I’m looking for a discussion on hardwood flooring. My house was built in 1966 with hardwood oak floors. Recently there was water damage in about a 9 X 9 foot area causing warped edges on the edges of the wood. The room size is about 30 X 20 ft. The thickness of the existing floor planks appears to be 5/8 in and the width is 2 ¼ in. The insurance company offers two options. They are, replace the total floor with new wood or replace only the damaged area with new wood. Most of the retail stores seem to offer engineered wood. So, these are my questions. 1. Would you agree my 1966 floors are probably not engineered wood? 2. For over-all reasons, which type of flooring is better, engineered or my 1966 wood? 3. I looked at Lowes and did not fine oak flooring 5/8” X 2 ¼.” It appears hardware dimensions do not include length. Why is that? 4. If only the damaged area were repaired with new wood, how difficult is it to match the surrounding area? The adjoining rooms have the same wood floors. Replacing the complete floor is a bit daunting for me to consider, unless absolutely necessary However, any feedback on this would be appreciated. Thanks, Jerry

Hello, New poster and new homeowner here. I have a few questions regarding putting plywood over my current plank subfloor. I’ll start buy saying I have already secured my planks to the joists and eliminated all squeaks. I plan on putting plywood on top of my plank subfloor before finally adding vinyl plank as a finish. 1) What thickness plywood is recommended? Pros and cons to different sizes? 2) Should I screw the plywood directly to the planks or to the joists? 3)Is a membrane/paper required between the two layers of subfloor ? Im open to any tips, pointers, tricks as this is a first for me Thanks in advance