Engineered Wood Floors –An Innovative Choice For Homes

Since the 1800, hardwood floors are already considered to be among the most sophisticated of home design features. New technological advances have made engineered wood floors as the newcomer in home flooring.

Engineered wood flooring appears just like the wood floors of the past, but underneath the floor surface, engineered wood is a complicated work of technological art. The engineered wood floors are comprised of several layers of material glued together to create each panel. Generally, the panels will consist of 3 to 5 layers, each ranging in thickness from ¼ inch and 9/16 inch.

The veneer layers that make up engineered wood floors give many benefits over wood floors. They build up acoustics by providing acoustic isolation. They are a lot more resistant to damage from humidity and moisture as well.

These types of floors can help protect the rest of your furniture and walls from any damage simply because they themselves will not spread such things as wood rot and mildew. This makes these engineered wood floors very popular for basement use.

All these advantages can be acquired without the average person being able to advise an engineered floor from any other wood floor. Actually, you may have more options in your area in the variety of woods designed for the engineered floor. The most widely-used wood grain surfaces are birch and oak, are available in most areas.

Being composed of a variety of layers provides engineered wood panels a level of durability that regular wood panels cannot match. The additional stability afforded by these layers makes wood panels a greater choice for installation on top of concrete or old wood floors.

Floors can be engineered in many different manners to match the local conditions. In an area with high humidity, for instance, manufacturers may use a material like oak for the underlying layers for oak's ability to resist moisture damage. Local woods with flexible properties can be used in areas susceptible to shifting ground. However, the top surface layer can be made for whatever grain design best suits your home.

The installation of an engineered wood floor is similar to that of any other wood floor. There are no particular measures that must be taken. It can be made for all of the popular hardwood floor installation methods. So whether you want to try the staple down technique, nail down technique, glue down technique, or floating technique, you can do this just as easily using engineered wood panels as you can with standard wood floor panels.