Gauguin Engineered Hardwood starts at $8.99 per square foot installed in Fort Myers — a wirebrushed European White Oak in a warm honey tone from LW Flooring’s French Impressions collection. The wide 7-inch plank and high-variation grain give it a collected, artisan look without the fussiness of hand-scraped floors. It’s the kind of floor that looks like it’s always been there.
Gauguin is well-suited to the main living areas of a Southwest Florida home — great rooms, dining spaces, primary bedrooms, and hallways where real wood character matters. Its engineered construction holds up better than solid wood against the humidity swings common in coastal Fort Myers homes, and at 3/8-inch thick it can glue directly to the concrete slabs found under most homes built here.
The wirebrushed finish is forgiving in day-to-day use — it hides fine scratches and the fine dust that drifts in from the outdoors. The lifetime residential warranty supports long-term owners and snowbird households alike, and the 7-inch width stays within spec for glue-down installs over conditioned slab.
| Plank Width | 7″ |
|---|---|
| Plank Length | 71″ Random Length |
| Thickness | 3/8″ |
| Wear Layer | 1.2 mm |
| Finish | Water Based Paint |
| Species | European White Oak |
Flooring Queen installs Gauguin at $8.99 per square foot, with that price covering the full scope of a standard project: material delivery, removal of your current flooring, subfloor cleaning and minor prep, installation using glue or nail-down to match your substrate, baseboard reinstallation, and transition strips between rooms. Old flooring is loaded out and disposed of at no extra charge.
Upcharges apply when conditions fall outside the standard: heavy subfloor leveling (more than 3/16-inch variance over 10 feet), stair nosing, or intricate layout patterns like herringbone. Request a free in-home measurement and you’ll get a written quote before any commitment is made.
Shoppers who love the look of real wood often compare engineered planks like Gauguin to solid hardwood. Both use genuine European White Oak at the surface, so the appearance and feel are nearly identical. The difference is in the construction and what that means for Southwest Florida homes.
Solid hardwood expands and contracts with humidity — over a concrete slab in Fort Myers, that movement can cause cupping or gapping within a season. Gauguin’s engineered core is dimensionally more stable and can be glued directly to slab, which solid hardwood cannot. Where solid hardwood wins: it can typically be refinished more times over its life, which matters if you’re planning a 30-plus-year horizon. Gauguin’s 1.2mm wear layer allows light refinishing, but it has a lower ceiling than 3/4-inch solid planks.
| Gauguin | Solid Hardwood | |
|---|---|---|
| Water resistance | Better — stable over humid slab | Poor over slab; cupping risk |
| Scratch resistance / wear layer | 1.2 mm wear layer | Thicker surface; more refinish cycles |
| Comfort underfoot | Warm, real wood feel | Warm, real wood feel |
| Installed price | $8.99 / sq ft installed | Typically $10–$14 / sq ft installed |
| Best room | Living areas over slab | Above-grade rooms on wood subfloor |
Sweep or dust-mop Gauguin regularly — the wirebrushed texture can hold fine grit that scratches the finish if left underfoot. For wet cleaning, use a damp (not wet) mop with a hardwood-specific cleaner like Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner or WOCA Wood Floor Soap; avoid vinegar, steam mops, and anything acidic. Never flood the floor with water. In Southwest Florida’s humidity swings, keep interior climate between 60–80°F and 30–60% relative humidity to prevent seasonal movement at the joints. Wipe spills promptly — standing water will eventually breach the finish. For technical guidance, see the National Wood Flooring Association consumer hardwood information.
Engineered hardwood should acclimate in your conditioned living space for at least 48–72 hours before install. In Southwest Florida, where humidity runs high and HVAC cycles hard, giving it closer to 72 hours in the actual room it’s going into helps the planks stabilize and reduces the chance of movement after installation.
Gauguin’s 1.2mm wear layer does allow for light refinishing — typically one careful screen-and-recoat — but it won’t support the multiple deep-sanding cycles you’d get from solid hardwood. If preserving refinish potential over decades is a priority, that’s worth discussing before you commit to this thickness.
Engineered hardwood bonds a real oak veneer over a cross-ply wood core, which resists expansion from humidity better than solid planks do. Solid hardwood must be nailed to a wood subfloor — it cannot be glued to concrete. Most Southwest Florida homes sit on concrete slabs, which makes engineered construction the practical default here.
Gauguin installs by glue-down or nail-down, not a floating click system, so the condition and flatness of whatever’s underneath matters more than the material type. Whether existing tile or vinyl can stay depends on height transitions, adhesion quality, and subfloor flatness — Flooring Queen assesses all of that during the in-home measure.
A single room typically runs one to two days for a glue-down installation, including cure time before you can move furniture back. A full-home project might span three to five days depending on square footage, layout complexity, and how much subfloor work is needed. The written quote will include a project schedule.
Real wood floors — including engineered oak — consistently show up in buyer search filters and tend to support list prices in Southwest Florida’s resale market. That said, the gain isn’t guaranteed; condition matters as much as material. A well-maintained Gauguin floor in a high-traffic room is a stronger selling point than a worn one anywhere in the house.
Real hardwood in Florida needs an installer who’s worked through every season here. Our crew knows how to acclimate, fasten, and finish wood floors so they don’t gap in January or cup in August. Free written quote: (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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