Engineered wood flooring is designed and constructed to provide better stability and resistance when moisture or heat may cause problems for solid wood floors. This type of flooring has many advantages on any other flooring from solid hardwood floors to plush Berber carpeting.
Engineered Wood Flooring Options Engineered wood flooring is available in many different sizes, species and styles. It offers a middle ground between solid hardwood floors and laminate flooring which gets its look from a highly rendered photograph. The fact that so little real wood is used in the making of engineered wood floors may allow homeowners to install some of the more expensive exotic hardwood flooring species without having a detrimental impact on their budgets. There should be a wide variety of stains and finishes available, so you can get just the tone and look you want.
Advantages of Engineered Wood Flooring: Engineered wood flooring is generally less costly than solid hardwood flooring. It is made with real wood species and looks like solid hardwood. Engineered wood floors are comparatively more resistant to higher moisture levels than solid flooring. They are a better choice for installation over radiant heat sources, damp basements, and in areas not environmentally controlled all year long such as cottages or summer homes. Engineered wood flooring can be installed on any grade level, whether the installation site is above, below or at ground level. Engineered floors are a very easy and fast DIY installation option. Installing Engineered Wood Flooring Engineered floors can be nailed, stapled or glued down, or floated over a wide variety of subfloors, including some types of existing flooring. These can be ceramic tiles and vinyl flooring, provided these floorings are tightly secured to the subfloor, and clean, flat and dry. This takes the hassle and mess out of new flooring projects and offers homeowners a reasonable hope of completing the project in one short weekend.
If do-it-yourself projects just aren’t your cup of tea, there are still advantages to having engineered wood floors installed over other types of flooring. Since the installation is so very simple and time efficient, flooring contractors are likely to quote much lower prices for the project. Professional flooring installers may even be able to complete your engineered wood flooring project in a day or less, allowing you to enjoy your new floors faster.
Engineered Wood Flooring Durability Engineered wood flooring is made to be highly durable, standing up to heavy traffic for long periods of time. However, like all types of flooring, there comes a day when the surface is simply too worn to be considered attractive anymore. One of the biggest drawbacks to engineered flooring in the past has been the inability to refinish them in order to give them a second life. All of that has changed, however.
Engineered Wood Flooring Wear Layer Some engineered wood floors have a very thick wear layer. These are appropriately referred to as refinishable engineered hardwood floors. These floors, as per their namesake, can be sanded and refinished as you would with a solid hardwood floor, up to 3 times depending on the manufacturer and design. This simple but critical improvement to the material has given engineered wood floors all of the advantages of solid hardwood flooring, plus a few that are all its own.
