Engineered Wood

Engineered Hardwood Flooring is the perfect choice for your home or office. With the high tech way these floors are produced and manufactured it makes the flooring more sturdy and is more resistant to water and heat than solid hardwood floors. This process for making hardwood floors is available in strips and planks along with many species and many colors to choose from.

What species does engineered wood flooring come in?

Engineered wood floors are produced in an extensive variety of domestic and exotic hardwood species. Several manufactures of engineered flooring have a thin wear layer that can just be re-coated but cannot be sanded and refinished further once they get tattered. A number of engineered wood floors have a tremendously thick wear layer or veneer. These floors can be sanded and refinished further, up to 4-5 times if needed, which adds to their charm and attraction. Engineered floors have a typical life span of 30-40 years but this all depends on the traffic that these floors will endure and how they are taken care of.

How do I maintain my engineered wood floor?

For the best treatment of your engineered hardwood floors keep them swept, clean and dry on a daily basis. If you choose to use a vacuum, use a floor attachment with soft bristles or you can use a broom. Although engineered flooring is more durable to moisture, it is imperative to clean up any spills but excess water can cause damage to any flooring.

What is more stable, Solid or Engineered wood flooring?

The instability of solid hardwood floors is for the most part caused by water and heat. This causes the wood to change sizes, warp and split apart, but with the way engineered hardwood flooring is made, it makes them insusceptible to those elements. Engineered flooring is produced by 3 to 10 different layers of plywood, high density fiberboard, or hardwood that are glued together in a cross-plying construction.

Two types of engineered hardwood flooring.

There are two different procedures that engineered hardwood is made. The first one is when the wear layer or top layer is cut by a saw. This is a little more expensive because the sawing action leaves more detail and grain visible in the planks. The other procedure is rotary cut where the wear layer is cut by a peeling method making the grain and detail of the wood a lot wider.

What types of installation are there?

Based on the flooring chosen, engineered flooring can be stapled, glued, or floated over present floors including concrete, including at below grade level. Several engineered hardwoods use a click installation technique.

Although engineered flooring maybe more expensive than the other products to choose from, it is certainly a great invest for your home or any space that you intend on installing hardwood flooring

What is the difference between Solid flooring and Engineered Wood Flooring?

Solid wood floors or Real Natural Wood are manufactured as one complete piece of solid wood, generally 3/4" thick and board widths are generally 2 1/4" and 3 1/4" wide. The length of the boards may vary from 9" to 72", depending on the grade choosen.

Solid wood floors can react to the environment in which it is placed if a humidifer and dehumidier are not used to control the humidity between 40 -60% . In the winter heating months, the moisture content of the wood reduces causing the floor to contract or leave small gaps between each board. In the summer months when humidity enters the wood, it will cause the wood to expand and if there is too much moisture, it can cause the floor to cup.
Solid wood floors are most commonly installed by nailing down to a wood subfloor.

Engineered wood floors refer to products that have multiple layers of wood veneer glued and pressed together. The Most common Hardwood Flooring thicknesses are 5/16", 3/8" and 1/2" and widths are 3" 4" and 5". Engineered wood floors have layers of wood veneer that are cross-laminated for dimensional stability. These floors will be less affected by moisture than solid wood floors. Engineered wood floors can be installed on grade, below grade, or above grade - virtually - any room in the home. Engineered wood floors have several options of installing; nail down, staple down, glue down, and some can even be floated.

Engineered wood floors are made completely from wood unlike Laminate. Laminate- core of product is typically made of High Density Fiber (HDF). The top layer is a photographic layer that should appear identical to the product it replicates, be it wood, vinyl, tile, etc.