Differences Among 3 Hardwood Flooring Types

Hardwood flooring might be exactly what you’re looking for! Did you know that hardwood flooring comes in three different types? Which one is right for you will depend on your budget, installation method desired, where the flooring will go, as well as personal preference, and most of all, the vision that you have for the room!

Solid Hardwood
Solid hardwood intensifies the structural strength of the floor with its longer plank lengths and can last for a long time. While the tongue and groove mechanism of solid hardwood flooring takes longer to install, its thickness makes dealing with the subfloor easier when compared with other wood floorings.

One distinct advantage is that solid hardwood can be sanded and refinished as many as seven separate times, making the resurface cheaper than other wood floor options. However, solid hardwood flooring is moisture sensitive; therefore, it is not a good choice for areas such as bathrooms.

Engineered Hardwood
Engineered hardwood floors are constructed of many glued layers of thin plywood with soft plywood or hardwood at the core and a thicker hardwood veneer on the outer surface. These features give this floor a life expectancy of thirty to one hundred years and while it is more expensive than the solid hardwood floor, it holds up better in moist areas.

Installation is simple, often using just a staple gun, leading to engineered hardwood a great choice for do-it-yourselfers. Some types of this flooring choice can be sanded and repaired after damage, but most of the time you are looking at replacing the whole damaged sections.

Laminate
Plastic laminate floors are made up of a photograph of wood on a fiberboard core. The photograph is sealed with a high strength coating of plastic and put together over a layer of foam. While laminate will have a more patterned, tiled look to it, this flooring is often the best choice for busy rooms due to its durability with foot traffic.

Glued simply held down by its weight, and laminate wood flooring is the least expensive and easiest to install of all wood floor options. Damage, however, can only be fixed by replacing flooring.

To up the resale value of their home, many people choose to install one of these three types of hardwood flooring before list their house for sales because the look of a hardwood floor is pleasing to the eyes as well as easy to clean.

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