Brand · Collection
Riva Spain engineered hardwood
Real wood over a Florida slab is a question of construction, not of taste. Solid boards move with the humidity; an engineered plank — a hardwood wear layer over a stable cross-laminated core — does not, which is why every wood floor we recommend here is engineered and why we became the authorized Riva Spain dealer for this part of the coast.
Riva's collections are European oak in wide planks — Max and Elite in long boards, Metro in a narrower format, Arte in chevron and herringbone — and the whole line stands as full planks on the walls of the Riva gallery, the second building on our lot. The colour you choose is the colour you have seen at eight feet, not on a sample card, and the plank you walk on in the gallery is the plank that arrives at the house.
The moisture test comes first. A slab that reads dry in October can hold water in August, so we test before anything is ordered and price the preparation separately. Installed by our own crews as an authorized dealer, the manufacturer's warranty applies — which is the reason the dealership matters to you rather than to us.
4 in the showroom
Full slabs and full planks at 6823 14th St W, Bradenton — not sample chips. Bring the plans.
Riva Spain
Riva MAX — 10-inch European white oak plank
The wide plank: 10" boards to 8 feet long, ten colours, Prime or Character grade.
10" — Bona UV matt lacquer
Riva Spain
Riva Elite — 8-inch European white oak plank
The balanced plank: 8" boards to 8 feet long, all twelve colours, Prime or Character grade.
8" — Bona UV matt lacquer
Riva Spain
Riva Metro — 6¾-inch European white oak plank
The narrower plank: 6¾" boards to 8 feet long, four colours, Character grade.
6¾" — Bona UV matt lacquer
Riva Spain
Riva Arte — 3½-inch European white oak for herringbone and chevron
The short plank for patterns: 3½" × 21.25" boards in four colours, Prime grade.
3½" — Bona UV matt lacquer
Questions about Riva Spain engineered hardwood
Which Riva format is which — MAX, Elite, Metro, Arte?
Width, mostly. MAX is the ten-inch board, for a floor meant to read as one surface across a great room. Elite is eight inches, the one that runs most comfortably through a whole house. Metro is six and three-quarters, for the rooms where a wide plank would be too much of the picture. All three run to eight feet long.
Arte is the exception: a short, fixed-length board proportioned for herringbone and chevron, laid as a design rather than as rows. Same oak, same core, same finish across all four — the choice is the size of the room and how much of the picture the floor should be.
Do all four formats come in the same colours?
No. Twelve colours, one oak — but the palette narrows with the format. Elite carries all twelve, including the two darkest, Gray and Black. MAX comes in ten, everything except those two. Metro is the light end of the range, four colours in Character grade; Arte is four colours in Prime grade, chosen so a pattern has a light and a mid option.
So a dark, modern floor is an Elite decision, a pale wide-plank coastal floor is usually MAX, and a house that runs Metro upstairs and Elite below picks a colour both formats carry. The whole line stands as full planks in the Riva gallery, the second building on the lot.
How thick is the wear layer, and can the floor be refinished?
Four millimetres, nominal, of European white oak on every format, over a nine-layer marine-grade Baltic birch core, in a board five-eighths of an inch thick. The wear layer is the real wood you see and walk on, and its thickness is one of the two things the hardwood guide says to check, because it decides whether the floor can ever be sanded and refinished rather than replaced.
Four millimetres is thick enough that it can. The other thing to check is how consistently the house is conditioned: the core resists the seasonal movement that destroys a solid board, but a wood floor in a house shut up for four months a year is a gamble whatever its construction.
Can I see the planks before choosing a colour?
Yes, at full size. The whole line stands as full planks on the walls of the Riva gallery, the second building on our lot in Bradenton, so the colour you choose is the colour you have seen at eight feet rather than on a sample card — and the plank you walk on in the gallery is the plank that arrives at the house.
Bring the plan. We lay a few boards of two formats side by side on the floor, which settles the width question faster than any description, and the moisture test on your slab is booked before anything is ordered. Riva engineered wood flooring is the install; Riva Spain is the dealership.
The palette
Twelve colours, one oak
- 01
Pearl
The palest of the twelve: a cool, near-white oak with the grain showing faintly through. In MAX, Elite, Metro, Arte. - 02
Cotton
A warm, natural blonde — the oak close to its own colour, lightly whitened. In MAX, Elite, Metro. - 03
Mercury
Pale oak with a soft grey cast, cooler than Cotton without reading as grey. In MAX, Elite. - 04
Crystal
Clear, light natural oak with the grain plainly visible — the least treated look of the line. In MAX, Elite, Metro, Arte. - 05
Sand
A greyed beige, the driftwood colour: warm underneath, quiet on top. In MAX, Elite. - 06
Smoke
Light and warm with a grey thread through the grain, so it reads softer than a plain blonde. In MAX, Elite, Metro, Arte. - 07
Earth
A mid greige — taupe leaning grey — that sits between the pale and the dark halves of the range. In MAX, Elite, Arte. - 08
Amber
Warm golden honey, the most traditional colour of the twelve. In MAX, Elite. - 09
Krypton
A mid-tone warm oak with pronounced grain, deeper than Amber. In MAX, Elite. - 10
Gray
A true mid grey over oak — the colour for a cool palette. In Elite. - 11
Cigar
Dark brown, saturated, with the grain still readable. In MAX, Elite. - 12
Black
A near-black stain over oak: the grain shows as texture more than as colour. In Elite.
Sold here, installed by us
See it at full scale before you decide.
Twenty minutes in the showroom answers more than a week of scrolling. We lay the selections out on full slabs and tell you what each one needs underneath it.
