Solid vs Engineered hardwood Floors

There are a lot of differences in flooring when it concerns wood. But do you know what the differences are? We understand how serious you are about getting Hardwood Flooring in your home or office, and that’s why it is crucial that you know the key differences in each flooring type. Looking for the perfect floor can be a puzzling process, but with a little guidance you should be all right. Thus, we would like to help make that decision easier by offering some basic information about your wood flooring options.

In today’s Hardwood Flooring Industry there are two main characters mad of Hardwood, both very similar in some aspects, yet very different in other. We are talking about the Engineered Hardwood Flooring and the Solid Hardwood Flooring. If you are looking for a new hardwood floor, you probably already heard about those two kinds of hardwood flooring.

If you’re worried about making the right hardwood flooring choice, you aren’t alone. Many people ask the differences between solid and engineered hardwood and which one they should use.

Actually, this information will bring a large part in your decision on your wood choice. This information only made to explain the differences in structure, manufacturing, species and installing methods between the Solid Hardwood Floors and the Engineered Hardwood Floors. Here some criteria which differentiate and show pluses and minuses of them:

WHERE THEY’RE INSTALLED

First, perhaps the most important decision is where in your house do you plan on installing the hardwood floor? Solid Hardwood must only be installed on a plywood subfloor at or above ground level. Solid hardwood can’t be installed (or isn’t recommended) in high moisture rooms, like the kitchen, bath and basement.

This is because the higher moisture content in the air – or even on the floor – can cause the wood to ripple or buckle, which will destroy the flooring. Unlike solid hardwood flooring, engineered flooring can be installed in any room that you choose; it can withstand moisture due to the layers of flooring that withstand buckling and rippling.

Engineered flooring can also be installed over radiant floor heating, which can keep your feet warm during those cold winter months. If you are looking to install a hardwood floor directly to a cement slab, below ground level, or in a humid location, you should consider an Engineered Hardwood floor.

SIZE

Solid wood flooring is the traditional style of wood flooring. It is milled straight from the tree and not engineered into a constructed board, which gives a true feeling of a natural floor. Solid Hardwood Flooring: A solid piece of hardwood, typically 3/4″ or 19mm thick, although some do come in 3/8″ (10mm) or 5/16″ (8mm) thicknesses.

Engineered Hardwood flooring: are several plies of wood that are glued and laminated together to form a wood plank. Range in thickness from 1/4″ to 5/8 inch. Engineered hardwood flooring is generally thinner than solid hardwood. That means it can be used in many remodeling projects where a solid ¾ inch solid floor would create a height problem.

HOW THEY’RE MANUFACTURED

The first and the most important difference between solid floors and engineered floors is the way they are being manufactured. Solid Hardwood Floor is being manufactured from a solid piece of wood, which result a solid piece of hardwood plank – one solid material all the way, from sawing the wood until installing the floors, it’s all one piece.

On the other hand, Engineered Hardwood Floors contain only one thin layer of real hardwood – the visible top layer. Engineered Flooring is made of a wood layers of softwood like plywood or High Density Fibers (HDF), all glue down together with pressure, what result with a multi-layer plank with top layer of real hardwood.

The 3 layers are sandwiched together to create a compact and stable board. Each layer is laid in the opposite direction in a ‘cross-ply’ construction as wood naturally expands across the width, and not the length of the board. This creates a plank that expands as little as possible and makes fitting easier.

A small gap of 8-10mm is still required at the edge of the room however, to avoid expansion problems. They should be fitted on top of a thin underlay, not normally more than 4mm. The top layer is the decorative wood you have chosen for your home or office.

contempofloorcoverings.com

INSTALLATION

Most of the Engineered Hardwood Flooring can be installed using the glue down method or by nailing or stapling it down to another subfloor. Engineered Flooring is compensated of several plys of wood; like ply wood but with a nice veneer top. The wood veneer and all the layers of plywood base are glued and dried under intense pressure to guarantee a strong bond.

This product, a hybrid of plywood and hardwood, can now be glued directly to the cement slab. The last step is to add stain if needed, and add a finish. There is no need to install a plywood subfloor, generally it might make more financial sense to go with an engineered wood on a slab just because it takes less time and thus less money.

Another advantage of the engineered hardwood is the ability to install it straight on cement and concrete slabs. The installation time may be fast and you could have use of your room back quicker rather than later

First Installation of solid wood requires sanding, finishing and coating, a process that increases the time you are moved from your home or office. Solid Hardwood flooring must Solid Wood Floors must be nailed down to other subfloor, like plywood for example and it just can’t be done onto concrete surfaces.

So you truly need two floors, the bottom floor and top floor. Now depending on if you have a raised foundation or a slab foundation will dictate how the floor is laid. A slab foundation will first need a subfloor nailed into the concrete. The glue-down system just doesn’t let the solid wood enough freedom to expand and contract, something that may cause crack and defects on the floor.

Bamboo Flooring is one type of Solid Hardwood Flooring that can be glue down like engineered. Solid wood can be sanded and refinished many times to cover and conceal scratches or imperfections the whole way down to the tongue and groove of the boards.

That could be as much as ¼” or about one third of the thickness of the board, well that’s a lot of sanding. But, most engineered floors can be sanded too, particularly if you choose one with a thicker saw cut face. Refinishing, thus commonly becomes a secondary consideration in the selection process.

DURABILITY

Single great difference between Engineered Flooring and Solid Floors, when discussing long life standing is the refinishing issue. Solid Wood usually goes with a 3/4″ inch. Thickness, what let you to re-sand it and refinish it for more than five times. This ensures you a product that can last over 100 years! If you have children or pets, then you would like to think the durability factor of solid hardwood flooring in your determination

In Engineered Flooring this subject vary, and depend totally on the thickness of the top hardwood layer. We really recommend you to stay away from engineered flooring products that have a very thin layer. It will be very hard to repair or to change this floor to something else in the future. So if you are considering about the far future, solid wood will be a better choice for you, though today’s engineered floors can lasts for man many years likewise.

PRICE

Deciding between engineered vs. solid hardwood flooring is a decision that should be made carefully. In some cases, your budget will be the determining factor, but if at all possible, it is better to let other considerations make your decision for you.

You may guess that engineered hardwood flooring is less expensive than solid hardwood because there is only thin piece of real hardwood at the engineered floors. That’s true on some cases, particularly when we are talking about wide wood planks, where a lot of expensive hardwood is being used to create solid wood planks. But then, when talking about narrower wood planks, the solid hardwood will likely be a little bit cheaper, since the costs of manufacturing engineered wood floors come about.

The price of both Engineered Hardwood Flooring and Solid Hardwood Flooring also depends on the wood species that is being used. There are more expensive species like the walnut, or the American Cherry and the Brazilian cherry for example, and there are the less expensive species like the Red Oak and the White Oak, or the flooring. Typically engineered hardwood flooring will cost you less than solid hardwood flooring for the same look because less of the valuable tree is used than with solid wood.

Also, freight costs are lower because engineered flooring is lighter in weight and therefore less costly to transport. These factors also help make engineered flooring friendly to the environment.

DESIGN

Nowadays, the Engineered Hardwood Flooring is so improved, therefore you are able to find any species, with any stain, with variable width and thickness so you can choose precisely what fits for you. Cheers to the fact that there is only thin layer of hardwood at the engineered floors, manufacturers can supply us expensive wood species (like exotic wood species), or wider hardwood planks at affordable prices. You will find that engineered wood is available in various different designs and finishes. Here are some examples

• 3 Strip – This is where the board has been divided into 3 strips to create a busier look. This design is normally the cheapest as all the wastage from a piece of wood can be used.
• 2 Strip – This is the same as the 3 strip but has only been divided into 2 strips.
• Plank – This is where the board has been manufactured into 1 single plank of wood. This is most popular in larger rooms where a plank effect will open up the space.

Solid hardwood flooring comes in many different wood varieties, including exotic woods. It’s slightly more expensive than engineered wood flooring, but if you are a diehard wood enthusiast, then you may want to stick with solid hardwood flooring. You can find a lot of new species, stained with many different colors – it is basically your taste and preference.

STABILITY

Engineered wood is renowned for its stability and ease of fitting. A solid wood floor is usually less stable than an engineered wood floor. It is referred to moisture and expansion related to that moisture. When you get climate changes in your home, which you absolutely will, wood flooring expands and contracts. With solid wood flooring, it generally expands and contracts a lot more than the engineered wood.

Engineered wood flooring is constructed to be dimensionally stable, while most solid wood floors are simply cut pieces of wood from a tree. Considering solid wood floors are cut pieces of wood and their fibers run in only one direction, there is a lot more room for expansion and contraction to occur.

With engineered wood flooring, this problem is actually significantly reduced since you will be getting a wood floor that is engineered in a cross-grained manner to minimize any expansion and contraction that a piece of solid wood will have.

AT LAST

We’re not stating that solid wood floors are bad or of lesser quality, but here are some facts you ought to know when dealing which type of wood floor to apply. Disregarding how much you spend on a solid wood floor, you are most expected to get one that will have characteristics as we described before. In some cases, with certain species, you may have no option because solid wood is that entire particular species is available in.

But, if you are looking at Oak, Maple, Cherry, Walnut, Brazilian Cherry, Teak or one of the other more popular species, you can potentially find it in an engineered floor, and it will likely be a better value. Engineered wood floors are also very flexible in terms of installation methods. They can be installed using staple down, glue down, or free float methods.

The Engineered Hardwood Flooring was made up in order to overcome some problems solid hardwood floors having difficulties with, like moisture and high humid areas. Engineered hardwood flooring is also more environmentally friendly than solid hardwood floors because the sub-surface layers are made from “junk” or “scrap” wood, not the ornamental wood.

It saves more forests because each tree of the wanted ornamental wood can go further than it does with solid wood flooring. Once you resolved, and understand what your choices are, the only matter to do is to go on your with taste and your heart.

Recent Posts: