What is the difference (advantages/disadvantages) between hardwood, engineered, and laminated flooring?
laminated is like the glossy hard wood, hard wood doesnt have the shine or glimmer to it, and engineered no clue
Hardwood is the best. It will last the longest, can be refinished in the future, looks best, feels most solid to walk on, add the most value to your home etc.. The only time I suggest engineered wood is when their is a concrete subfloor and it has to be used because solid hardwood can't be installed over concrete. I never suggest lminate, it is fake wood junk.
Solid wood flooring is harder to put down...it does last longer and can take more punishment. One thing you will have to do is take all the doors off in that area and cut off the bottom so it will clear the floor. The solid flooring boards are 3/4 inch thick. Are you going down over concrete or old wood base? Concrete takes more work and requires a few secret tricks to keep the boards together once installed.
Hard wood floors and engineered floors look alike but you can use under floor heating with engineered floor as they are far more stable and wont shrink expand or crack and can be refinished at least once in its life time hard wood looks nice is expensive and can shrink crack and swell with changes in moisture and can be refinished many times laminate is the cheapest of the 3 and is a photo of the wood printed on to a man made board again this is stable and will not normally expand to ant great extent but can react with water and can not be re finished as the other 2 can hope this helps
Both engineered wood and laminate have glue in them. They don't wear well in areas with humidity, lots of traffic or areas that need to be washed. However, laminate is very inexpensive and decent engineered wood is about half way in price between hardwood and laminate. For the longest life of a good looking, problem free floor it's best to spend the extra money and get hardwood. Stands up to traffic (even pre-finished) much better and can look great for 20 years or more with just simple dry mopping. (You don't want to vacuum any wood surface unless you have to, as it scratches: laminate in particular doesn't hold up to this well at all). Even though it costs more, it is the best value especially if you ever want to sell the home. What you need to do is look for sales at Lumber Liquidators, Lowes, Home Depot etc. Often, you can get great hardwood on sale for the same cost as the imitations, you just may have to wait a couple of months of checking the websites and local stores for the good sales.
