Has anyone used engineered wood flooring on their cabin? My concern is the temp swings from 0 degrees to 70. I would think it would work in low humidity conditions.
By "engineered wood flooring" do you mean engineered joists? The manufacturers of such should have specifications covering their use; where, how, moisture limits, etc.
No. I mean the wood flooring that has a thin layer of finished "good wood" and they snap or are glued together.
It usually floats over the unfinished floor on a type of pad.
This is a document regarding the Pergo brand...
http://na.pergo.com/Images/how_to/Install_Essentials_Guide.pdf (http://na.pergo.com/Images/how_to/Install_Essentials_Guide.pdf)
Engineered flooring is different than laminate (Pergo) in that it has a thin layer of real wood on the top surface that can be sanded and refinished once or twice. Engineered floors should be more stable in humidity and temperature swings than solid wood, but since it is relying on glue to hold it together there is the issue of potential delamination.
I installed some in my previous home and it went down easy and looked great, but I'm not sure how it held up as we sold the house soon after it was installed. The price for flooring was reasonable but trim and transition pieces were expensive!
OK, similar but different.
like this...
(http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/uploads/Engineered%20Wood%20Flooring/EngvsSolid.jpg)
...taken from here... http://www.hoskinghardwood.com/Department/Hardwood-Floors/All-About-Engineered-Wood-Floors.aspx?dId=7&pageId=7
we like ceramic tile best of all.
It wasn't a cabin but I laid about 2,400 feet of it in a house that we moved from last year. It was down about 5 years before we sold the house and we were happy with the looks and durability. The product I used was a glue-together flooring and I installed it over a vapor barrier. While the gluing was tedious, the floor was very sturdy when assembled. I would suggest using a good combination vapor barrier/acoustic barrier if you decide to go with the floating floor product.
I can't speak to how it would work in a low temperature environment as it never gets that cold here. As far as dug's point about the trim, the transitions from the supplier were quite pricy. To offset that cost, I bought a quart of matching stain when I bought the flooring, found a local trim mill for unstained oak transitions and trim, stained the trim pieces and then applied varnish/poly to it to match the sheen of the flooring. Since our base was white, we used painted shoe mold/quarter round instead of oak trim to keep down our costs.
Here are the only pictures I have handy but we really liked the look better than the Pergo-llike products on the market at the time we started the project.
(https://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee39/pocred/hr2581167-3.jpg)
(https://i231.photobucket.com/albums/ee39/pocred/hr2581167-10.jpg)