[Captain Ahab Jr]

My living room has real oak floor in a mix of 10", 12" and 14" widths and rustic grade timber so plenty of character

Wanted the 200 year old look, anything narrower or engineered wouldn't have looked right. It's been down for 15yrs suffered a real beating from dogs, kids, furniture and open fire embers but just looks better and better for it

Installed it myself, stored the planks in the room for a couple of months to acclimatize to the room humidity, nailed sheets of high quality plywood to the concrete floor and then glued and nailed the planks. Used traditional rose head nails so the heads are slightly proud. Only treatment was a wipe with a hard wax oil

If I owned a modern North American style home think I'd go with an engineered oak flooring as the style needs to fit in with the general decor