Hardwood Flooring. Solid or Engineered?

An Expert Guide to Hardwood Flooring Construction and Selection…

Construction

Hardwood floors come in two types: solid and engineered. While you may not think it’s a good idea to improve on nature, you should take both flooring types into consideration based on where the floor will be installed, and how you’ll use it.

Solid Hardwood

Solid hardwood flooring is just that – a plank of solid wood, usually 3/4″ thick, that comes in a variety of widths and lengths. Each plank is milled with a tongue-and-groove construction that interlocks together and is nailed onto a subflooring layer to create a permanent, stable surface. With changes in temperature and humidity, solid wood floors expand and contract, making them subject to buckling or gapping between the planks. So it’s best to use solid wood in above-ground applications, but never in basements, over concrete, or in high-humidity locations.

Unlike engineered hardwood, solid woods use substantially more of the premium wood of the tree by its very nature as a solid, typically making solid hardwoods more expensive per square foot than their engineered wood counterparts.

More to consider . . .

Buyer beware . . . what looks like a bargain may not be! Some lesser quality solid hardwood is not milled uniformly, resulting in a floor with gaps between planks that aren’t squared “ or even planks of different heights. And that may be more than you bargained for!

Engineered Hardwood

Like solid hardwood flooring, engineered hardwood is also real wood. However, engineered hardwood is a constructed wood product made of multiple layers of wood that are fused together at 90-degree angles, in cross-ply fashion, to create a stronger, more stable hardwood product than solid hardwood. As such, engineered hardwood is not as subject to the buckling and gaps brought about by temperature and humidity fluctuations and can be used in both above-ground applications and in basements or over concrete. And, because engineered hardwood creates a “sandwich” of several different wood layers with the more expensive, premium wood used as the surface layer, engineered hardwood is almost always less expensive per square foot than equivalent solid hardwoods.

Wear Layer

Most engineered hardwood floors are installed by nailing or gluing; others are designed to interlock together as a “floating” floor.

Basic engineered hardwood consists of three layers, or plies:

• A face layer (or wear layer) that creates the surface look of the floor
• A core constructed of an inexpensive yet very strong hardwood
• A backing that’s also constructed of less expensive hardwood

Plies can range anywhere from three to ten layers, with each successive layer adding to the product’s stability and quality. And, an engineered hardwood floor is less expensive than a solid wood floor of the same species, because the more expensive hardwood species is used only for the face layer.

More to consider . . .

The more plies, or layers, in an engineered hardwood product, the better the quality and strength of the floor.

Products with interior layers made of North American hardwood are superior to those containing woods from other continents, because the slower growing season produces stronger woods with tighter grains.

Engineered hardwood flooring is particularly desirable for exotic woods, which are usually softer and more subject to bowing “ and more expensive.

Engineered hardwood flooring makes better use of the entire tree by minimizing waste, making it a more “green-friendly” product.

Find your floor’s hardness.

Below are listed the relative hardness for numerous wood species used in flooring. These ratings were done using the Janka Hardness Test, which measure the force needed to embed a .444 inch steel ball to half its diameter in a piece of wood.

The higher the number the harder the wood. Although this is one of the best methods to measure the ability of wood species to withstand indentations, it should be used as a general guide when comparing various species of wood flooring. As a natural product, all wood floors will dent and scratch. It is up to the care and maintenance of the owner to minimize the inevitable impact of regular use on your hardwood floor through proper care and cleaning. Care for your floor, but above all, relax and enjoy the warmth and beauty of your new hardwood floor!

The construction and finish also play an important role in the durability and ease of maintenance of any wood floor.

Tags: Construction, Flooring, Hardwood, Selection