrete floors (otherwise known as "the top of the slab"), which means that a glue-down application would require scarring or otherwise removing the polished surface. We'd like to avoid this and my wife actually prefers the feel of a floating floor. Slab is flat. We're on a limited budget and want to get the floors installed before we move in. The main area we'd be flooring is almost 850 feet (the combo living room/dining room). Our strong preference is for strip type (3" and narrower) oak flooring, we just prefer the look.

So I'm looking at floating engineered strip floors w/ a click lock system. Any recommendations/personal experience with any of these floors? We're OK with the limitations of floating floors (noisier, bouncier). The selections seem to be very low-end to me, home depot, Mohawk, and Bruce. Budget is 5.00 sq foot.

It seems to me that the better click lock floors (Kahr, BR, etc) tend to be wider planks (5"). Any high quality narrower click lock floors?

Is there a reason to avoid click lock strip floors altogether in a larger room? Are there advantages (beyond greater selection) in using a tongue and groove floating engineered floor (gluing the tongue and groove) over the click lock. Or should we be looking at wider planks for a floating floor?

Thanks!

I prefer glued floating engineered over click lock engineered. Some click engineered make noise no matter how flat the floor is. I did like the Mirage over others though. It had a HDF core though, like a laminate. Maybe thats why it was so quiet.

http://www.miragefloors.com/ENG/type-lock-hardwood.php

I'll head to a dealer to check out Mirage this weekend, thank you. I know that it is a well thought of brand. Since there's not much info on the internet, can you give me an idea for per sq foot price ranges for the locking product in a oak?

seventyfour, go to a Prosource nearest you and tell them I sent you. I am a member in Tucson AZ, and you can get my discount. They can look me up. Or call Becky my account manager in Tucson AZ @ 520.624.7788 for more info.

There are many other brands you can consider if you do not mind 3 strip look with $5 /sqft budget. Most of them have a 3 to 4 mm top layer for future refinishing. Baltic and Haro are both good brands with quality products.

I'm fairly certain that brands like Mohawk and Kahrs or equivalent are way beyond $5.00 a square foot. That being said, please be wary of click lock floors. Some are very mediocre and I'm trying to make a list of the ones that don't lock well.One of my contractors just installed a bamboo pre finished click/lock floor and the butt joints separate easily just by walking on the floor