we looked into this when we had our living room and hall floor laid. We went for oiled (not varnished) real hardwood. When we had ours done, around 11 years ago, the difference was that the engineered wood had a limited amount of times that it could be sanded and refinished, IIRC it was 3 times although that may have changed With real wood, its one solid plank all the way down and will last a lifetime. My floor gets abused. I have got two big dogs who run in and out regardless of the weather. I mop the floor with specialist cleaner which also adds oil to the surface and it comes up beautifully. Off the wall but if you are looking at new flooring, have you looked at flotex? The ones with wood and stone photoraphic images on are amazing. I am looking at replacing my kitchen floor with it, we went for tiles but they are very unforgiving when you drop things.