We list 220 wood floors on our site, from eight brands, and every one of them is engineered. None is solid hardwood. That count says more about where people install wood today than about which floor is “better,” and it is a good place to start the comparison.
A solid board is a single piece of lumber; an engineered board is a real-wood top layer bonded to a core built in layers. Pick solid for a wood subfloor, on or above ground level, nailed down, when you want the most wood to sand over the decades.
Pick engineered for concrete slabs, basements, radiant heat, floating installs and very wide boards: the places where manufacturers that make both types allow only engineered.
Same face, different build
Look at the two from above and you see the same thing: oak, hickory or walnut with a factory or site-applied finish. The difference is below the surface. A solid board is milled from a single piece of lumber. An engineered board has a sliced or sawn layer of the species on top and a layered core underneath.
That core is the point. Hallmark Floors, which makes both types, puts it plainly in its maintenance guide for Nu Oil-finished floors: cross-engineered hardwood floors are much more dimensionally stable than solid ones. Stable doesn’t mean motionless; the same guide still expects small seasonal gaps when winter air dries out.
Where the makers draw the line for solid wood
The clearest way to compare the two is to read the rules from brands that sell both. Here is what their documents allow.
| Situation | Solid hardwood | Engineered hardwood |
|---|---|---|
| Installation method | Denali’s warranty names nail-down as the only approved method for its solid floors; other methods void it. Hallmark lists glue-down and nail-down for its solid lines over its electric mat heating system. | Glue-down, staple or cleat, or floating, depending on the line (Denali’s January 2026 guidelines list all three) |
| Basement or below grade | Hallmark: no solid installations in basements | Denali designs its engineered floors for on, above and below grade |
| Radiant heat | Hot-water (hydronic) systems: not approved by Hallmark or Denali. Electric: Hallmark allows its solid lines over its own electric mat system; Denali’s December 2023 radiant guidelines approve no solid floors at all. | Allowed by both brands with conditions; Denali excludes hickory and boards with a 4 mm or thicker top layer |
| Concrete slab | Under a nail-down-only rule like Denali’s, a nailable wood layer goes over the concrete first | Glued directly with a moisture system, or floated where the line allows it |
Notice that the rules differ by brand, not just by type. That is why the product’s own installation guide, not a general chart, gets the last word. If your project is on concrete, our article on engineered hardwood on concrete slab lists the mistakes those guides warn about.
What the 220 floors on our site are made of
To see what “engineered” covers in practice, we counted the specifications on our own product pages, adding Chesapeake’s June 2025 sell sheets where a page lists only the finish.
| What we counted | Result |
|---|---|
| Wood floors listed | 220 products in 26 collections from 8 brands |
| Solid hardwood among them | 0 |
| Total board thickness | 3/8 inch (Chesapeake Estuary) to 3/4 inch (nine Denali Apogee colors); Sienna’s River line is offered from 14.2 to 22 mm |
| Real-wood top layer | 1.2 mm (Estuary, Points East) to 6 mm (Apogee in Fengari, Malpaso and Teide) |
| Floating listed as an option | 33 products: Chesapeake Cromwell and Veranda’s Asheville and Charleston collections |
| Below-grade installation listed | 28 products: Chesapeake Points East and the two Veranda collections |
| Glue-down or glue-assisted nail-down only | All 43 Denali products |
Two findings stand out. First, the thickest engineered boards reach the 3/4 inch thickness people associate with solid flooring, and three of them carry a 6 mm oak top layer.
Second, floating and below-grade installation, which solid wood doesn’t get, are limited to specific lines even within engineered. We break down top-layer thickness line by line in our guide to engineered hardwood wear layer.
Refinishing: where solid keeps an advantage
Solid wood can be sanded as long as there is wood left above the tongue. Engineered wood can only be sanded within its top layer, so a 1.2 mm face and a 6 mm face are very different promises.
None of the manufacturer documents we read puts a number of sandings on either type; it depends on how much each pass removes.
A second limit has nothing to do with thickness. Chesapeake’s Points East warranty says sanding, top coating or recoating the factory finish voids it. Read the warranty before planning to refinish a prefinished floor of either type.
If site finishing is the attraction of solid, engineered can do that too. The Legacy line from Aged Wide Floors comes unfinished and pre-sanded with a 4 mm top layer, a route we compare in prefinished vs unfinished hardwood.
Width, humidity and the boards that move
Every wood floor shrinks and swells with indoor humidity, solid or engineered; Chesapeake’s general hardwood care guide asks for 35% to 55% relative humidity year-round, and some line sheets narrow that range.
The wider the board, the more each one moves. Every wide plank we list is engineered, up to 290 mm (about 11.4 inches) in Sienna’s River line.
In practice, that means the HVAC runs before the floor arrives and keeps running for the life of the floor, whichever type you choose. The steps before installation are in how to acclimate engineered hardwood.
Hardness, lifespan and price
Surface hardness is a property of the species, which is what a Janka rating measures, so solid and engineered boards of the same oak start from the same wood. How a floor resists dents also depends on its finish and on what is underneath it.
Lifespan in writing comes from the warranties, and the engineered lines we list range widely: 20 years residential on Estuary, 30 on Points East and every Denali line, 35 on Cromwell and Chemistry, 50 on Veranda’s Asheville and Charleston, and a lifetime structural warranty on Hallmark’s Ventura and Alta Vista.
Price follows the same parts for both types: species, grade and color, board width, length and thickness, and for engineered the top layer. Unfinished boards add sanding, stain and finish coats on site. The subfloor decides the rest, from nails over plywood to glue and a moisture system on a slab, plus square footage with waste (Denali adds 5%), moldings and stair parts.
Before you choose: the checks that settle it
- Subfloor: wood (both types possible) or concrete (engineered, or solid only with a nailable layer).
- Level: a basement or any floor with soil higher than 3 inches above it counts as below grade under Denali’s rule; that points to engineered.
- Heat: hydronic radiant heating rules out solid at Hallmark and Denali; for engineered, check the species and top-layer limits.
- Method: if you want to float the floor, only certain engineered lines list it.
- Sanding life: if you plan to keep the floor for decades and refinish it, compare the top-layer millimeters, or choose solid where the rules above allow it.
With those five answers, the list narrows quickly. Browse our engineered hardwood collections by thickness and top layer, and ask for the installation guide of each board you shortlist before you order.
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