Don’t we all want to be able to go back to our place and just sigh with relief: “Home, sweet home?” To set up this safe-space you need every detail to be attended to and every aspect perfected. Furniture, lighting, colours, everything is important. However, I want to direct your attention to the bottom line, the first thing you should think about when turning a house into a home: the floor. If you believe that wooden floors are the most beautiful, romantic and practical choice for your living rooms, bedrooms, etc., then we are definitely on the same page. And while choosing wood over other options may be a piece of cake, deciding which type of wood flooring to pick often proves to be an overwhelming task for many.
Since you are here, I am assuming you have already discovered that the two main contestants are solid and engineered wood flooring. Of course, you can always choose to go for laminate and save some money. However, when seeking truly exceptional quality, we have to admit solid and engineered wood floors are the crème de la crème. They both have their fans along with their respective pros and cons. And while solid tends to be more expensive and is regarded as the ultimate product, I am here to give you a few hints and tips that might prove that engineered wood floors are actually the better option.
Firstly, what is solid and what is engineered wood flooring? A solid floor plank, as the name implies, is made of a single piece of wood. An engineered floor plank, on the other hand, is composed of several pieces of wood glued together. The expensive, good-looking wood is on top and under it are more layers of cheaper wood. An interesting feature of this design is that individual planks within a piece of engineered wood flooring are glued perpendicularly, which allows for incredible stability and makes these floors the most resilient.
Another major advantage of engineered wood floors is that they are more versatile and easier to install. You can put them on top of concrete as well as over a wooden subfloor. The multi-layer planks are not only more stable, but they also adapt more quickly to the environment you want to place them in. It takes engineered planks just a few days to adjust to the temperature and humidity of your house, compared to multiple weeks for their solid counterpart. A floating engineered wood floor will also help you avoid cupping and deformation, which is almost bound to happen over time with your solid wood floor.
Many people argue that sanding and refinishing is much trickier with engineered wood floors. However, as long as you buy a high-quality product with a thick layer of wood on top, you are safe to sand many times over the years.
Before you get to the final stage and make a purchase, remember that engineered wood flooring typically comes at a lower price. Consider checking online for companies offering staggering quality at competitive prices, such as Lifestyle Flooring UK, to make sure you get the best deal possible.