The Switch to Engineered wooden Flooring

Why British consumers are choosing Engineered wood flooring Over Solid Wood Flooring

Todays Wood flooring article concentrates on Solid Wood Flooring & Engineered Wood Flooring and the reasons “ Why “ consumers are switching over from solid wood. Let us explore the differences between engineered wood flooring and solid hardwood wood flooring.

•           Engineered flooring, by the very virtue of its naming, implies that it is not 100% wood but a wood floor product that has undergone some kind of processing. Engineered wood flooring is generally made of a Plywood core with a Solid Wooden Veneer on the surface to give the look and feel or Solid wood, there may be more than one variety of wood and special components to enhance the flooring. For instance, engineered wood flooring may also use recycled rubber wood for a base.

•           Engineered wood flooring usually has a number of layers. This allows it to be vastly more stable since contraction and expansion is far less. It is no secret that solid wood flooring will expand and contract sometimes way beyond acceptable levels when there are serious temperature fluctuations or high relative humidity. The popularity of engineered flooring largely rests on the shortcomings of solid wood flooring. Solid hardwood is notorious for expanding, contracting and swelling up. ( With the warm wet summers that we have in Britain coupled with the fact that most sub floors are concrete excess expansion and contraction problems are a distinct possibility ).

•           Engineered wood flooring is easier to install as it doesn’t require sticking down Hardwood or solid wood flooring is a lot more difficult.  Also, many companies that make engineered wood flooring panels offer a glueless click fit system . Engineered flooring can be glued down or floated as a method of installation. Solid wood flooring would almost always require traditional tongue and groove installation or gluing directly to the concrete . This can be a tedious and time consuming process.

Stability of Wooden Floors

Quite Simply the main key difference and the reason why consumers are moving away from the more traditional Solid Wooden Flooring products is due to overall Stability.

Price

Generally the price of Solid Wood Flooring compared to Engineered is similar it all depends on the manufacturer, where you live and who you source it from. Do consider the type of property you have and the subfloor you have before you choose either of the two. 

For further information feel free to give us a call at our Depot in Pontardulais South Wales on 01792 884828 or call in to visit our extensive Engineered flooring display centre.