Wood Flooring SuppliesInstalling Wooden Floors

Solid Wood Or Engineered Wood Flooring?

One of the most frequently asked questions is what type of wood a customer should go for – solid or engineered? What are the pros and cons and how much both options cost?

Solid wood floors, such as oak, cherry, ash, beach, maple etc. feature improved resistance to physical damage and can be re-sanded multiple times when the protective sealant has worn off. Solid wood floors, however, are less resistant to humidity. Damp subfloor, flooding or area with increased or rapidly changing humidity mean a higher risk of solid wood planks getting shrunk and deformed.

A good example of a places where you might be better off opting for something else rather than solid Wood Flooring is a south facing conservatory with frequent and rapid fluctuations in temperature and humidity, cellar with constant, higher humidity etc.

Fitting Engineered Wood Flooring makes for a great alternative in these cases. Engineered wood floor layers are designed to be more resistant to higher temperature and humidity and come off with flying colors through mishaps that would have caused severe damage to solid wood flooring. Engineered floors have one major disadvantage over solid wood and it´s their shorter lifespan.

Engineered wood floor planks typically come in thickness that varies between 15 and 20 mm, with a top layer of natural wood that’s between 3 mm – 6 mm thin, meaning they can be re-sanded and re-finished up to 1-3 times in their life and which in the case of 3 mm veneer will give you duration expectancy of about 5 – 6 years.

The 6 mm top-layer based Engineered Flooring, however may come quite close to the lifespan of a solid wood flooring. The reason is that solid wood flooring, coming with a tongue & groove fitting system will give you a sanding depth of about 7 – 9 mm, depending of the location of the tongue. As the floors can be sanded up to the tongue only, than an engineered flooring of 6 mm top layer will give approx. same sanding life as the solid wood equivalent.

The price of Engineered Wood Floors may vary quite a lot. Starting from £23.00 depending on wood finish (exclusive of VAT), price sometimes skyrockets and go higher than what you would pay for solid wood featuring the same surface finish. Of course, price hikes are sometimes justified and well worth depending on the specific conditions in the area, where flooring is to be installed.

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