What's better: Manufactured hardwood planking or faux wood planking?

I found this really helpful- http://freshome.com/2010/11/01/the-pros-and-cons-of-hardwood-vs-laminate-wood-flooring/ it lays out the pros and cons of both options- good luck!!

I think you may be getting terms mixed up. I'm thinking you mean engineered hardwood flooring (not manufactured flooring...as all of these items are manufactured.

You can read more about solid vs engineered hardwood flooring here. http://theflooringgirl.com/hardwood-flooring/solid-vs-engineered-hardwood-better.html

For "faux" woods, you have laminate and luxury vinyl. Both tend to hold up better to scratches then engineered wood. Luxury vinyl is waterproof; laminate isn't. One of the newer luxury vinyl planks introduced to the market is Coretec Plus. You can read my full review of Coretec plus here. http://theflooringgirl.com/blog/review-coretec-plus-luxury-vinyl-waterproof-hardwood-planks.html

I hope that helps.

The Pergo laminate type is Formica. It is noisy & cold & continuously exhausts toxic fumes. My favorite is either bamboo or cork. Both these look just like hardwood floors. Cork is my favorite, it is warm & muffles what ever is dropped on it, short of dropping an old fashioned TV from the ceiling on it, it will handle what ever you throw at it. Easy install, with heavy duty sticky glue ship-lap type installation. It floats but I highly recommend putting down the fiber paper between the sub floor & flooring. General care will last generations.

Oh ya... Cork & Bamboo is renewable & green with no ecological footprint.

Yes, cork is another good option. Generally, it's more expensive and colors are a bit limited. Most often these are done as floating planks, but glue down tiles are also available. I would avoid bamboo at all costs. It does not hold up well to water, moisture, scratches, dents. We no longer install it (and haven't for the last 5 yrs). We get tons of people complaining about their bamboo (not ones we installed). It's very challenging to find customers that have it that are happy with it. (and, yes, when I was on appointments and saw they had bamboo, even the strand woven, and asked them, I consistently got negative feedback.

Just go to or call any lumber yard. They can answer the questions for the specific Companie's products. Cork & bamboo has been around for decades, and a lot of technology has gone into flooring to make it DIY friendly. It is in long planks that is not too long so it is weekend warrior friendly, & it looks just like real hardwood flooring, for less cost & is in a finished state & ready to be walked on immediately. You can choose oak, walnut, cherry, pine, etc & mixed woods which looks awesome.