Hello.

Can anyone explain the differences and the pros and cons?

Ta

 

Solid wood flooring is as the name suggests, a solid piece of wood all the way through. This could be a hard wood such as maple, or a softer wood such as pine.

Engineered wood flooring usually consists of a number of layers of plywood style backing over which a veneer of the required wood is attached.

Solid wood flooring is generally more susceptible to moisture in the air and prone to warping, so you need to nail it down. You can also sand it down and refinish it quite a few times. Engineered wood flooring can only be sanded a few times before you will go through the veneer, but because of the cross-ply backing is less susceptible to warping you can buy it in tongue and groove applications to lay as a floating floor.

I've recently laid down a solid bamboo floor in my study (best of both worlds really as it's solid boards yet very moisture resistant and tongue and groove floating floor), which is the only reason I know this stuff.

Gary.

 

Gary, can you tell the difference between solid and engineered? To see, feel etc

I see that some eng floors have 15 yrs of warranty, I presume that means they last that long?

Do you mind if I ask how much you paid per sqm for the solid bamboo?

Cheers
Deep

 

The veneer on engineered wood floor can be several mm thick. I've never studied samples of engineered vs solid side by side, but I would have thought that once laid you would be hard pressed to tell the difference. My main problem was that even if it looked the same, I would know it was a veneer...bit like gold plated jewellry, and probably daft I know.

The bamboo I laid was actually pretty cheap. It was about £19 per square metre for the bamboo itself, probably about £25 per square metre all in including underlay, skirting, door joins, adhesive etc.

There is one company (Junckers) who have developed some patented clip system for securing a solid wood floor as a floating floor. I would probably have gone for their maple if I hadn't chose bambo.

Gary.

 

Solid wood is as the name suggests,planks of solid wood that are glued or nailed together with tongue and groove.Engineered is a veneer on say an mdf backing that clicks together.
Having laid a few engineered recently i'd say its a lot easier than the solid stuff nailing or glueing each piece.Can you tell the difference,probably because solid wood is complete bits of wood with all the imperfections that come with it.As for the solid wood being able to sand it down more often,in reality who does that anyway.I certainly arent going to go to the hassle of it.If it looks tatty then so be it.Engineered will probably last 10 years at best.Solid a lifetime.

I'd say the choice comes down to the kind of house you live in.If its a three bedroom semi in Milton Keynes,then go for the engineered and do it yourself.If its a three storey detatched in Chelsea then go for the solid and get it professionally fitted.

 

Where did you source the hardware?

Thanks
Deep

 

http://www.birbek.com/

In Leeds,they sell both solid and engineered.

 

I ordered mine from http://www.flooringsupplies.co.uk/

 

Thanks.

I have floorboards. Will it nail onto these or will the floorboards come up so it can be nailed onto the joists?

Thanks again

 

Do you have any thoughts on Amtico floors?

 

You can probably lay it directly onto your existing floorboards, provided they are well screwed down and the area is almost perfectly flat (the tolerances for laying down a wooden floor are only about a couple of mm height difference per metre, so you may well find you need to invest in having the existing floor levelled). You may also need to check their moisture content against the boards you are laying. Probably best to seek expert advice from a supplier though, as I have a concrete floor so haven't investigated laying down over existing floorboards.

Amtico - I don't know a great deal about it, but personally I don't like artificial materials however convincing they look.

Gary.

 

Amtico is a high cost (~£50 /sq m) product, and IMHO best suited to kitchen/bathrooms and other heavy useage places. I've had it in my bathroom for about 5 years and it's wonderful, water just mops up. No warping.

From what I can work out it's made out of some form of resin, comes in various widths and is about 3mm thick. You lay it on a plywood base.

 

The bigger issue is that many of the solid board are quite thick (getting on for 1cm or more) and this can make things interesting where the floor meets another room that you are not re-flooring as you now have a height difference. I will be putting down solid wood pine flooring in due course, but will be lifting the old boards first.

 

Just had 70 square metres of the stuff put down ...we chose it due to it being more durable, warmer & quieter than solid or laminate ...only downsides are: if its going over floorboards make sure they're in good nick! even with 5mm of ply over them we can still see slight ripples (although we've been told this will calm down over time) ...& dont get a really dark colour (this applies to solid & laminates too) ...ours is wenge (almost ebony) & while it looks amazing it tends highlite every single scuff & scratch

 

Thanks for the help