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We're repainting our bedroom and were going to replace the carpets, but then I got interested in the idea of adding wood flooring. In particular, I've been especially intrigued by the newer generation "engineered" wood floors. A carpenter we recently had do some minor work had positive experiences working with "locking" engineered wood floors which are designed to be used in a "floating" install where you don't nail or glue them to the subfloor.
Because of the easier install, they're less expensive to install. And the "engineered" aspect means that there's just a very thin layer (about 1mm is common) of real wood on top, with HDF (high density fiberboard) below that, so the flooring itself is also less expensive than solid wood. But it's not all about saving money...there's also a wider variety of woods, finishes (these are all pre-finished), as well as some interesting "handscraped" finishes where they're designed to look worn (but still very beautiful).
My main concern is how they'll wear. My brother put this sort of flooring in his den/TV room and he doesn't ask guests to take their shoes off before they come in, and he's told me that he's definitely seeing scratches/nicks, and because of the ultra-thin real wood layer on top, you can't really refinish these.
I'm thinking I'll give it a shot for our master bedroom, since that won't be getting public traffic, and we can enforce a no-shoes policy as well.
But I'm curious to hear if anyone here has any personal experience, especially if you've had this type of flooring installed for at least 2-3 years and can comment on how well they've held up. If this is a poor forum to ask this sort of thing and you have suggestions for other forums I should go to, let me know.
FWIW, a lot of the bad things I've read have made mention of dogs scratching up the floors. I have one very small dog (who is up in years and probably won't be around 3 years from now).
Well, I've had real, solid wood floors, laminate floors, and now engineered hardwood flooring. I've had engineered hardwood now in two homes - but I have always chosen the type that is glued down. I prefer that to interlocking floors because I don't like the hollow sound and feel of flooring that's not glued down.
We went with a high grade engineered hardwood floor with a thicker than "minimum" veneer. This veneer is thick enough to withstand at least one refinishing if we ever chose to do so, though I can't imagine we'd do that. We installed these same floors in one house five years ago and in this house three years ago.
The flooring is by Cathedral. I have been very pleased with Cathedral - we also used Cathedral tiles in our master bath.
Yes, we have a few scratches (none through the veneer) and nicks (also none through the veneer) that you'd never notice unless you knew they were there and were looking for them. But guess what - we also had a few scratches and nicks and marks on the solid hardwood floors as well over time. None on the laminate but I HATED those floors and will never go with a laminate again. Besides the fact that they sounded and felt flimsy (even though they weren't cheapo floors), they also warped easily. The "selling point" is that individual planks can be easily replaced but who wants to be doing that all the dang time?
Next house we buy, we would not hesitate to put in high quality engineered hardwood flooring again.
We have two very large dogs (one is 95 pounds and one is 65 pounds). They go in and out all day long. I can't see that they've scratched these floors at all.
But we got engineered hardwood with a bit of a rustic feel to it anyway. I do think this lessens the appearance of any smallish scratches. We may have more scratches than I realize but if so, we can't see them so it doesn't matter to me at all.
I've had my engineered floors for almost a year. I had them glued down. I love them. I chose LM Flooring. I chose them for a couple of reasons. With the humidity here in the South I felt that they would warp less than a pure hardwood. My home is on a slab, putting in pure hardwood would mean adding a subfloor adding expense. They have a solid sound to them as opposed to the plastic sound of laminate. I chose to alternated 3" and 5" planks, I love the way they look.
I bought and had them installed by a local company. Some manufacturers will say it will void the warranty if purchased on line.
FYI - here's LM's site, I chose Town Square Mocha
I've only used the floating engineered hardwood floors and would not recommend them. As pretty as it was it scratched way too easily.
Maybe it is different with the glue down ones.
And yes I agree about any floating floor and the potential hollow sounds. That can depend on the levelness of your floor underneath and also the underlayment you use.
Engineered hardwood flooring- those that use a veneer top layer will scratch- period.
On the otherhand, there is engineered flooring that has a "plastic laminate" top coat/wear layer that can take one Helluva a beating and still look brand new.
However, there is one very major consideration that people tend to overlook because their wallet blinds them. Is this house a house that would typically see this type of flooring? In otherwords, is the price point of the home at a level where this type of flooring would be used generously? For example, homes here in the ATL that would be around $200k would probably have engineered hardwood or laminate flooring. Homes in the $300k+ would "expect" to have real site-finished hardwood flooring.
My house is on a slab so we chose to put in engineered wood floors and they've been great (glued down, not floating). I mean, they get nicked here and there but that's part of having a wood floor no? We have wood markers and color in the nicks and no one can ever tell the difference.
I've never actually had wood floors so can't compare there. But we're very happy with ours, no issues with settling, extremely neat.
Side question: are engineered floors really cheaper? I'm sure there is a pretty good deal of overlap in prices.
I'm aiming for wood-look porcelain tiles for our master bedroom for the sole reason that our 80 lb mutt with big nails spends a lot of time in there. It looks like the real thing, but care is so much easier and no nicks and scratches to worry about.
Might be an option for you to look into??
I have real wood and Pergo laminate. The Pergo holds up much better to my 3 kids and dogs then the real hardwood. (pergo about 12 years old now). My inlaws installed a highend floating hardwood engineered floor (not sure the brand), and what ever it's coated with is also tough as heck. still looks shockingly shiny 10 years later.
But I'm curious to hear if anyone here has any personal experience, especially if you've had this type of flooring installed for at least 2-3 years and can comment on how well they've held up. If this is a poor forum to ask this sort of thing and you have suggestions for other forums I should go to, let me know.
We have engineered wood floors in our new condo. So far, I prefer them over the hardwood planks we had in our previous house. Both types of flooring are susceptible to scratches. It really depends on the hardness of the wood, the species, and the finish. I really dislike dark hardwood or engineered wood with a gloss finish because every little scratch shows. The cupping of the hardwood floors in our previous house also got pretty bad.
Have you spoken with people in the flooring business yet? Depending on what your needs are, some hardwood planks may fit your needs better than engineered wood, or vice versa. I would just be cautious with people who are resolutely attached to one type of flooring without considering how the characteristics and performance of the flooring fit with the needs of the customer. It is also silly that some people have the idea that a certain type of expensive home MUST have hardwood floor without considering the factors that went into the decision making process.
We have engineered hard wood floors in our condo. 5" wide planks, hand scraped that look awesome. Every piece looks slightly different. Like others have said, the only downside is that you cannot refinish them down the road.
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