Solid Vs Engineered Hardwood Flooring - Facts & Myths

1. Solid Vs Engineered Hardwood Flooring - Facts & Myths A lot of consumers believe that solid hardwood floors are superior to engineered hardwood floors, and they might even refuse to consider engineered flooring for their home. Being a flooring contractor for 25 years and a retailer of both engineered and solid hardwood floors for the past 11 years, I have found that there are a lot of misconceptions about both types of floors. I'll share my experience and information in order to make a more educated decision about the best flooring for your project. Let me clarify a misconception that engineered flooring is the same as laminate flooring (ie-Pergo) before I begin my comparison of engineered and solid floors. Lots of people walk into my showroom thinking that laminate is real wood, which isn’t true. Engineered wood is real wood. The top layer of engineered wood flooring (also known as wear layer) is made of real wood. The laminate flooring surface is a photograph of wood grain on papers impregnated with melamine, not real wood. A crossbanded hardwood floor consists of multiple layers of wood that are glued on a plywood subfloor for added stability and durability. Pro's of solid flooring Solid hardwood floors are solid pieces of wood from top to bottom, usually ranging in thickness from 3/4" to 5/16". Solid hardwood floors have the advantage of being extremely durable and resilient, as well as being able to be refinished multiple times. The solid wood floors are not necessarily more durable than engineered floors in this regard. Each of these floors has a "wear layer" or layer of wood that can be sanded off and is fraction of the thickness of the floor.

2. Although good solid flooring is thicker than a bare floor, you'll need to sand you solid floor far beyond the point of hitting a nail. With an engineered floor, you can possibly get one or perhaps two additional sandings. There is only one possible attribute of solid flooring that I am confident about, and it doesn't always apply to certain situations, and it does not usually outweigh the advantages of engineered flooring. Engineered flooring: pros Engineered floors have numerous advantages that solid floors don't. While solid floors are often not advisable in places where there is high moisture or radiant heat, the structure of engineered floors allows them to withstand certain temperature and moisture changes that can make solid floors warp. Wood flooring, whether engineered hardwood or solid hardwood, is designed to resist wood's tendency to naturally change dimension over time. Because the grains of each layer run in opposite directions, engineered flooring is incredibly stable. As a result, solid wood flooring expands and contracts a lot more than engineered hardwood flooring during humidity and temperature variations. For this reason, engineered flooring is the best choice for radiant heating installations as well as in kitchens, bathrooms, and basements, and where there is need to span two different sub-floors such as plywood and concrete. Engineered floors have another advantage - greater flexibility of installation types. Compared to solid floors, engineered floors are more versatile. They can be nailed or stapled to a wood subfloor, or they can be glued to a wood subfloor or concrete slab as well. Hardwood flooring cannot be attached to the sub-floor, so floating can only be done on engineered floors. In addition, engineered flooring is an environmentally friendly choice in contrast to solid wood flooring, as it can yield up to four times more flooring than a high quality piece of wood. In spite of this, solid wood flooring allows a great deal of versatility in floor installation. They are not necessarily the superior choice for every application, as many people believe. The flooring contractor can assess your site conditions and advise you on the best flooring type for your home if in doubt.