Engineered wood flooring is a highly popular flooring option but is a floor covering that’s often misunderstood. Only too commonly confused with laminate flooring, engineered wood flooring often struggles to get the respect it deserves. So what exactly is so special about this style of flooring?
In a nutshell, the main advantages of engineered flooring are to do with its strength, its durability and its good looks. Invented in the 1960s, engineered wood flooring opened up a whole new host of opportunities for wood flooring in the home as well as in commercial settings. No longer was it bad news to install wood flooring in kitchens and bathrooms, and no longer did you have to choose between the great look of solid wood floors or the convenience of a flooring option that could withstand the temperature and moisture fluctuations in certain rooms in the home. With engineered wood flooring it was suddenly possible to have both.
Clever construction
The way engineered flooring is made involves the bonding together of various layers of wood and then topping those ‘sandwiches’ of wood off with a solid wood lamella or top layer. It is thanks to this construction that engineered wood flooring is so strong and so resistant to expansion and contraction.
Solid wood, when it comes in contact with moisture fluctuations or rises and falls in temperature, it does what it does in its natural state; it expands and contracts. While this is completely normal while the tree is in the forest, what it often means in a flooring setting is that gaps can become excessive and where there isn’t sufficient space to expand, the wood may cup or buckle. Needless to say, none of these things are ideal and can be avoided by using engineered wood flooring where there is any fear of moisture or temperature fluctuations.
Making the right choices
In the same way as there is with solid wood flooring, the thickness of engineered wood flooring boards vary, as does the thickness of the top layer. It’s important when making your buying decision that you’re aware of both what you’re buying and the pros and cons of the various options on offer. For example, if you want to be able to sand and refinish your floor repeatedly, it’s important to choose a board with a thick lamella or top layer. If you want extreme stability, you should choose a thicker board and finally, if you are fitting your flooring over under floor heating, you should make sure it isn’t too thick, otherwise the heat simply will not transfer into your room.
Available with a range of finishes, again engineered wood flooring is just like solid wood, in the sense that you can choose from lacquered finish, oiled finish, hand distressed or aged. This means that you can track down exactly the engineered flooring that best suits your planned interior.
3-ply or multi-ply?
There are two main ways that engineered flooring is made. The first is 3-ply boards and the second is multi-ply. Three ply engineered wood flooring, as the name suggests is made of three specific layers: the solid wood top layer or lamella, the core layer and the base layer. Multi-ply engineered wood flooring is made with more layers of ply in its core board. In multi-ply flooring, the ply wood layers are glued together to create a particularly strong and resilient core board. While 3-ply flooring is cheaper than multi-ply, it is often criticized as being weaker and in particular for weaknesses in the tongue and groove area. What’s more, if you have under floor heating you should definitely choose multi-ply boards because they will stand up better to the ups and downs of temperature caused by your heating system.
Engineered wood flooring: the movie
If you’re still in any way uncertain about how engineered wood flooring is made or what it looks like, why not take a few minutes to watch our Wood and Beyond video that explains, in a nutshell, what you get when you choose this versatile, stylish and natural looking product?