Frederick S. Schmidt

Buying Guide of Engineering Hardwood Flooring

Engineered hardwood flooring is becoming more and more popular. It’s often preferred over solid wood flooring because it offers customers the same value and durability, albeit with more versatility. Also, this flooring can be installed over concrete and basement, which makes it one of the most popular floors in the modern era. 

But new customers who are looking to purchase engineered hardwood flooring for their home can be tough and confusing to buy a good one among many other floor materials. Read the guide below, and you can purchase the engineered flooring of your dream. 

Wear Layer and Durability

If you don’t know what a wear layer is - it’s the top layer made from any type of wood you want which resembles solid hardwood flooring in terms of value and quality. The thicker the floor is, the longer it will last because the wear layer is thick and you will find this type of flooring in thicknesses from ⅜” to ¾”. During the lifetime of the floor, it can be sanded and refinished 2-3 times, which means depending on the traffic it can last 40-80 years. 

Also, thinner engineered hardwood flooring cannot be finished and should last 20-30 years depending on the traffic. 

Flooring Materials, Lengths, and Patterns

When considering these types of the floor, there are two main factors: the types of wood species you want and the width of the flooring. More and more types of exotic woods are added every year, which includes Brazillian koa and cherrywood, sakura, tigerwood, teak, and kempas.

There are also domestic woods which include red and white oak, ash, maple, walnut, cherry, hickory, birch, yellow birch, mahogany, and pine. As far as width concerned, you can find it as narrow as 2 ¼” and as wide as 7” and sometimes even wider. Generally, narrow width gives a room a more contemporary and formal feeling and wider widths are associated with design schemes like country, old world, French provincial, and colonial.

Also, plank lengths vary from 12” to 60”, and boxes of flooring will have planks of differing length to help ensure a random plank field in which butt ends are not aligned side by side.