wood floors

We'll wait for nycmatt to give his opinions not based on experience.

bamboo... dont do it. go with oak, you cant go wrong.

Go with oak or don't do wood at all.

"Go with oak or don't do wood at all."

Sure, you can't go wrong with oak, but it's overdone and boring, IMO. There are other beautiful hard woods out there which are way more interesting than oak. Walnut is very nice (if you're looking for something darker), and hickory is just beautiful (lots of "pattern movement", without the yellowing that seems to come about with oak floors).

Also, if I'm not mistaken, hickory is a harder wood than oak.

I have bamboo - it seems soft, so there are lots of dents. Developer would try to save a penny wherever possible - this was one of the areas.

I would go with something more durable. Also, stay away get real wood, not that engineered junk.

I find lots of bamboo floor is too soft. Sounds nice right? until you drag your furniture over it and drop stuff, wear rugged shoes on it...Bamboo ONLY if it's high-end.

Bamboo is actually not wood, it's *grass* (albeit a very hard grass, but still -- grass). It's hardly as durable or lasting as wood.

Stay away from Bamboo, it is soft and dents easily and my dog has scratched it up with his paws.

Bamboo is one the hardest natural materials, it is nature's steel, and used as such in asia for scaffolding, jail bars, etc.
If it were true bamboo, it would put other woods to shame on durabilty and lasting.
Problem is all bamboo flooring is engineered wood. Or a form of it. Chewed up and spat out which weakens it, making the bamboo aspect of it a mostly non factor.

All wood(esque) floors dent and scratch, no matter the type.

I have red oak floors stained ebony giving it a nice dark brown look.
I have a few area rugs and a runner or two. Felt pad stickys for the bases of all furniture touching the ground combined with keeping women's high heels off the feet when possible has my floor in great shape.

Second the advice on hickory, or consider quartersawn white oak -- different patterning than red oak, and works better with a wider variety of stains (and not 'overdone'). Skip bamboo, pine, and engineered anything. Cherry is reasonably hard, and less expensive than you might think.

Any suggestions on showrooms in NYC to compare all of the mentioned above?