Many consumers believe that solid hardwood floors surpasses engineered hardwood floors and might won’t consider engineered flooring for his or her home. Getting spent twenty five years like a flooring contractor and also the past four years like a store of both engineered and solid hardwood floors, I’ve discovered that there are plenty of misconceptions about both kinds of floors. I must share the next information and my experience to be able to make an informed decision concerning the best floor for the project.
Before I begin my comparison of engineered and solid floors, let’s first obvious in the misconception that engineered flooring is equivalent to laminate floors (ie-Pergo.) Greater than a couple of people enter my showroom with this particular idea, which isn’t true. Laminate floors isn’t hardwood, engineered flooring is. The top layer of laminate floors is really a photograph of wood-grain in writing impregnated with melamine, a fantasy wood. The very best layer (also known as put on layer) of engineered wooden flooring includes (real!) high-quality wood. Engineered hardwood flooring consist of multiple layers of wood, that are mix-banded for stability and glued onto a plywood base.
Solid Flooring: Pro’s
Wood floor is precisely that–a good wood all the way through. The thickness can differ, but generally varies from 3/4″ to fiveOrsixteen”. Solid hardwood is unquestionably hardwearing and resilient, and it is primary advantage is it could be re-sanded several occasions. However, it’s not always better than engineered flooring in this way. Wood flooring, like engineered flooring, includes a “put on layer” or layer of wood that may be sanded, which is only a small fraction of the thickness from the floor. Despite the fact that solid floors are thicker compared to put on layer of engineered floors, you are able to only sand lower to date before you decide to would hit a nail with solid flooring. You might get one, possibly two, additional sandings having a solid floor when compared with an engineered floor. This is actually the only possible benefit to solid flooring, for me, and it doesn’t apply in each and every situation in most cases doesn’t over-shadow the benefits of engineered flooring.
Engineered Flooring: Pro’s
Engineered floors have a lot of advantages. Whereas solid floors are a bad choice in situations where you can find high-moisture levels or radiant heat systems, the making of engineered floors means they are stable enough to resist certain alterations in temperature and moisture that may create a solid floor warp. Engineered hardwood floors is made to resist wood’s natural inclination to alter dimensionally with time. The grain of every layer runs in opposite directions, making engineered floors very stable. Which means that the wood will expand and contract under wood flooring during fluctuations in temperature and humidity. Because of this engineered floors are a better option for applications for example over radiant heat installations, in kitchens, bathrooms, and basements, or in which a floor is required to span two differing sub-floors like plywood and concrete.
An additional advantage of engineered floors is much more versatility of installation types. Whereas solid floors are only able to be nailed lower, most engineered floors could be nailed or stapled to some wood sub floor, or glued lower to some wood sub floor or layer of concrete. Only engineered floors could be sailed, your best option when hardwood floors can’t be connected to the sub-floor.
Lastly, when compared with wood flooring, engineered flooring is really a more eco sustainable choice, as it can certainly yield as much as four occasions the quantity of flooring utilizing the same amount of top quality wood.
Getting stated all this, wood floors are extremely an excellent option for many applications. They simply aren’t always the highest choice in each and every situation, as many folks believe. While in doubt, a flooring contractor can evaluate your website conditions and counsel you regarding the best flooring type for your house.
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