8 Easy Flooring Upgrades

Jeff Hosking, a flooring consultant for This Old House, first began laying floors 35 years ago. Back then, 90 percent of his work was installing solid-wood strips with nails. But now, half of the flooring he installs is engineered: made of thin sheets of wood glued together like plywood. Solid wood is classic and can last a century, but engineered flooring offers a quicker, easier way to get a new floor, and it comes with a durable factory-applied finish that's way more durable, says Hosking, than anything he can apply onsite.

For full step-by-step instructions, shopping list, tools list, and more, see How to Lay Engineered Wood Floors.