Engineered Hardwood Flooring

The Benefits of Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Engineered hardwood flooring consists of various layers of hardwood veneers, with each veneer placed perpendicular to the direction of the veneer above and/or below it. The manufacturer adheres the veneers to one another utilizing various adhesive compounds. The final product generally ranges in total thickness from as little as 1/4" to 3/4" thick , with the majority of engineered hardwood flooring being approximately 3/8" thick. Only a portion of this total thickness, generally ranging from 1mm to 4mm represents the "top" or "visual" layer of the flooring. This layer will consist of the species of hardwood the consumer desires in their installed floor.

Wood is a natural product--it comes from trees, of course. The origins of the product have a significant impact on its ultimate performance for even though a hardwood floor is no longer "living," the wood in the floor will still react to temperature and moisture interacting with the product on a cellular level. Specifically, all hardwood flooring will tend to expand or contract along the width of the grain's direction. With solid hardwood floors, this process of expansion or contraction often results either in visible gaps along each of the "long sides" of individual strip or plank boards during winter months (when heating and dry conditions pull moisture out of the ambient environment) or in peaking, cupping, "overwood", etc. along those same "long sides" of the strip or plank boards during summer months (when the wood begins to absorb some of the excess moisture from the ambient environment).

With engineered flooring, the finished product is far more dimensionally stable than solid counterparts. The performance advantage results from the manner in which suppliers manufacture the product. Specifically, by placing an individual veneer perpendicular to the direction of the veneer immediately above and/or below it, the manufacturer plays on the property of hardwood that it only expands or contracts along the width of the grain's direction. Placing veneers at perpendicular angles to one another causes one veneer to try to expand and contract in one direction while the veneers immediately above and/or below are expanding or contracting in the opposite direction. What results is a system whereby the individual veneers work to keep one another from moving much if at all relative to similarly-sized solid hardwood. Yet another tactic manufacturers can use to limit movement is to utilize different species of hardwood in the veneers themselves. While the top or "visual" layer may be oak, maple, jatoba, walnut, cherry, or any of dozens of other desirable species, the internal veneers may be completely different species, such as birch. Because different species of hardwood will react slightly differently to the same environmental conditions, utilizing a combination of species in the finished product only enhances the benefits available from the perpendicularly-placed veneers.

So, what does all this jargon mean to the end user or consumer? Simply that the finished engineered hardwood floor generally will perform better, all else equal, to a solid hardwood flooring counterpart. Keep in mind that no flooring product is indestructible and certainly engineered hardwood can and will react visibly once environmental conditions are harsh enough. However, a solid floor under similar stresses would expand or contract more violently.

Yet another advantage of the engineered hardwood floor is that it is far more eco-friendly. As noted above, engineered flooring often involves use of veneers from different species. While there are performance benefits involved in selecting veneers from a host of species (see above), there are also significant environmental benefits. Specifically, certain desirable hardwood visuals such as American Walnut, Santos Mahogany, and other exotic species are in short supply and thus quite expensive. Moreover, some of these species come from trees that take up to 200 years to reach maturity. Utilizing a mere 2 mm of such relatively rare hardwoods (along with veneers from other species) for the construction of a final product in engineered flooring thus conserves significant natural resources. By comparison, a 3/4" solid piece of the same rare species would use over 9 times the amount of the same rare hardwood species. See http://www.convertunit.com/distance_length_converter.php (converting .75" to metric, over 19 mm). Because there often will be no visual difference in the installed product (especially if the manufacturer creates the "top" or "visual" veneer of the engineered floor via a dry, solid-sawn technique), the engineered hardwood option thus offers the same visual quality and design satisfaction while conserving natural resources. Add to this benefit the floor's superior performance attributes and engineered hardwood flooring stands head and shoulders above its solid counterparts.

Yet, despite all of the above, undisputed information, consumers routinely select 3/4" solid hardwood products, particularly in northern U.S. markets. Several factors motivate such choices, including: (a) consumer perception that engineered hardwood flooring is "fake" whereas solid flooring is "the real thing"; (b) price (in many but not all cases, the added steps of constructing an engineered floor may result in a higher-priced product vs. a solid hardwood flooring alternative in the same species; (c) ignorance--consumers who otherwise might select engineered flooring due to its performance or environmental advantages may leave the choice to a flooring contractor or installer who selects product based on habit; (d) availability--there are often large quantities of inferior-graded 3/4" solid products available at lumber yards, home centers, liquidation outlets, and the like and these are often selected by someone other than the ultimate consumer (see also (c) above). Moreover, historically new home construction in northern climates required use of 3/4" solid hardwood flooring to provide structural integrity to the finished dwelling. Hence, all the stories about folks renovating older homes who pull up carpeting to reveal "beautiful hardwood floors." Those floors may not necessarily have ever been intended as anything other than a subfloor!

In sum, regardless of the ultimate source of the motivation, many northern U.S. market consumers experience of seeing, walking on, and living with 3/4" solid flooring, creates a comfort level with that profile. Whether part of their conscious or subconscious, that comfort level ultimately motivates the consumer to select 3/4" flooring for their new home or remodeling product. While there is nothing inherently wrong with the choice--particularly in regard to relatively plentiful and easily renewed species such as oak--the engineered flooring advantage remains undisputed. Hopefully, this article creates more interest in this environmentally friendly, superior-performing option for beautiful hardwood flooring.