As engineered hardwood floors become more and more prominent it is time to clarify a few points on this topic.

1. Engineered hardwood floors are basically plywood with 2mm-7mm of various species of finished wood glued and pressed together to form a single unit.

2. Engineered hardwood floors are NOT laminate floors. Laminate floors are MDF with a photograph of wood as the top layer.

3. Engineered hardwood is more dimensionally stable than solid hardwood. This means that it mitigates the woods natural capacity to absorb and release water in both its liquid and gaseous forms. This is because plywood has several layers of wood glued together with the grains of the individual layers orientated in opposite directions.

4. Engineered hardwood is generally perfectly straight and therefore can be installed with tight joints without the use of mechanical fasteners. Along with its moisture stability, this is why you always find engineered hardwood floors glued to or floated on concrete subfloors that are prominent in apartment buildings.

5. A common marketing feature for engineered hardwood floors is the “wear layer”. This is the finished layer that should be able to be resanded and refinished. These wear layers can be anywhere from 2mm to 7mm. Obviously a 7mm wear layer is more preferable to resand numerous times, however, in this case thicker is not necessarily better when the whole picture is considered. A 5mm wear layer on a 5/8th inch engineered floor is strong enough to lift, curl, and potentially de-laminate from the plywood in case of a severe fluctuation in atmospheric moisture levels in the interior environment. Many manufacturer’s of prefinished hardwood floors are switching from to a standard 3mm wear layer to 2mm to facilitate more resiliency in high rise apartment buildings that tend to be  very dry. It should also be noted that “site finished” engineered hardwood floors generally have a wear layer of 4mm-5mm on standard 5/8th thickness. It is always important to consider the big picture of your flooring project before you get sucked into the “bigger is better” marketing ploys.

5. Many hardwood floor contractors are starting to only install engineered hardwood floors when the clients decides on a site finished wider plank flooring width. While this is an added expense, the moisture stability properties of helps mitigate the solid hardwood flooring propensity to expand, contract, crown, and cup. It is also beneficial to use engineered flooring when installing long length flooring because it is much straighter and easier to install with perfectly tight joints.

Hope this was helpful!