A sudden rush may come over you and you rip out the rugs in your home. The time has come to install that beautiful wood flooring you’ve been dreaming about. You call a flooring contractor, or you make a bold move and decide you’re going to lay the floor yourself and stop by your favorite lumber yard. But whether it’s a flooring contractor or lumber yard worker, the first thing you hear is, “Okay, do you prefer engineered or solid hardwood?” And you have no clue what to do next.

Ah-ha! The Internet is a start. So you surf the web and discover that most explanations are so technical, it seems you need a scientific calculator to figure them out (and that’s if the dreadfully boring technical reading hadn’t put you to sleep).

You encounter discussions about dimensions, layers, values, and pressure. Now you’re wondering if you should have left the rugs alone.

Something that web authors may not be aware of is that the difference between engineered hardwood and solid hardwood can be explained quite simply.

Another word for “engineered” is “constructed”. In the flooring industry, however, the term that must be used is engineered. (Fine, for now we’ll just think “constructed”, and keep it to ourselves). The reason it’s called engineered is because someone-well, more likely a machine-constructed it.

Try to imagine stacking together about six to eight typical twelve-inch wooden rulers. Yeah, I know; who has eight wooden rulers? Then, by undergoing some sort of amazing process, the rulers are practically fused together for life. The final product is an engineered hardwood about inches thick, roughly the width of an adult’s thumb.

Engineered hardwood is layered thin strips of different kinds of inexpensive wood, such as plywood or fiberboard, that are permanently attached. The very top layer is what creates the illusion of real solid hardwood (instead of a bunch of layers), since it is the only part one sees after the flooring has been installed. The top layer is actually “good finished wood” such as oak, maple, cherry, or walnut. Because most of the layers “hiding” underneath is inexpensive wood, and the “good wood” layer on top is quite thin, the entire product is usually much more inexpensive than a section of solid hardwood that is completely oak, maple, cherry, or walnut all the way through.

It is a fact that the natural grain lines one sees in almost any piece of wood is what gives wood its strength.

What is very important to understand is that when engineered wood is manufactured those grain lines are crossed, so that if you were to x-ray the thing after it is done you would see a long line of X’s completely up and down the strip. That crossing of the grains is what creates a strip that is extremely strong and durable, far more than solid hardwood, and adds the possibility of decades to its longevity.

Engineered hardwood is also made with an inserting slot along the entire side edge, and a ridge sticking out from the other side. It’s called the tongue and groove feature (T&G), and allows strips of engineered hardwood to be connected together like pieces of a puzzle. The layering process of engineered hardwood, along with the T&G feature, offers flooring that withstands moisture and extreme changes in temperature better than solid hardwood, which has a tendency to crack or create gaps in certain conditions.

The T&G also allows engineered wood to be installed almost anywhere. There are limitations as to where solid hardwood can be placed.

Deciding whether to have engineered hardwood or solid hardwood installed is a personal choice. Engineered hardwood certainly appears to have many more advantages than solid hardwood. Cosmetically, they both look virtually the same, and can be cleaned or treated just as easily. The solid hardwood aficionado, however, may choose solid hardwood flooring for the mere satisfaction of knowing that he or she is walking across the real thing. Even if no one else knows it.

Mira Floors and Interiors is Greater Vancouver’s premiere floor and window covering specialist for both home owners and commercial spaces. Mr. James Alisch and his team can assist in all aspects of floor installations, carpet, hardwood, laminate, vinyl and tile. For further information about your flooring options go to Mira Floors and Interiors