Known for its character, grace and inescapably opulent looks, wood flooring has been an extremely popular flooring choice that offers prestige and splendour to a home for centuries. Generally, when people are looking for a wooden floor, they automatically navigate towards solid wood, paying little attention to the engineered alternative as they are unaware of the product or is not classed as ‘real’ or ‘authentic’. Little do they know, engineered wood, with its solid wood veneer, combines the classic beauty of a solid wood board with a whole load of features that really should be considered.
Unlike a solid wood board, engineered is contrived of layers of plywood or HDF bonded together with a solid wood top. This combination of materials and layers creates a remarkably strong and durable floor that looks exactly like solid wood but has far more benefits.
Not only does the composition of an engineered board make it much stronger than solid wood, it also makes it less reactive to heat and humidity variations enabling it to be laid in kitchens and conservatories, where solid wood would become damaged and be unable to cope. Because of this stability, engineered wood can be laid as a floating floor rather than gluing or nailing it down to the sub-floor. This makes installing engineered wood much easier and quicker and means you can take the wood is easily taken up if needed – some engineered boards even have a click system like laminate making it even easier to lay.
The base layers of engineered wood act as support to the solid wood top, enabling wider wood boards to be created without the prospect of bowing. Although solid wood has carved channels on the back of the board, it is not strong enough to be made into wide boards. Plus, as engineered boards only use a small layer of solid wood, more boards (especially wide ones which are much rarer) can be made with a small amount of wood making it much more eco-friendly.
Wood flooring is naturally hard-wearing in nature, especially when finished with the high quality lacquers and oils around today. However, after around 10 years, depending on traffic and care, they can become worn and need to be re-sanded and re-finished – most solid woods can have this done 2-3 times if not more. Subject to the thickness of an engineered wood’s solid wood top layer, they can also be sanded for every 1mm of solid wood as long as 1mm remains. An engineered wood with a 3mm top layer would be able to be sanded twice. This means that engineered wood can last for centuries, just like solid wood – making it a great flooring investment.
The price of Engineered wood fluctuates depending on the grade of wood, the wood veneer, the thickness of the backing layers, the type of wood used and the finish. Nevertheless, due to its growing popularity it is now widely available in a huge range of finishes and sizes and is sold at competitive prices. Plus, like solid wood it will ultimately add value to your home. Take a look at the beautiful range of affordable, high quality engineered woods at Direct Wood Flooring.
So why is engineered wood worthy of your attention? Engineered wood possesses the desired beauty and charm of solid wood whilst offering a structure that is indisputably favourable to its sister, solid wood. Though solid wood still has a strong authentic appeal to customers, engineered woods flexibility means it should definitely be considered when looking at a wooden floor – especially when it is being laid in an inconsistent environment.
