Many individuals are under the impact that solid hardwood flooring is superior to engineered hardwood flooring and may even will not consider engineered flooring for their own home. Having spent 25 years being a flooring contractor as well as the past 4 yrs as a store of both built and solid hard wood flooring, I have got found that presently there are a great deal of beliefs about both types of floors. I would really prefer to share the particular following information and even my experience so that you may make an well-informed decision about the best floor intended for your project.
Prior to I begin the comparison of built and solid flooring surfaces, let us first clean up the false impression that engineered floor is the same as laminate flooring (ie-Pergo. ) Even more than a several people walk into my personal showroom with this concept, which is certainly not true. Laminate floors is not real wood, engineered flooring is. The area layer of layered floors are a photo of wood materials on paper impregnated with melamine, not really real wood. The top layer (also named wear layer) regarding engineered wood flooring consists of (real! ) high-quality wood. Engineered hardwood floors are comprised associated with multiple layers associated with wood, that are cross-banded for stability and glued onto a new plywood base.
Strong Flooring: Pro's
Solid wood floor is precisely that--a solid part of wood from leading to bottom. Typically the thickness can vary, typically ranges through 3/4" to 5/16". Solid hardwood is usually certainly hardwearing plus resilient, as well as its primary advantage is it can easily be re-sanded many times. However, it is definitely not necessarily superior to engineered floor in this value. Solid wood flooring, like engineered floors, has a "wear layer" or level of wood that can be sanded, and it is usually only a cheaper fullness of the floor. Even though strong floors are fuller compared to the wear part of engineered flooring, you are able to only yellow sand down so significantly before you would likely hit a toenail with solid floors. You may get one, possibly only two, additional sandings using a solid floors compared to an engineered floor. This specific is the just possible advantage in order to solid flooring, i think, and it does not apply inside of every case and usually does not outweigh the benefits of engineered floors.
Engineered Flooring: Plus
Engineered floors have several advantages. Although solid floors are not the ideal choice inside situations where presently there are high humidity levels or sparkling heat systems, the construction of built floors makes all of them stable enough to withstand certain changes in temperature and even moisture that may well produce a solid flooring warp. Engineered hardwood floors are designed to be able to resist wood's organic tendency to modify dimensionally over time. The particular grain of each layer runs found in opposite directions, which often makes engineered flooring very stable. This means that the wood may expand and deal less than solid wood flooring during fluctuations in dampness and temperature. For this reason engineered floors are a better choice for applications such as more than radiant heat pv panel, in kitchens, bathing rooms, and basements, or even where a ground is needed in order to span two different type of sub-floors like plywood and concrete.
An additional advantage of manufactured floors is a lot more flexibility of set up types. Whereas reliable floors can just be nailed down, most engineered floors can be nailed or stapled to a wood sub flooring, or glued lower to a wood sub floor or concrete slab. Only engineered floors could be floated, the only option when hardwood flooring cannot be attached to typically the sub-floor.
Lastly, when compared with solid wood floors, engineered flooring is definitely a more environmentally sustainable choice, as it could yield up in order to four times the particular amount of flooring using the identical amount of high quality wood.
Having mentioned all of this specific, wood floors are usually certainly an excellent choice for several applications. More help are not necessarily the particular superior choice in each case, as a lot of people believe. Any time in doubt, the flooring contractor can evaluate your internet site factors and give you advice while to the top flooring type with regard to your home.