11/02/2017

Posted By: Stefano Piardis

• How Are Engineered Flooring Built?
• How to install Engineered Flooring
• Proper Uses

Are you tired of dust mites, dust and dirt in your basement and also in your house? Do you want to upgrade your floors you may be asking yourself what is the best course of action. Also if you are in a situation with high moisture in the substrate and or moisture readings that change frequently and even if you are dealing with radiant heat you may ask yourself the same question: How do I install hardwood flooring that is stable and good to look at? The answer is easy, Engineered wood floors.



Most folks only know about 2 1/4 and 3 1/4 inch thick solid hardwood flooring, and do not realize that Engineered Hardwood Flooring may be another very reliable and viable way to use hardwood flooring in their house. Matter of fact the choices are many . Do not limit yourself by the opinion of an inexperienced installer or a cash conscious sales person.

Cash conscious? Engineered Hardwood Flooring may be on the average more expensive than solid hardwood, but in some cases it may be the only sensible alternative addressing a variety of multiple concerns having to do from moisture critical environments to below grade installations and even radiant heat applications.

Bear in mind it is not laminate. NO instead Engineered Hardwood Floors are built using multiple layers of plywood that is glued together under high pressure and layered in 90 degrees cross patterns. The flooring is made of internal layers which are more structural, made mainly of soft white hardwoods, while the top area or top layer is made of veneer which is mainly cut for beauty and good looking grain. This way one obtains a piece of flooring that is not only perfectly stable but also beautiful to look at.





From Thin to Thick Nowadays Engineered Hardwood flooring comes to market in very thin formats like 3/8 all the way to 3/4" thick formats. While 3/4 " is always preferable one has to mitigate the desire for a thick piece of wood versus the cost of that piece of wood. Of course the thicker the better but also the more expensive. Make sure you consider this small piece of information when doing your budget or calculating costs. Main advantage: Moisture control We explained earlier how Engineered hardwood flooring is built, by criss crossing several layer of plywood in opposite directions perpendicular to each other. As wood tend to expand and contract with the grain, these layers acting against eah other create a medium that is essentially completely stable, and it does not react to changes in moisture. This is really a great discovery as it eliminates the main complaint leveled against hardwood flooring like cupping and shrinking and separated boards. Also it allows us to use hardwood flooring in basements for example and other applications like over radiant heat. Engineered Hardwood Flooring Installation Installation is one of the most difficult problems one has to solve when it comes to engineered. Unlike its more famous cousin Solid hardwood, Engineered allows us to install it in many different substrates. Installers must be very experienced in gluing to cement for example in a direct glue application. If you are installing over plywood you should have nail guns that allow for thin format.