Any hardwood floor can be a great investment as it adds a natural, timeless appeal to your property, along with warmth and luxury. Engineered hardwood flooring is a fantastic alternative to solid hardwood flooring as it has more dimensional strength, can be less costly, and it is very difficult to distinguish between the two once they have been installed.
Engineered wood flooring is constructed in such a way that it provides better stability and resistance to variations in temperature and moisture. The exciting part is that it looks like solid wood flooring as the top layer is real, solid wood but it then has a plywood base construction underneath. The top layer of hardwood runs perpendicular to the plywood base, which creates the strength and stability of the flooring by allowing it to react to changes in temperature and humidity, meaning that it can be used with underfloor heating and in rooms that significantly change in temperature, such as conservatories and utility rooms.
The main advantages of engineered hardwood flooring are that it is:
- Less costly than solid hardwood flooring
- Difficult to tell apart from solid wood flooring once installed
- Has a real layer of wood on top (unlike laminate flooring)
- More resistant to fluctuations in temperature and humidity than solid wood flooring
- A stable product so can be installed in a variety of ways to suit your property and preference, e.g. loose laid over an underlay
- Compatible with underfloor heating
- Mostly found with a click fitting system, making it quick and easy to install
- Available in different wood species, styles, colours, finishes and plank widths
- The top layer (wear layer) can be sanded and re-finished if necessary
- Engineered hardwood flooring should not be confused with laminate flooring, which is only a picture of wood flooring laminated onto a base layer.
