For home owners planning to install wood flooring in their home deciding between hardwood planks and the engineered wood flooring can be a great point of confusion. The hardwood planks surely have their advantages and the natural glamorous look, that may be, in some cases missing from the engineered wood flooring options. However, the engineered wood floors have their advantages as well and for some particular usages they even make a better option than the solid hardwood flooring. Let us tell you when exactly it is wiser to opt for engineered wood over hardwood.
Looks, longevity and price
To decide the best type of wooden flooring for your purpose first you need to have some basic idea about both the types of flooring and their pros and cons. The high quality engineered wooden floors in no way look cheaper than the hardwood planks, but they actually come for quite a less price from the solid hardwood. They give the same natural look to your home, and if you are opting for the best quality engineered woods, they will even give you the same longevity like the hardwood planks. So, in these aspects you have to give both of them the same marks. In fact, when it comes to the looks, the number of variations available in engineered wooden flooring is more than that of solid wooden planks.
Engineered wood flooring --- a better option for transition areas
Another unique thing about the engineered wooden floors is that they are made of layers of woods that are sealed together and hence they are available in different thickness, which is not a possible option for hardwood floors planks. Due to the availability of the engineered wooden flooring in different thickness, they can make the best solution for transition areas between different floorings. If your kitchen or bathroom has tile flooring and you are using hardwood planks in the adjacent room, you will have to add an awkward bridging area between the two, because the levels of the tile will not match with the level of the hardwood. In case of using an engineered wood floor, you can easily opt for the thickness of the flooring as per your requirements and thus avoid any type of awkward transition area between the rooms.
Enjoy easier and flexible installation with engineered wood flooring
Moisture is always a big problem for the solid hardwood flooring. If the sub floor attracts moisture, the wood floor is sure to suffer sooner or later. The best quality engineered wood floors are much more resistant to moisture compared to the solid wood planks. Most of the engineered wood floors can tolerate increased moisture level in the concrete sub floor due to their multi layered structure. So, if you are installing the floor on a concrete sub floor, the engineered woods surely make a better option. The engineered wood floors give high flexibility of installation. They are ideal for installation over concrete slabs and at the same time the thicker versions of these flooring can also be nailed down on a wooden sub floor. The thinner engineered wood floors can be glued down on the sub-floor just like a vinyl or resilient flooring. Due to their tongue and groove design they can also be installed as floating floors on cork or any older flooring.
Spend only on high quality engineered wood floors
If longevity is a point of concern, please be informed that depending on the thickness of the top veneer layer of the engineered wood flooring, it can provide un-interrupted service for 20 to 100 years, which is even more than solid hardwood planks in most of the cases. However, in order to get the best service from the engineered wood flooring it is really important that you opt for the best quality option; cheap engineered wood floorings are not anyway a match for the solid hardwood plank flooring.
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