Types of Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Engineered Hardwood Flooring

This is the most stable wood flooring and is made up of good quality multilayer cross grain plywood back with a 4mm, 5mm or 6mm top layer. The thicker the top layer the more costly the wood floor as more wood is applied. These engineered boards should certainly not be confused with the cheaper laminate either where there is a flimsy top layer like 1mm or 2mm and a softwood middle or the actually dreadful low-cost plastic imitation flooring.

Wood Flooring “Figure “The common elegance of wood is exposed in wood flooring. There are numerous types of “Figure” as they are called such as the “birds eye” in Maple or medullary rays in Oak, you should always evaluate a manufacturers grading specification to see what you are probable to get when you get hold of your wooden floor. Many demonstrations only show the ultimately good bits.

Rating of Hardwood Flooring

There are quite a number of grades on solid timber, some companies represent them as “Prime”, “Rustic” “Select” etc.. There is no EN standard or BS standard for grading wood floor surfaces so you need to be aware what you are being sold. Prime may mean no knots or sapwood but it could easily mean very small knots hinging how the brand explains their grading. So please verify what the grading which includes or leaves out. For instance Prime Oak may not comprise any sapwood or knots or pin knots (pin knots are the size of a pencil point), but Prime Walnut may have some sapwood and knots as a complexion of Walnut is its grain and knot alternatives. Click here to see our grading rule of thumbs across our string of product or services. Laminate Flooring This is a cheap plastic choice and not only looks and feels cheap but is also a hydrocarbon product which means it is dangerous to our ecosystem. It is without warmth and resilience and we feel it is better to have a painted cemented ground than fit cheap laminate. Spalted Wood or Brown OakSpalting or browning of solid wood is caused by fungi producing on the tree during its lifetime. If there are black ridges this would have been the fungi softening the wood in order to feed itself from the source of nourishment in the tree. It influences the color, solidity and strength of the wood flooring if it has not been picked out.