DO I WANT A NEW FITTED WOODEN FLOOR?
A brand new wood floor will completely transform your home, and besides being beautiful, the solid wood goes a long way to improve the look and durability of your home as well as making it desirable in the real estate. A solid wood floor can last you a life time with proper care and maintenance, and as an added bonus, these floors are environmentally friendly, as they come from a natural, renewable source.
SOLID WOOD OR ENGINEERED WOOD?
Solid hardwood floors are, as the description suggests, a piece of flooring cut from a single piece of wood and usually have a tongue and groove on all four sides of the board. They are also often thicker than laminate or engineered wood. They will be either unfinished, allowing you to apply your own finish, or pre-finished with a lacquer or oil, meaning that they do not need any additional sanding or varnishing.
Solid wood floors can be sanded and resealed numerous times over the years, the number of times it can be sanded is determined by how deep the tongue is set from the top of the board.
Solid Wood can react to changes in humidity and moisture which can result in some movement, therefore not recommended in damp places such as bathrooms and basements, and also not recommended for use with underfloor heating.
Solid wood floors should always be acclimatised before being installed, this allows the flooring to get used to the conditions in your home.
Engineered wood floors are constructed from layers of ply and a final solid hardwood wear layer. These are glued and fused together in controlled factory conditions to produce a reliable, strong product. This produces a very stable board that is both load bearing and structurally sound, and less prone to changes caused by a room’s temperature or humidity.
Engineered wood is thinner than solid wood, and therefore cannot be repeatedly sanded and varnished, due to the thinner nature of the real wood veneer.
Engineered wood floors include more resistance to higher moisture levels than solid wood flooring, which adds to their appeal to use in damp basements or in regions of the country that have higher relative humidity levels.