Hudson Engineered Hardwood starts at $8.99/sq ft installed in Fort Myers — a wide-plank hickory-look floor in warm caramel tones from LW Flooring’s Township collection. The embossed texture reads as genuine wood grain without the maintenance demands of solid lumber. It’s a grounded, livable floor that fits naturally in homes across Southwest Florida.
Hudson is built for glue-down installation over concrete slab, which makes it a practical fit for the majority of Southwest Florida homes. The wide 7-1/4″ plank gives rooms an open, unhurried feel, and the matte polyurethane finish doesn’t show every smudge the way high-gloss surfaces do.
The hickory species look suits active households — hickory’s naturally varied grain hides light scratches and everyday scuffs better than straighter-grained woods. For snowbird owners or rental properties where the home sits unoccupied through summer, glue-down engineered hardwood holds up better than floating floors in the heat and humidity cycles Fort Myers regularly delivers.
| Plank Width | 7-1/4″ |
|---|---|
| Plank Length | 48″ |
| Thickness | 2mm |
| Wear Layer | 8 mil |
| Finish | Polyurethane UV Matte |
| Species | Look |
Flooring Queen installs Hudson at $8.99 per square foot, a price that covers material, delivery to your home, removal of existing flooring, routine subfloor preparation, installation, new baseboards, and transition strips where flooring meets adjoining rooms. Leftover debris and old material are removed from the property when the crew leaves.
Some conditions carry additional cost: significant slab leveling, stair nosing, complex inlay patterns, or custom border work all fall outside the standard scope. Schedule a free in-home measurement and you’ll receive a written quote that spells out exactly what applies to your project before any commitment is made.
Solid hardwood and engineered hardwood look nearly identical once installed — the difference is in the construction and how each responds to moisture. Solid hardwood is one continuous piece of wood and expands and contracts significantly with humidity swings. In Southwest Florida, where slab foundations and coastal air are the norm, that movement creates real installation problems: gluing solid hardwood to concrete isn’t recommended, and seasonal gapping is common.
Engineered hardwood like Hudson uses a cross-ply core that resists those dimensional shifts, making it stable enough for glue-down over slab. The trade-off: solid hardwood can be sanded and refinished more times over its life. Hudson’s 8 mil wear layer allows limited refinishing, whereas a solid 3/4″ plank gives you significantly more rounds. If long-term refinishing cycles matter to you, solid hardwood has the edge — but for most SWFL slab homes, it’s simply not a practical option.
| Hudson | Solid Hardwood | |
|---|---|---|
| Water resistance | Moderate — avoid standing water | Low — moisture causes warping |
| Scratch resistance / wear layer | 8 mil polyurethane matte finish | Varies by finish; no mil standard |
| Comfort underfoot | Warm, natural wood feel | Warm, natural wood feel |
| Installed price | $8.99/sq ft installed | Typically $10–$14/sq ft installed |
| Best room | Living areas, bedrooms, slab-on-grade | Above-grade rooms, wood subfloor |
Sweep or dust-mop Hudson frequently — sandy grit tracked in from Southwest Florida driveways acts like sandpaper underfoot and will wear the finish faster than anything else. For damp cleaning, use a well-wrung mop and a hardwood-specific cleaner such as Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner; avoid wet mopping, steam mops, or any product with ammonia, bleach, or wax, all of which degrade the polyurethane finish. Place felt pads under furniture legs and use walk-off mats at entries to reduce abrasion at the highest-traffic points in the home. For technical guidance, see the National Wood Flooring Association consumer hardwood information.
Engineered hardwood typically needs 48–72 hours to acclimate to your home’s interior conditions before installation begins. In Southwest Florida’s humidity, this step matters — boxes should be opened and planks stacked in the room where they’ll be installed, with the HVAC running at normal living temperatures.
Hudson can be lightly screened and recoated once, but its 8 mil wear layer is too thin for a full sand-and-refinish the way a solid hardwood floor can be. Minor surface scratches can often be touched up with a hardwood-compatible repair kit; deep gouges that cut through the finish layer are harder to address without a professional assessment.
Engineered hardwood is stable enough to glue directly to a concrete slab, which is how the vast majority of Southwest Florida homes are built — solid hardwood is not recommended for that application. Hudson’s cross-ply core resists the expansion and contraction that coastal humidity causes, making it the realistic choice for this region’s conditions.
In most cases, existing flooring will need to be removed before a glue-down engineered hardwood install. The adhesive bond and finished floor height both require a clean, flat substrate — height transitions and surface irregularities under old tile or vinyl affect how the floor lays. A site visit will determine what prep your specific floor needs.
Flooring Queen installs Hudson throughout the greater Fort Myers area, including Cape Coral and Naples, as well as surrounding communities across Lee and Collier counties. If you’re not sure whether your address falls within the service area, call the store or request a measure and the team will confirm coverage when scheduling.
Hudson works well in living rooms, dining rooms, hallways, and bedrooms — anywhere above grade with controlled humidity. It’s not recommended for full bathrooms or laundry rooms where water pooling is likely. Because it’s a glue-down product, it’s also not suited for installation over wood subfloors with flex or bounce; slab-on-grade is the ideal substrate.
When you invest in hardwood, the install matters as much as the wood. Flooring Queen is licensed, insured, and family-run from a single Fort Myers showroom — no franchise, no national-chain shuffle. Free in-home measure: (239) 763-0770.
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Reviewed by Jack Maya, Lead Installer at Flooring Queen — 20+ years installing flooring in Southwest Florida.
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