When your home or building needs new hardwood flooring, what do you choose – engineered or solid hardwood? Hurst Hardwoods carries a large assortment of solid and engineered domestic and exotic species by well-known manufacturers. From BR 111 to Bruce hardwood flooring, solid and engineered types are available, but which is best for your structure?
Solid hardwood flooring is cut directly from a wood log into a solid plank. The tongue and grooves are milled onto all four sides. Solid hardwood flooring is 5/16ths to 3/4ths of an inch thick and in various widths. Solid wood flooring, however, is sensitive to changes in humidity, and should be installed on or above ground level.
When you install unfinished or prefinished solid hardwood flooring, the wood must be nailed down over a wood subfloor. Thinner solids like 3/8" or less can be glued down using a urethane based glue.
Engineered hardwood flooring is more versatile. One piece is made out of three to nine thin wood plies of hardwood bonded together through heat and pressure. Fully made of hardwood, engineered flooring has the specified species on top – domestic and exotic woods are possible – and lower plies are made up of a similar or more stable species.
Engineered flooring provides greater possibilities of adding the look of hardwood to your home. Considered more dimensionally stable, engineered hardwood can be used on all grade levels – in a dry basement, over concrete slabs, and on top of a radiating heat source.
Installation for engineered hardwood flooring is less time-consuming. This type of flooring can be glued or stapled down or floated over wood subfloors, concrete, and other floor coverings like vinyl.
In addition to these two basic types of hardwood, unfinished and prefinished flooring is available. Prefinished flooring, with a surface or penetrating finish added before, takes less time to install and is ideal for adding new flooring to an entire room or floor of a home or building. If the new wood needs to match existing flooring, consider installing unfinished hardwood.
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