This seems to be a common question when it comes to new flooring, people often find it difficult to decide which type of floor to choose. Engineered wood has been available for a number of years and people who choose this option tend to favour this flooring. Whilst solid wood flooring is also a popular choice for new flooring in your property. We take a look at the differences and help you choose which type of wood flooring you should go for…
Solid Wood Flooring
Solid wood flooring is just what the name suggests, wood flooring which is made from solid wood and no matter what type or grade of wood you can think of, it’s most likely that you’ll be able to track it down in a solid wood flooring option.
Engineered Wood Flooring
Engineered wood flooring is made up of constructed core boards that are effectively layers and layers of ply that are bonded together. After the boards are topped off with a lamella or top layer of solid wood, this makes engineered wood flooring look just like solid wood.
Often it’s confused as being the same as laminate flooring, but this is not true.
Which room are you laying flooring in? Your bathroom or a kitchen?
When you’re thinking of installing a new wood floor in your home it’s important to consider which room you are wanting to re-floor. Significant fluctuations in moisture levels and temperatures in both kitchens and bathrooms mean that engineered wood flooring is the common choice for these rooms. The way this flooring is engineered means that they may expand and contract slightly when exposed to the rises and falls in temperatures and moisture levels, in comparison, with solid wood the risk of resulting damage is minimal. When solid wood is exposed to significant environmental changes, it expands and contracts considerably, which over a long period of time can cause damage to your floor. This won’t happen with a good quality, well-fitted engineered wood floor.
Are your rooms prone to high or heavy footfall?
High football means that you anticipate your floor to experience lots of traffic on a daily basis, heavy football refers to environments where there’s likely to be a higher impact on the floor thanks to the people who are crossing it. This could refer to wheelchair users and people who rely on walking aids or people who are significantly heavier than average weight. When there’s high or heavy footfall, it’s good to know that you can re-sand and re-finish your floor whenever required. Engineered wood with a thick lamella or top layer can be sanded comfortable two or three times during its lifetime, a solid wood floor can take up to five or six sandings before risking significant damage. So if you’re flooring a room where there’s likely to be high or heavy football, your sub floor is dry and there’s no significant temperature or moisture fluctuations, as well as no under floor heating, then solid wood is a practical solution for you.
Budget
Wood flooring is a brilliant solution, no matter your budget, there’s lots of competition in the wood floor market. There’s little difference between solid and engineered wood flooring prices, so how much money you want to spend shouldn’t be a huge driving factor in your decision making process, as irrespective of the amount you have to spend, you should be able to find a solution that ticks all of your boxes in each category.
So to finish, let’s summarise solid wood and engineered wood flooring…
- If your floor is likely to be exposed to moisture, you need to choose engineered wood with a suitable underlay
- For bathrooms and kitchens, again engineered wood is a great choice
- For high and heavy footfall, both engineered and solid wood flooring are suitable
- Both engineered wood and solid wood floors are competitively priced, so your budget shouldn’t affect your new flooring choice
At Value Floors Hall Green, we are more than happy to help should you have any queries, for more information contact our team today.