Solid Wood or Engineered oak flooring?

MattW602

Hi!
We are about to pull up the carpet from the hallway and living room. We have decided to go with wooden flooring but cant decide which to go for (solid or engineered) We have a decent budget but we have read online that engineered is more durable? is this true? Also if you have any recommendations please post links. 
Thanks!

AskAsk

i have had both and without doubt the solid wood is more durable and looks better.  i don't know where you read that engineered wood is more durable but it is a thin strip of real wood on laminate, so it looks and feels better than laminate but is still prone to damage as it is only a thin layer (and they come in different depth of real wood layer).

real wood is extraordinarily expensive if you get real oak wood floor for example, but it lasts forever and you can sand it down and revarnish, which you can't do with engineered wood.

SootySweep1

Hi
I've got an engineered wood floor and we've had it down for 3 years and so far we're pleased with it.
It is a thin layer of wood but there are different thicknesses and we chose a thicker layer.
I've never had a solid wood floor though so I can't compare against that.
Cheers
Jen

neilmcl

AskAsk said:

i have had both and without doubt the solid wood is more durable and looks better.  i don't know where you read that engineered wood is more durable but it is a thin strip of real wood on laminate, so it looks and feels better than laminate but is still prone to damage as it is only a thin layer (and they come in different depth of real wood layer).

real wood is extraordinarily expensive if you get real oak wood floor for example, but it lasts forever and you can sand it down and revarnish, which you can't do with engineered wood.

That's incorrect. Engineered flooring is real wood throughout, albeit a composite of layers. You can also sand down and reseal a engineered wood floor.

The main advantage that an engineered wood floor has, and it's the main reason why it's designed the way it is, is that it's more stable and not prone to movement due to shrinkage or expansion.

A solid hardwood floor does have the advantage of feeling solid underfoot whereas engineered flooring, particularly if it's a floating floor, can be a bit noisy.

AskAsk

I found the top layer of the engineered wood starts to peel after heavy use over time.  I know it says that you can sand down and revarnish, but I doubt this claim if the top layer can peel off from the rest of the wood, sanding will only cause this to peel off even further.

Doozergirl

AskAsk said:

I found the top layer of the engineered wood starts to peel after heavy use over time.  I know it says that you can sand down and revarnish, but I doubt this claim if the top layer can peel off from the rest of the wood, sanding will only cause this to peel off even further.

You didn't have an engineered wood floor then,  as it wouldn't peel. 

There is such a thing as a veneered wood floor, which sounds like what you've described.   It's like laminate, but the too layer is a thin layer of wood veneer. We had one for a while and it did as you describe.  It was pretty cheap though.  

neilmcl is absolutely right about engineered wood.  The only thing I'd add is that there are engineered woods that are  just as thick as solid wood flooring to make no discernible difference underfoot, but you move up the price brackets with that.   At the lower end, engineered is cheaper than solid and there's the compromise in thickness of the plank - but the planks are stable in terms of reduced potential for movement caused by heat and moisture.  

neilmcl

AskAsk said:

I found the top layer of the engineered wood starts to peel after heavy use over time.  I know it says that you can sand down and revarnish, but I doubt this claim if the top layer can peel off from the rest of the wood, sanding will only cause this to peel off even further.

As above, engineered flooring doesn't peel, it has a solid wear layer of whatever hardwood species you've chosen.

https://www.kahrs.com/en/products/construction/ will give you an idea of what a typical 3 layered engineered floor is constructed of as opposed to a veneer floor. 

onomatopoeia99

AskAsk said:

I found the top layer of the engineered wood starts to peel after heavy use over time.  I know it says that you can sand down and revarnish, but I doubt this claim if the top layer can peel off from the rest of the wood, sanding will only cause this to peel off even further.

The top layer of the engineered oak planks I've laid has been 6mm (1/4" if you prefer) and there's no way that's ever "peeling".  Like Doozergirl said, you don't have engineered wood.

It's been down eight years now in the main bedroom and entrance hallway and is proving very hard wearing. 

shinytop

I've got some samples of engineered oak and solid oak floor in front of me now.  The oak layer on the engineered sample is thicker than a lot of laminate floors in total.  There is no way it will ever peel off;  it's 6mm and the whole structure is 18mm thick and completely solid.  We are going for engineered because of the resistance to warping mentioned.  The thick (18 or 20mm) solid and engineered floors are similar in price.  You can fit an engineered floor as a floating floor if you want but you can also glue or nail it. Solid needs to be glued/nailed.  I'm probably going to glue ours. 
  
OP, get some samples from one of the online stores and you'll see what they are like.  

koalakoala

I’ve had both, and was happy with both

Rambosmum

I've had both. Found real hardwood more difficult to maintain, particularly in entryways where despite best efforts it blackened with water ingress over the years - sanded and re-varnished and same happened again. We switched to engineered wood and didn't have the same issue. However I didn't actually like the look of the engineered wood, looked too fake for me so in the new house we have gone with vinyl flooring tile (Amtico) and we're very happy with it. Had the bathroom flooring down 4 years now and it looks as good as the day it was installed. We're slowly putting it throughout the downstairs, where we currently have hardwood and it looks very worn.