Engineered Wood Flooring

For many of our clients, engineered wood has become an excellent modern alternative to solid wood. Engineered wood offers many benefits such as strength, stability in moisture and heat, a beautiful real wood used on the top layer, and often a lower cost than solid wood.

Like solid wood, engineered wood can be used in parquet wood flooring.

Put simply, engineered wood is made up of several layers of different wood types, whereas solid wood is made up of a single wood type.

With engineered wood, it’s the top layer that’s visible. The other layers in the plank are designed to give the plank resistance to moisture, to give it bulk and provide a cheaper alternative to solid wood. And it’s called “engineered” because the planks are designed with specific purposes and finishes in mind, and the layers are tightly combined together during the manufacturing process.

Engineered wood is still created from real wood - the difference is that the wood is layered from several different wood types.

Not only can engineered wood be designed to withstand variations in moisture and heat, but it can often be less expensive than solid wood.

For many people who are considering a wood floor, the assumption is that it automatically means a solid wood floor. But engineered wood flooring can look just as good as it’s solid wood equivalent, but is often less prone to changes in moisture and heat, is cheaper and actually more suited to certain rooms - for instance, on top of underfloor heating systems.

But the choice isn’t 100% clear-cut. The main benefit to solid wood flooring is that future repairs are relatively easy and cheap, as the material can be sanded, resurfaced, oiled and refinished many times. This makes it a good choice for rooms which aren’t subject to a great deal of moisture, and where there is particularly heavy footfall which will often mean dents and chips over time, which need to be repaired.

With engineered wood, repairs and maintenance can be more difficult and expensive, depending on the thickness of the top layer.

The experts at Total Wood Floors are more than happy to advise on the best option for your room.

Engineered wood offers you many different wood types and finishes to choose from. Some of the most popular choices of woods are: 

• Oak is a very popular choice and available in a large range of colours. It is distinctive for its straight and swirling graining patterns, and gives a traditional look.
• Walnut gives the floor that luxurious dark timber look, which many homeowners now prefer.
• Ash flooring is a light, creamy wood colour, often with darker and distinctive knots and patterns. The wood is both flexible and very strong, and often an ideal choice for floors that need to withstand heavy foot traffic.
• Beech flooring is pale with a slight hint of pink, to give the room a warm feeling. Beech is great at resisting dents, and has a straight, regular grain.
• Maple is generally light and pale in colour, with darker graining to give the room a clean and airy feel. Maple is one of the hardest woods available for flooring, and is very durable to dents and knocks.

Whichever you choose, the fully qualified fitters at Total Wood Floors will ensure your new solid wood or engineered flooring is installed to an exceptionally high standard, and is built to last.