Solid wood is milled usually from a single 3/4" thick piece of hardwood and for thin profile solid hardwood, 5/16″ is the standard. Solid wood flooring expands and contracts with changes in your home's relative humidity. Normally, installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall. Base molding or quarter round is traditionally used to hide the extra space.

Traditional solid hardwood flooring is not well suited for below-grade installations, because of the possibility of moisture issues. The construction of an engineered hardwood gives it enhanced structural stability that allows it to be installed at any grade level when a moisture barrier such as Selitac. Most experts recommend not installing it over a concrete subfloor, and, it tends to be pricier than engineered wood flooring

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Advantages of Solid Hardwood Flooring: 

- One of the advantages of solid construction is that most 3/4″ thick solid wood floors have about 1/4″ or 6 mm of wood above the tongue and groove, allowing you to sand and refinish many times. 
- If properly cared for, a solid hardwood floor can last for generations.
- Easy to join the planks together, making the installation process better; and they make a strong joint
- Flat or Plain Sawn: by far the most commonly used cut. It contains more variations than the others. 
- Quarter Sawn: cuts a log into quarters before it cuts the strips of wood to make hardwood flooring boards.
- Rift Sawn: cuts a log at a different angle than quarter sawn before it cuts the wood into hardwood flooring boards. Though it is more expensive than the other methods, it is also more stable, providing higher quality flooring.