In our stores we get customers wanting anything from cheap and cheerful laminate flooring to a full blown parquet flooring installation. Generally speaking people think they know what they want to buy. In the case of laminate flooring it’s really straightforward. It’s a great, cost effective, hard wearing product that comes in a gazillion styles and formats. Then we get the die hard “I want solid wood” customers who believe solid wood flooring is the only product they will entertain.
So what is engineered wood flooring. It’s laminate right? Well...yes it is fabricated by laminating different wood layers together...but.....and it’s a big but...it has a solid wood layer on top (unlike laminate flooring which is actually just a photograph of the wood bonded to the softwood base). So the hardwood layer is bonded to a stable softwood base which results in a very versatile product that looks and feels just like solid wood.
We really love engineered flooring...we fit so many wood floors so we appreciate just what a great product it is. We still struggle sometimes to sell it to the solid wood brigade because they see it as an inferior product...we say NO.....i many cases it is the best product to use.
Why engineered wood flooring. Here are just some of the reasons to consider it :
1) It’s dimensionally stable, this means it is suitable for installation in areas with greater humidity fluctuations....underfloor heating being the most notable.
2) It uses much less of the raw resource than solid wood flooring
3) It has a virtually identical look and feel to solid wood
4) It can be refinished a number of times if required
What is engineered wood flooring....it’s the way forward!