Engineered Wood Flooring Vs. Laminate

When you think of carrying out home improvements, you will come across many terms that you are not aware of. You may probably change the flooring of your home and choose wood flooring to give a warm feeling in the house. You may employ professional services of a contractor or visit the hardware store and they may ask you which wood flooring you want for your home; engineered wood flooring or laminate flooring?

This simple question may turn you into a dilemma, as you may not know much about laminate wood flooring vs. engineered flooring. Therefore, you may end up tossing and turning in your bed, arguing with your spouse or blindly have trust over the contractor as you seriously draw a blank regarding the choice between engineered wood flooring vs. laminate.

Engineered Wood Flooring

Engineered wood flooring is made by pressing 1/6" to ⅛" of finish wood on the top and the bottom layer, with non-finish plywood. Engineered wood flooring is 0.6 mm to 7mm in thickness and glued to plywood, that makes the total thickness range from ⅜" to ¾ ".

Engineered wood flooring can be sanded down and re-coated 1-3 times. It is advisable to employ professional services for sanding, due to low tolerance of engineered wood flooring that may result in revealing the plywood. It has great stability for longer periods of time due to the plywood attached. It is not affected by changes in humidity and can be installed over radiant heat. Engineered wood flooring can be glued, stapled or nailed to the floor. You can also install it as a floating floor. But engineered wood floors are prone to scathing, dents and fading.

Engineered wood flooring is pre-finished, that is, sanded and sealed. You can walk on it as soon as it is laid on the floor. You can use engineered wood flooring for kitchens, basements and areas of low moisture. The engineered wood flooring do not hold well in areas with high moisture content. This is a really expensive type of flooring, but in the long run, it is very cost-effective. As they can be periodically sanded, you can revive the grain and erase scratches. Engineered wood flooring have an aesthetic appeal for use in home decor.

Laminate Flooring

Laminate flooring are not real wood flooring. They are made of a thin layer of resin infused paper on top of a wood chip composite. The resin looks so similar to wood that you won't be able to tell laminate flooring from real wood flooring. Laminate flooring is scratch as well as den resistant. Laminate flooring can hold moisture well. It can be used for flooring kitchens and bathrooms.

You cannot sand laminate flooring hard and it is slippery to walk on. Therefore, you need to lay a foam under the layers to help soften it. You can easily install laminate flooring by glue or tongue and groove system. You can lay laminate flooring over floor, cement, etc. It is also very easy to un-install the laminate flooring without damaging the floor underneath or the laminate itself.

As it cannot be sanded, it has a shorter life span compared to engineered wood flooring. Some laminated floors have formaldehyde and other VOC chemicals. The problems with laminate flooring is that, it may lose it's luster with time and need to be replaced or repaired. Laminate flooring are cheaper as compared to the price of engineered wood flooring.

You should weigh all the pros and cons before deciding the type of flooring suitable for your home. I hope you have been able to understand the basic difference between engineered wood flooring vs. laminate flooring.