wood flooring question for partially below grade concrete

[cmose]

Hello,
my wife and I just bought a condo and we want to put in wood floors. We prefer solids to engineered any day and we've been merrily going on the assumption that we'll be putting in solid but I then realized something: We are on the ground floor and the front of our condo building is below grade (about 1/4 to 1/3 of the building on our side). All of our condo is on grade but that means that part of the slab is below. Would it be total idiocy to do solid here if adequate measures were taken for a moisture barrier? If not can someone recommend a good engineered wood?

thanks very much for input!

[Dragon]

Nope you should be fine unless you have moisture issues already. Your wood floor will have a 3/4" underlayment (plywood) that it attaches to.

[cmose]

Dragon,
thanks much I appreciate the info - question on moisture barrier, is it better to attach 3/4'' ply to moisture barrier that has been fixed with asphalt mastic or is it better to float 2 sheets of 1/2'' ply over a moisture barrier that hasn't been fixed but won't be punctured by nails?

thanks again!

also -- it's been a looong time since I've put down any flooring, I assume I would be using CDX t&g ply?

[Dragon]

All the installations I see done are using the asphalt mastic and plastic, then anchored to the concrete. I don't think I'd want a real hardwood floor attached to anything floating. If the asphalt is doing it's job it should help seal around the anchors.

[cmose]

thanks much, that's the plan I had been leaning towards, "masticing" the plastic down seems like it just going to be a god awful mess though (everything I've read indicates that you need to mastic all exposed concrete and then wait 2 hours before laying the plastic).