In our kitchen, we currently have ceramic tile, over 5/8" OSB, over original hardwood floor. We want to (1) get a look at the original hardwood floor, and based on what we find, (2) either refinish the original floor or install a new wood floor. Either way, we'll need to remove the tile (just too high otherwise, and many are cracked). I've read in this and other forums about the difficulty in removing tile, and I was wondering if it just made sense to lift off the entire OSB underlayment instead. Would this be easier? If it is necessary to have something between the old and the new wood floor, we could add something.

We will be removing about 2,500 sq. ft. of carpet to install Bruce hardwood flooring. We have no experience and are not sure whether the glue down engineered strips or the solid nail down planks are better for us. We have already priced both types of flooring. The question is: which method is more cost effective and/or difficult considering that for the glue down method we'd have to add the cost of the adhesive and for the nail down method we'd have to purchase nailer, nails and air compressor (if needed)? We have no idea how much adhesive or nails would be needed. Please help. Thanks.