Can anybody tell me some difference between hardwood floors and engineered floors?
Hardwood floors are solid wood and engineered floors just have a top layer that is real wood. Hardwood floors can be sanded and refinished more times in the future.
Solid Wood: today most people consider solid logs cut to size and finished with a Tongue & a groove to be Real wood usually at least 3 wide & at least 3/8 thick. sizes bigger that 4 are called planks & thicknesses from 5/8 up to 1 1/4 are all common & readily available. Almost all solid wood floors require nailing to keep the wood in place ad they are still very susceptible to swelling in the wet & heat & shrinking apart in the cool & the dry. Engineered Wood: Looks like Plywood (it's NOT) with one side finished with a high quality species & a great factory applied finish and or stain. The engineered wood starts with anywhere from 3-10 layers of veneer glued together under very high heat & pressure. The top layer is usually the most premium of all the veneers & is often thicker than all the rest. The veneer, boards are referred to as engineered, since they are man made and built for a specific purpose, like flooring. Engineered wood is actually harder, stronger & much more stable than the same thickness of solid wood. It can also be glued down in areas where nailing is not possible like slab floors & basements. Engineered wood also resists swelling & bowing, because the layers are rotated in different directions as the boards are laid up before they are heated & pressed together. Environmentally the engineered wood uses less wood & the veneering process leaves almost no wasted wood and no sawdust. Once its on the floor even most experts cant tell the difference & the price is about the same for a good solid or a top of the line engineered. Save the money, the swelling & cracking and the forest & go with the engineered if you find a color or style that you like.
