Engineered wood flooring is not a wood imitation product, it’s the real thing. The top layer is usually anywhere between 2mm and 6mm of solid wood. This is called the wear layer and it’s the only part of the floor that you will ever see or feel once it’s installed.
The fact that it’s real wood is important because even the best imitations don’t look or feel 100% like the real thing. Even the best imitation products can be differentiated upon inspection. Real wood has a natural luxury appeal that simply can’t be matched.
There are environments and buildings where only real wood is appropriate. There are many high end and high value properties where a wood imitation product like laminate or LVT simply wouldn’t look or feel right.
One of the big advantages for engineered over solid wood flooring is the increased resistance to moisture and temperature. The majority of the material within every engineered plank is man-made materials such as plywood and fiberboard. The less real wood used the less reactive the flooring is.
The benefit of flooring being less reactive is that it expands and contracts less. When flooring expands and contracts it moves. This can affect things like walls and fixtures that the flooring pushes up against. When enough pressure is created both the flooring and the fixtures can be damaged.
Gluing wood flooring down to the subfloor reduces the amount of movement that can occur, but it doesn’t stop it altogether. This is why solid wood flooring planks must be glued together and down to the subfloor because there can be significant movement.
Thanks to the reduced reactivity of engineered wood all straight plank engineered wooden floors can be floated over underlay. This is quicker and easier than fully bonding (gluing) the flooring to the subfloor. Due to the same reason there are also some engineered wooden floors that have planks that click together without glue.
When engineered wood flooring was released to the market it opened up the opportunity for more customers to install real wood flooring themselves at home. This allowed them to make huge savings by not having to employ expensive professional installers to fit the flooring. Real wood flooring became accessible to more people which is a great thing.
If you consider the total cost of expensive solid wood flooring plus approximately £300 per day for a professional installer you can see how high the cost of new wood flooring can become.
Above is our Summer Oak Herringbone Engineered Wood Flooring in a Golden Natural Oak colour with small oiled planks
Engineered wood flooring is available at lower prices than solid wood flooring. This is because less natural wood is required to make the flooring and natural wood is more expensive than materials such as plywood or HDF.
Whilst lower quality products are available for less, our engineered wood floors currently start from around £40 m2 including vat. By comparison our solid wood floors currently start from around £50 m2 including vat. That’s a £10 saving for every square meter.
Underlay can also be slightly less expensive to buy than adhesive. Engineered wood flooring creates another saving here as it can be installed with underlay instead of adhesive. Engineered wood floors are also suitable for DIY projects as mentioned above which means more people can install the floor themselves and not pay an installer.
Like solid wood flooring, engineered wood flooring can be fully restored by being sanded and refinished. Sanding removes scratches and minor dents by removing the top layer of wood. This can be done many times depending on the thickness of the wear layer.
This is how real wood flooring can last for so long. When a wooden floor starts to look worn and old you simply sand it all down and apply a fresh finish. This literally makes the flooring look brand new. No other type of flooring has this ability.
The sanding and refinishing process is best carried out by an experienced professional. This does of course cost money, but the cost of sanding and resealing wood flooring is much cheaper than replacing it.
It’s true, real wood flooring can actually add value to homes. It can also help sell properties. This is due to its high quality, its long lifespan and its popularity. Buying a property with real wood flooring in good condition means that you shouldn’t have to spend more money on replacing the flooring for a long time. You might never need to replace it.
Studies with estate agencies by the National Wood Flooring Association show that homes with wood flooring take less time to sell and achieve higher sale prices. These studies show that real wood flooring increases the prices of the majority of properties sold by 1%-10% and a smaller percentage of properties by over 10%.
This is genuinely an incredible fact. Not only does real wood flooring look and feel great, it’s an investment!
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