Numerous customers are underneath the impression that solid hardwood flooring is excellent to engineered hardwood flooring and may even refuse to take into account engineered flooring for their property. Having put in twenty five many years as a flooring contractor and the past 4 several years as a retailer of both engineered and strong hardwood flooring, I have located that there are a lot of misconceptions about equally sorts of flooring. I would like to share the pursuing details and my encounter so that you can make an educated choice about the best ground for your project.

Just before I commence my comparison of engineered and reliable flooring, permit us initial clear up the misunderstanding that engineered flooring is the same as laminate flooring (ie-Pergo.) Much more than a handful of folks walk into my showroom with this idea, which is not real. Laminate flooring is not true wood, engineered flooring is. The surface layer of laminate flooring is a photograph of wood grain on paper impregnated with melamine, not true wooden. The prime layer (also known as use layer) of engineered wood flooring is composed of (actual!) large-high quality wooden. Engineered hardwood flooring are comprised of a number of layers of wooden, which are cross-banded for steadiness and glued onto a plywood base.

Reliable Flooring: Pro’s

Strong wooden ground is just that–a sound piece of wooden from top to bottom. The thickness can vary, but typically ranges from 3/four” to five/sixteen”. Strong hardwood is certainly hardwearing and resilient, and its principal benefit is that it can be re-sanded a number of occasions. Even so, it is not automatically superior to engineered flooring in this respect. Solid wood flooring, like engineered flooring, has a “use layer” or layer of wooden that can be sanded, and it is only a portion of the thickness of the flooring. Even even though bamboo floor are thicker than the put on layer of engineered floors, you can only sand down so far ahead of you would strike a nail with sound flooring. You may possibly get one, possibly two, extra sandings with a reliable flooring in contrast to an engineered ground. This is the only feasible gain to solid flooring, in my viewpoint, and it does not utilize in each and every scenario and normally does not outweigh the benefits of engineered flooring.

Engineered Flooring: Pro’s

Engineered flooring have a number of positive aspects. While strong floors are not a very good option in circumstances in which there are large humidity levels or radiant heat systems, the construction of engineered floors can make them stable enough to endure particular modifications in temperature and humidity that may well make a reliable flooring warp. Engineered hardwood flooring is developed to resist wood’s natural inclination to change dimensionally above time. The grain of every layer operates in opposite instructions, which helps make engineered flooring extremely steady. This signifies that the wood will broaden and deal much less than sound wooden flooring during fluctuations in humidity and temperature. For this reason engineered floors are a greater decision for programs such as in excess of radiant warmth installations, in kitchens, bathrooms, and basements, or where a floor is necessary to span two differing sub-flooring like plywood and concrete.

Another benefit of engineered flooring is far more overall flexibility of installation types. Whereas strong floors can only be nailed down, most engineered flooring can be nailed or stapled to a wood sub floor, or glued down to a wooden sub flooring or concrete slab. Only engineered flooring can be floated, the only alternative when hardwood flooring can’t be connected to the sub-ground.

And finally, when compared to strong wooden flooring, engineered flooring is a much more environmentally sustainable option, as it can generate up to 4 instances the amount of flooring making use of the identical sum of higher good quality wood.

Possessing stated all of this, sound wood floors are certainly a wonderful option for numerous apps. They just are not necessarily the exceptional decision in every case, as several folks think. When in question, a flooring contractor can consider your site situations and advise you as to the best flooring variety for your home.