Tis the Season to renovate! With the holidays just around the corner, this is a time when many decide it’s time to upgrade their home. Having a professional replace that old, tired flooring with beautiful hardwood is an excellent way to revitalize a room, while also adding value to your home.

The Difference Between Solid Wood and Engineered Wood Flooring

There are two types of hardwood flooring; solid and engineered. Once installed, they both appear very similar. They are available in the same range of finishes and stains, while surface wear and durability is also comparable. Which type you choose depends primarily on your budget, product availability, installation, and environment factors within the selected room. Let’s examine these two options in detail.

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Solid wood flooring is manufactured from a single piece of wood generally ¾” thick with a finished top surface and installed using nails or staples through a tongue and groove (T & G) side profile. Solid wood flooring should only be installed over a proper wood subfloor. Strip, plank and parquet styles are available, with several standard widths to choose from. The price point of solid wood flooring is generally slightly higher than engineered, but not necessarily; it depends (as always) on the product grade, plank width, and depth of finished top layer.

Engineered wood flooring consists of 2 or more layers with the top layer being wood veneer usually 2-4mm thick. The base layer(s) is actually made up of sheets of wood layered under pressure on top of each other in opposite directions. Overall thickness of each piece can range from ¼” to 9/16”. It also comes in a variety of widths (some up to 7 1/2”), and finished surfaces including Bamboo. Engineered wood can be installed below, on, or above grade and doesn’t require a wood subfloor.

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Ok, so what’s the big difference?

The key factor which differentiates the two types of hardwood flooring is how each reacts to humidity and moisture within the room it will be installed. Since solid hardwood is 100% natural, it is more affected by environmental factors than engineered wood. If the room has highly fluctuating moisture or humidity levels, for example a basement, bathroom or kitchen, solid wood will simply expand and contract at a greater rate than engineered wood (which has a cross-layered “engineered” base), leading to potential damage like cupping, gapping or buckling. Engineered wood, while it will react to humidity, does so in much less dramatic fashion than its solid wood counterpart. This is why engineered wood does not require nailing (although nailing into a wood subfloor is ok); it can be glued down or even “floated” over concrete basement floors.

Happy renovating!

Greg Liness from Alair Homes Barrie