Solid like it sounds, is milled from a single thick piece of hardwood. Because of its thickness, a solid hardwood floor can be sanded and refinished over several generations of use. One of the characteristics of solid wood flooring is that it expands and contracts with changes in temperature and relative humidity within permissible limits.

Normally, installers compensate for this movement by leaving an expansion gap between the floor and the wall. Skirtings and moldings is traditionally used to hide the extra space.

Solid strip or parquet flooring is glued down and wide planks are typically nailed down to the plywood subfloor. Another method of installation of wide planks is the Floating floor Installation.

The individual boards actually float above the sub floor with no direct attachment, making installation fast and easy. Of course, if you prefer, they can also be glued directly to the sub floor.

There are solid wood floors, which are over a 100 years old and still in a good condition.

The most common species for hardwood floor are Teak, maple, Oak, Ash , Merbau, Kempas ,though a variety of other species are also available.

Solid wood flooring is available in 2 options, prefinished and Unfinished but  Solid strips (parquet) comes with a wide variety of finishing options.