Hardwood floor has a long tradition of luxury and timeless beauty that no one can deny the appeal of it. For any hardwood floor needs an excellent investment and adds a natural, timeless appeal to your property, along with warmth and comfort.
On the other hand, engineered wooden floor is the closest alternative to real wood flooring. That is also the most popular for us. Engineered hardwood flooring is a fantastic alternative to solid hardwood flooring that has more dimensional power. Besides, it can be less costly, and it is complicated to discriminate between the natural wooden floor and engineered wood floor once they have been installed.
Engineered wood flooring is made in such a way that it affords better constancy and resistance to variations in temperature and moisture. Generally, it looks like solid wood flooring as the top layer is real, solid wood, but it then has a plywood base construction underneath.
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What is Engineered Wood Flooring?
For considering an engineered wood floor, the decorative layer must be real wood. When we see in the laminate flooring, the decorative layer is a print, but engineered floors can only have a natural decorative top layer. Sometimes laminate floor uses real wood, where wood chips are used in the core HDF material, but there is no actual wood used in the decorative surface.
Moreover, the decorative top layer of engineered wood flooring can be any thickness. As a result, the top layers provide longer life and can go longer life.
Engineered wood contains multiple ply layers that are comprised together rather than a monolithic solid piece of hardwood. The inner core includes either hardwood or soft plywood type material, e.g. neat, MDF that means medium density fibre, HDF (High-Density Fibre), OBS(Oriented Strand Board), etc. include a tongue and channel jointing system. The top thicker hardwood layer is attached on the top surface of the core and is available in almost any hardwood types. Usually, the top coating hardwood is produced by a sliced cut. The thickness of engineered floor strips will be 8 mm to 20 mm. Fig. 8.1 – A distinctive part of the engineered wood flooring strip.
Engineered hardwood is the multiple ply layers stacked one on top of the other with the grain of adjacent layers oriented at right angles to one other. If the desired thickness is achieved once, you have to cut the boards into the specified board width. By doing this, the engineered hardwood becomes less susceptible to the effects of moisture and temperature change and dimensionally stable, because wood expands and contracts in the width of the grain direction.
Advantages of Engineered Wood Flooring
Though the engineered wood floor is more popular and looks luxurious, they have some advantages as well as disadvantages. Before choosing it, you should consider all about engineered wood flooring.
Installs Over Concrete
The engineered wood floor is practically stylish due to its multi-layer construction. It is able to control the moisture of your home environment and resists humidity much better than solid hardwood. Moreover, you can stick this flooring over a concrete slab. Make sure to choose waterproof and fix any cracks before installation. And you need to use special quality mop for cleaning engineered floors.
Multiple Installation Methods
Engineered wood flooring is easy to install at your home. It’s the perfect DIY project for experienced weekend warriors so that you can try it. Where you can effortlessly float, staple, or glue engineered wood. And you can even find planks with locking mechanisms. Before doing this, you should pay attention to the spacing. Also, your measurements will be a bit off, and it won’t be as noticeable.
Stylish
Engineered hardwood looks like the same as traditional hardwood flooring from the surface, so it looks extremely stylish. It is also available in several different finishes in your choice. So if you have a particular wood choice, you can likely find it available in an engineered form. Engineered wood flooring comes in a multitude of finishes and colors.
The Price
While the traditional hardwood floor might be quite expensive, engineered hardwood flooring is the perfect middle ground that not as expensive as conventional hardwood.
Though it ismore expensive than imitation laminate or vinyl, engineered hardwood is the same in appearance and touch to traditional hardwood, but it will often be cheaper.
Maintenance
It is very tough to maintain any engineered hardwood floor to keep its shine and luster. Engineered wood is different at this point; therefore, you do not need particularly suitable for home’s with pets or young children unless you are prepared to keep up with regular maintenance.
Disadvantages of Engineered Wood Flooring
Potentially Weak
There is a lot of engineered hardwood flooring manufacturers use very cheap and weak materials to assemble their flooring. It might look good on the surface but being very weak and unstable after just a short time. Do investigate before buying engineered hardwood flooring, and make sure you are taking from a high-quality manufacturer.
Fading
Getting fad is another con that engineered hardwood floor allocates with traditional hardwood flooring. Too much heat will cause the wood to fade away and fade its colours. But you can minimize the threat of fading buy keeping your curtains or using some rugs to cover more vulnerable areas.
Low-Quality Core Construction
Some manufacturers cut production costs by using low-quality core material such as oriental strand board or fiberboard. This procedure makes the floor unstable and prone to damage.
When you are looking for engineered wood, see the lookout for cheap imitations. High-quality engineered floors have plywood cores that make steady and built to withstand temperature fluctuations.
Check this too: How to Clean Dark Wood Floors
Final Words
Though the engineered wooden floor looks like real oak flooring, check with the manufacturer before installing engineered wood over radiant systems. Regular maintaining is the key to let them long-lasting.