Engineered Wood Floors Vs. Solid Hardwoods

In the current market there are hundreds of options when it comes to selecting an engineered

, prefinished hardwood floor for your home. Step into any flooring retail store or show room. You will see what I mean. There is just so much to choose from. But if these choices are so amazing, why do so many homeowners keep coming back to solid wood?

Every year these big name engineered flooring manufacturers create fresh new models. New colors, textures, fancy names that sound more like Italian culinary creations than wood floors.

As romantic as they sound, does any of this (sexy sizzle) send up a red flag? Come on. Let us see the steak.

The truth about engineered wood floors is that they are only a part of a full array of options available to consumers but for some reason, these floors get all the attention. But they are good floors when you are using them for the right reasons and have reasonable expectations.

Engineered, prefinished wood floors are more convenient (in the short term), more consistent, and offer variation in size, color, and wood species that are not available or feasible in a solid wood floor.

Here is a legitimate reason for the manufacturers to produce engineered wood floor instead of solid floors out of the same raw material. Imagine that you have wood stock in a very exotic species of wood. If you cut that into 3/4 inch thick millstock, you will get the least amount of wood floor square footage to sell to the public. But let us say that you take that same amount of raw material and cut it down into 1/8 inch pressed veneers and glued that to a plywood core. You would get six times the amount of sale-able material out of the engineered method as compared to the solid millstock.

When an engineered wood floor is processed in a facility, the staining and sealing procedure is able to produce a more consistent product. It is predictable. The sample will look exactly like the product in the box. The installer does not have to stain or seal or do anything that affects the color, taking the risk out of the purchase for the end consumer.

With respect to convenience, an engineered, prefinished floor already comes ready to install with the color and finish already built in. There is no sanding, no buffing, no sealing. So the installation only requires that the floor be attached to the subfloor. Voila! Ready to walk on.

A solid wood floor may require one to two weeks between the installation phase and finishing phase. This may mean that the homeowner is displaced out of their space for two to three weeks. Sounds inconvenient, right?

Then why do many consumers keep coming back to solid floors? Is it nostalgia? Is it price?

Could be. But I think it is something more. Yes engineered floors offer something different. But maybe that is not what some consumers are looking for. Maybe they want a classic floor that will look attractive 10 or 20 or 100 years from now. Solid wood floors have been around for hundreds of years. They are not a fad. As engineered manufacturers keep going back to the drawing board to come up with fresh, new products; solid floors continue to be the choice that many discerning homeowners turn to.

But why? Solid wood floors can be refinished. They can be recoated. They can be stained a different color. Repairs to a solid floor are possible because solid wood has not changed that much.

The engineered products of today will be forgotten 30 years from now. Those floors will be unrepairable if more material is not available. The veneers are so thin that they usually can not be refinished.

If you are thinking about wood floors for your home, buy what is right for you. If an engineered floor is the best fit for you, then by all means purchase that floor. But do not let the engineered flooring salesman show you what he wants you buy today. I promise that he will not be selling that same product 4 years from now because chances are it will be unavailable and the new hot model will be something different.

Wood is classic. It is timeless. It has been around for centuries. Consider solid wood floors for your home. They just might be the investment you have been looking for.

by: Katherine Smith

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