The main benefit of engineered wood flooring is the reduced reactivity to moisture and temperature. This reduced reactivity also enables engineered wood floors to be floated over underlay and even have click together planks that don’t require glue.
Solid wood flooring has to be glued together plank to plank and also down to the subfloor because it expands and contracts so much with moisture and temperature. It has to be secured in place to stop as much movement as possible.
The easier installation of engineered wood flooring also opens up DIY installations to more people. It can also be cheaper to buy and install.
There are minimal negatives or disadvantages of engineered wood flooring, it’s genuinely a great floor type. The only real downside is that it isn’t waterproof and this only rules out bathrooms and toilets.
Engineered wood can be scratched, but so can all flooring. No flooring is immune to scratches. At least with engineered wood flooring you are able to sand the scratches out!
The price of engineered wooden floors is not cheap which could be considered a negative, but it’s far from the most expensive flooring. You also get what you pay for. Sheet vinyl and carpet tiles are a fraction of the cost but they won’t look or feel anywhere near as good.
100% yes engineered wood flooring is worth it. A good quality engineered wooden floor with a thick wear layer will last anywhere from decades to a century. LVT might be waterproof but it still won’t last that long.
Every time wood flooring is sanded you have the opportunity to stain and finish the floor in a different colour. There is no other flooring that you can do this with. So if you change the colours in your home significantly you don’t have to buy a new floor to match.
Real wood floors are also the only flooring known to add value to properties. This one fact alone is a good enough reason to choose engineered wood flooring.
Above is our Pastel Oak White Engineered Wood Flooring which has an oiled finish and is in straight plank format.
There is a large price difference between laminate and engineered hardwood, laminate is much cheaper. The price difference may simply put real wood outside your budget. If this is the case, good quality laminate flooring will still be great.
Most of the problems with engineered wood flooring exist with laminate too as they are similar types of flooring. Considering high quality laminate floors have textured surfaces replicating wood grain and neither are waterproof, the only tangible difference is that engineered wood can be restored whereas laminate cannot.
Even though you can’t restore laminate, it’s much less costly to buy than real wood. So you could very possibly replace a laminate floor a couple of times or more for the same cost as one real wood floor.
Providing the subfloor is smooth and level, engineered wood flooring can be either glued down or floated on underlay. Gluing it down will secure it in place and using underlay will provide some cushioning and sound insulation.
Underlay can be helpful to hide imperfections in the subfloor which could prevent an ideal glue down installation. Small bumps and cracks can be absorbed by the underlay which is not an option with solid wood as it must be glued down.
Floating engineered wood flooring over underlay allows the floor to expand and contract freely. It is vital that an expansion gap is left for it to be able to do this. If an adequate expansion gap is not left the is a real risk of the flooring buckling and being damaged.
Engineered wood floors do scratch but not necessarily any easier than other wood flooring. All floors get scratched, even scratch resistant ones. The huge advantage of real wood flooring is that it can be restored and the scratches removed. So while all floors can be scratched only wood flooring can be renewed again and again.
Oiled wood floors may be a little better at not becoming scratched than lacquered floors, but the difference is very small. Laminate and LVT flooring may be a little more scratch resistant than wood flooring, but once they are scratched there is nothing you can do.
Engineered wood floors can be restored, they can last much longer, they can be installed with or without underlay and they are available at surprisingly good prices. Engineered wood flooring is a great choice in most situations.
You may also be interested in What is the most popular wood flooring right now?
Join the DFO community and get access to the latest offers, fantastic flooring ideas, helpful advice and news.
*Minimum spend £600
