Apartment flooring - Solid floating or engineered floating? Kempas or Blackbutt?

[lauram]

We are about to move in to a brand new apartment on the 2<SUP>nd</SUP> floor of a new building. The area we’re looking at is about 35sqm. We’ve decided we would love timber floors, I’ve been investigating the options – and now I am totally confused!

Because we are on the second floor of the building, is a pre-finished solid wood floor an option? Or should we just stick to pre-finished engineered floorboards?
Is Kempas and Merbau really as bad as some of the forums make it out to be (basically cheap Asian wood that splits)?<O:p</O:p
We really like the 1 strip 80mm Blackbutt from Boral Silkwood – however we’re on a budget and the $120-130sqm we’ve been quoted is a bit high. Any suggestions for an alternative?Any tips would be HUGELY appreciated.<O:p</O:p
I would also love any recommendations for timber flooring specialists, or examples of what you might have chosen in a similar situation.<O:p</O:p

[123]

Stear away from solid Pre-finished flooring, have not yet seen a great one.
Kempas or Merbau isn't necessarily a cheap Asian timber. A product called Readyflor make a very good Kempas.
In addition to that, they also have Blackbutt in there range, works out a lot cheaper thank Silkwoods Blackbutt. it is only available in a 133mm board and a 2 strip though. If that doesn't help, Silkwood have just released Stringybark, which is quite similar in colour and cheaper?