Solid hardwood floors vs engineered wood floors

[mugs]

Let me emphasize that I'm not talking about laminate floors. Engineered wood floors are real wood. Basically plywood with a real hardwood veneer.

I've looked around and this is what I've come up with so far:

Pros:
- Engineered wood is more dimensionally stable; less prone to warping
- Engineered wood has a more durable finish than floors that are finished on-site, because they use some sort of UV curing process.
- (Non-issue) Engineered wood can be used below grade. I don't plan to do this.

Cons:
- Engineered wood is prefinished, which doesn't look quite as good as floors that are finished on-site
- Engineered wood can only be refinished once or twice; most hardwood floors are never refinished anyway
- Solid hardwood will last longer; engineered wood will last a very long time (20+ year warranty)


I've also found that:
- Engineered wood is very common
- Engineered wood is often thinner than solid hardwood (typically 3/8" vs 3/4"). Is that a big deal?
- Pre-finished floors are beveled around the edges to hide the fact that one edge might stick up slightly higher than another. Not necessarily bad.


Anyone have engineered wood floors and regret it? Anyone adamantly opposed to them for whatever reason?

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Originally posted by: mugs
Anyone have engineered wood floors and regret it? Anyone adamantly opposed to them for whatever reason?

My dad owns a flooring store and sells engineered wood flooring, has it in his home and showroom, and said he will never use it again. I can't speak for him but I would say he probably doesn't like it.

 

[amdskip]

If I was spending the money, I would probably go all out on real hardwood floors. They will last forever and I think they look nicer.

 

[PingSpike]

What kind of price differential are we talking here?

 

[Evadman]

most hardwood floors are never refinished anyway

Neither are engineered floors if you go by that logic. They are refinished when something happens, generally wear. Real floors can be refinished, engineered floors can not. They are tear out and replace.

Solid hardwood will last longer

With care or refinishing a hardwood floor will last longer. Engineered floors will generally handle abuse better before needing refinishing/tearout.

Pre-finished floors are beveled around the edges to hide the fact that one edge might stick up slightly higher than another

What? No. Who said that?

Engineered wood can be used below grade

Highly discouraged. Don't do this. Technicly, either material can be used below grade with the correct prep. But that prep is insanely expensive in either case.

Originally posted by: PingSpike
What kind of price differential are we talking here?

Minimal if you are including professional Install. Both start around $3 a foot for material but install for hardwood is about 2x a engineered floor. Engineered is very easy to install.

I have real hardwood (finished on site) and I helped a friend install real prefinished hardwood floors in his house (about 1100' feet worth). I prefer the looks of his floor. I also sold laminate/engineered flooring, it has other pros that you did not mention including ease of installation. It also has other downsides, such that engineered does not like water/moisture and will buckle well before a hardwood floor will.

 

[richardycc]

where do you plan on using these engineered wood? when I was shopping for a hardwood for my living, I find that a lot of the engineered wood floors are more expensive than real wood, and their veneer is paper thin that you cant refinish them. I ended up getting the BR-111 santos mahagony solid 5/16" wood...if I could do it again, I would get the thicker 3/4" kind, but they were twice as much...incidentally, when I was at lowes the other day, they are selling my floor for $2 more per sq ft, so my house is worth $1200 more now. LOL

 

[Rage187]

if you are on a slab I would say go engineered, if on a crawl space go real wood.

Edit: I did hardwood flooring for many years before getting an office job. In my last 3 houses I have done engineered glue down because of being on a slab.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: PingSpike
What kind of price differential are we talking here?

Don't know about other places....but here, Tulsa, it breaks down like this.

Engineered wood floors - $6-$11 per square foot installed. Depending on quality, look, etc...

Real wood floors - $12 - $30 per square foot installed. Depending on quality, look, etc....

We are building a new house and I have seen real wood floors cost $60 and up for more exotic woods.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: shinerburke

Originally posted by: PingSpike
What kind of price differential are we talking here?

Don't know about other places....but here, Tulsa, it breaks down like this.

Engineered wood floors - $6-$11 per square foot installed. Depending on quality, look, etc...

Real wood floors - $12 - $30 depending on quality, look, etc....

We are building a new house and I have seen real wood floors cost $60 and up for more exotic woods.

If you are building a house...I'd say real wood. My mom just paid some guy to fix up the hardwood floors in her old house. The former tenant just left without notice and wrecked the place so we could not get him to pay for damages. For $600....the guy redid all the floors and they look brand new.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: Evadman

most hardwood floors are never refinished anyway

Neither are engineered floors if you go by that logic. They are refinished when something happens, generally wear. Real floors can be refinished, engineered floors can not. They are tear out and replace.

Solid hardwood will last longer

With care or refinishing a hardwood floor will last longer. Engineered floors will generally handle abuse better before needing refinishing/tearout.

Pre-finished floors are beveled around the edges to hide the fact that one edge might stick up slightly higher than another

What? No. Who said that?

Engineered wood can be used below grade

Highly discouraged. Don't do this. Technicly, either material can be used below grade with the correct prep. But that prep is insanely expensive in either case.

Originally posted by: PingSpike
What kind of price differential are we talking here?

Minimal if you are including professional Install. Both start around $3 a foot for material but install for hardwood is about 2x a engineered floor. Engineered is very easy to install.

I have real hardwood (finished on site) and I helped a friend install real prefinished hardwood floors in his house (about 1100' feet worth). I prefer the looks of his floor. I also sold laminate/engineered flooring, it has other pros that you did not mention including ease of installation. It also has other downsides, such that engineered does not like water/moisture and will buckle well before a hardwood floor will.

- Re: refinishing - yeah that was what I was getting at - you can't really refinish them, but you won't need to anytime soon anyway.
- Re: Last longer - There are hardwood floors where I live currently. The floors in the upstairs were probably original (1930s). They look like ass. The floors downstairs are newer, but they're not the style that you'd find in a newer house. They're installed on a diagonal and they boards are only 2" wide. My point being, I don't see durability as a huge issue. If they last 20 years, who knows what people will want their floors to look like then. I'll have been out of the house for probably 10 years by then anyway.
- Re: beveled - Read it somewhere, I think in a Home Depot book. Maybe inaccurate, but I don't see it as being a big deal either way. I'm not talking about a big bevel, just a slight indentation so that if the board heights are off by a half millimeter you don't catch something on the edge.
- Re: Below grade - already said I wouldn't be doing that
- Re: Price - I will be installing myself. It seems to be something I'd be capable of.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: Gibson486

Originally posted by: shinerburke

Originally posted by: PingSpike
What kind of price differential are we talking here?

Don't know about other places....but here, Tulsa, it breaks down like this.

Engineered wood floors - $6-$11 per square foot installed. Depending on quality, look, etc...

Real wood floors - $12 - $30 depending on quality, look, etc....

We are building a new house and I have seen real wood floors cost $60 and up for more exotic woods.

If you are building a house...I'd say real wood. My mom just paid some guy to fix up the hardwood floors in her old house. The former tenant just left without notice and wrecked the place so we could not get him to pay for damages. For $600....the guy redid all the floors and they look brand new.

Yeah...we're putting in real wood. 5 inch wide planks mixed with 2 1/4 inch planks for a more varied look. We opted for the "reclaimed", other places have different names for it, wood that is being taken out of old tobacco warehouses and turned into flooring. Extra expensive, but I like the look.

 

[Mxylplyx]

My dogs tore the shit out of the engineered floor we had in the last house. We got all hardwoods now, and it seems to withstand more of a beating than the engineered stuff. It's been vacuumed regularly, and mopped once in 1.5 years, and it still looks great.

 

[Vette73]

What kind of wood do you want? I found a small comopnay that got a wood from Burma that scalled japanese cherry me and wife just put in. Was less then $4 a sq ft.

So try and cut out the middle man and shop around but I would go solid.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

it is not true that engineered flooring cannot be refinished. I just installed some on a project that can be refinished at least 3 times. The big advantage to using engineered in a remodel situation is usually you can install it over the existing flooring without having to tear out the subflooring and replace it.

 

[shiner]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
it is not true that engineered flooring cannot be refinished. I just installed some on a project that can be refinished at least 3 times. The big advantage to using engineered in a remodel situation is usually you can install it over the existing flooring without having to tear out the subflooring and replace it.

Depends on the brand/type. When we were looking at flooring there were some engineered wood types that could be refinished multiple times. There was one, made by...shit....Mohawk I think....can't remember....that could be refinished up to 7 times.

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
it is not true that engineered flooring cannot be refinished. I just installed some on a project that can be refinished at least 3 times. The big advantage to using engineered in a remodel situation is usually you can install it over the existing flooring without having to tear out the subflooring and replace it.

All engineered is not the same, and that 3 times is if you only take off so much and many refinish because of damage that may go as deep as the top surface.

And you can install hardwood over old hardwood as well. Just don;t go the same layout.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Get real hardwood or bambo if you can find one that you like.

Laminate will scratch and water will warp it...I don't care what anyone says. We did laminate in our house and had a water leak...all our flooring was ruined and it is being replaced by hardwood. I also HATE floating wood flooring. I'm gluing down our new floor.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: Marlin1975

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
it is not true that engineered flooring cannot be refinished. I just installed some on a project that can be refinished at least 3 times. The big advantage to using engineered in a remodel situation is usually you can install it over the existing flooring without having to tear out the subflooring and replace it.

All engineered is not the same, and that 3 times is if you only take off so much and many refinish because of damage that may go as deep as the top surface.

And you can install hardwood over old hardwood as well. Just don;t go the same layout.

except to do so would require modifying all your doors, thresholds, wall base, etc. This is much less of an impact with most engineered than most hardwood.

Of course it isn't all the same, but Evadman above made the statement that engineered cannot be refinished. Simply not true. And wood floor refinishing takes off very little of the surface material in most cases.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Get real hardwood or bambo if you can find one that you like.

Laminate will scratch and water will warp it...I don't care what anyone says. We did laminate in our house and had a water leak...all our flooring was ruined and it is being replaced by hardwood. I also HATE floating wood flooring. I'm gluing down our new floor.

re-read the thread. :frown:

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: shinerburke
We are building a new house and I have seen real wood floors cost $60 and up for more exotic woods.

New house? Go for the hardwood. While the cheaper stuff may be OK at first, as the house gets older and older it starts to become more and more obvious where you cut corners.

They just redid the hardwood floor where I live, and it looks fabulous. I think the original floor was something like 20 years old at that point, and between kids and dogs it was a little scratched up. Now it looks pristine.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Originally posted by: Mxylplyx
My dogs tore the shit out of the engineered floor we had in the last house. We got all hardwoods now, and it seems to withstand more of a beating than the engineered stuff. It's been vacuumed regularly, and mopped once in 1.5 years, and it still looks great.

MOST modern wood flooring or engineered flooring should not be wet mopped.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Get real hardwood or bambo if you can find one that you like.

Laminate will scratch and water will warp it...I don't care what anyone says. We did laminate in our house and had a water leak...all our flooring was ruined and it is being replaced by hardwood. I also HATE floating wood flooring. I'm gluing down our new floor.

re-read the thread. :frown:

eat-me. :frown:

 

[K1052]

I've had both, hardwood all the way.

If I was building a new place I'd probably lay travertine for most of the house though.

 

[mugs]

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats

Originally posted by: JulesMaximus
Get real hardwood or bambo if you can find one that you like.

Laminate will scratch and water will warp it...I don't care what anyone says. We did laminate in our house and had a water leak...all our flooring was ruined and it is being replaced by hardwood. I also HATE floating wood flooring. I'm gluing down our new floor.

re-read the thread. :frown:

eat-me. :frown:

I've thought about bamboo, but the wife doesn't like the look of it as much as regular wood. I don't know all of the implications of floating vs nail down vs glue down, but I think I'd prefer something I can nail down. Although it's not really clear to me what happens to the nails when the floor expands and contracts.

I think if I did solid hardwood floors I'd still want to get something that is pre-finished so I don't have to deal with sanding and finishing. I need to spend more time looking at my options, I still have plenty of time before I'll be able to start this.

 

[PingSpike]

What are people's feelings on bamboo? We were thinking of getting that as we liked the look and it seemed cheaper then hardwood.