About Hardwood Flooring

There are two types of wood floors available on the market today: solid & engineered.

SOLID

Solid wood flooring is exactly what the name implies: a solid piece of wood from top to bottom. The thickness of solid wood flooring can vary, but generally ranges from ¾” to 5/16”. One of the many benefits of solid wood flooring is that it can be sanded and refinished many times. Solid wood flooring can be installed above or on grade.

Engineered

Engineered wood floors are real wood floors that are manufactured using three to nine layers of different wood veneers. The sublayers can be of the same species, or of different species. The grain of each layer runs in different directions, which makes it very stable. This means that the wood will expand and contract less than solid wood flooring during fluctuations in humidity and temperature. The top layer of engineered woodflooring consists of high-quality wood. While this type of flooring can be sanded and finished, it cannot be done as many times as solid wood flooring. Engineered wood flooring can be installed above, on or below grade.

Determining which type of wood to put in your house has a lot to do with which wood to use.
Advances in wood flooring during the past few years mean that you now can have wood flooring anywhere in your home or business. Where you want to put it, however, will determine the type of wood flooring you can use.

If you're shopping for new hardwood floors, you might have been asked whether you want engineered or solid wood boards.  Or maybe you've been browsing different samples at home improvement stores, and you're wondering what the difference is.

Here is a quick lowdown on each:

Engineered Wood Boards

Engineered wood is made by attaching a layer of hardwood to a softwood base, often with a plywood bottom.  Unlike with solid wood boards, you're not getting pure hardwood.  This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, because the plywood base improves moisture resisitance & stability.  The hardwood layer on the top is made from one, two, or three strips of wood (the one-strip version is called "plank").

Engineered wood boards come pre-finished and are laid as a floating floor.  They don't need to be glued or nailed to a base.  They usually come with tongue-and-grove edges that are fitted together like puzzle pieces as you lay them.  You glue along the edge of the board that's already down, then ease the other board into place along the side of it.  Some of today's engineered boards also have edges that "click" together, much like laminate flooring, and don't require glue.

There is more than one kind of engineered wood.  Some types have a high-density base with a very thin wood veneer, and they're cheaper than the other types, though still more epensive than laminate.  You get what you pay for, and these cheaper versions are less durable than other engineered wood.

Solid Wood Boards

Solid wood boards come in random lengths with tongue-and-groove edges for nailing and gluing, and they fit together much as engineered wood boards do.  (In the old days all solid wood boards came with straight edges, which had to be butted p closely to each other and glued to the sub-floor.  You may still encounter these kind of boards if you work with reclaimed or salvaged flooring.  Labour and installtaion costs may be higher since it requires more effort to install.)

Solid wood boards often come unfinished, so you may use a varnish, oil or wax that you like.  however, you can also buy pre-finished wood, just as with engineered boards.  It's just a matter of your preferences and cost (unfinished wood is generally less expensive, but if you don't fancy the idea of regularly reapplying a varnish or waxing your floors, pre-finished may be the better fit for you).

Sometimes solid wood boards are laminated toether into 2 or 3 strip wide planks that are treated as solid dingle strip boards.  There planks are easy to mistake for engineered boards, but they're heavier then engineered wood, and that makes them hard to nail or glue – however you can lat them on the existing surface to make a floating wood floor.  No matter wich solid wood board you choose, be careful with the installation because solid wood boards are more prone to expansion and contraction than engineered wood.  You want to leave a little room at the edges for teh wood to breathe and expand.  Because of it's plywood base, exnigneered wood is less susceptible to this.