Engineered wood floors

Engineered wood flooring should not be confused with laminate wood flooring.

Engineered wood floors are produced by laminating a real wood layer onto a base of wood, whereas laminate flooring is a picture of wood sandwiched between plastic and MDF or similar backing - there is no wood present in laminate wood flooring.

The base layers of engineered boards are normally constructed with the wood layers running at 90 degrees to the top plank of wood - or with multi-ply bases with each ply running in an opposite direction to give greater strength and stability.

The bottom layers are usually of plywood construction with a top layer of real wood bonded with pressure and either cold or hot adhesive.

Engineered boards are manufactured to give better stability. The degree of dimensional stability and structural integrity depends on the quality and design of the engineered board and the raw materials used in its construction.

In general you get what you pay for. The more expensive boards are manufactured to a higher standard - although this isn't always the case.

Engineered wood floors are very versatile in terms of the way that they can be installed. They can be either secret nailed, floated on wooden flooring underlay or bonded with a wood floor glue such as the Sikabond adhesive.

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