Excellent Affordable Substitute for Wood – Engineered Flooring

Question: Initially I wished to install wood flooring in my home.  However the prices are beyond my affordability.  Is there something as elegant and excellent that can substitute wood while not being so expensive?  What would be my best option?

Answer: People all over the world prefer wood because of its excellent appearance, durability, resilience and the natural warmth it provides for their home or office.  However wood is no more as cheap and readily available it once used to be.  Persistent tree felling has not only resulted in dwindling down the resources but also has caused a big threat to the environment around us.  Both manufacturers and end users are looking for suitable substitutes for wood.  In course of their search, many alternatives have come up like laminate that is a photographic representation of the real hard wood, cork, carpet, and engineered materials. Engineered wood flooring is preferred by many end users because they are as good in terms of durability, resilience and excellence as their original wood counterparts.

While remodeling the homeowners often crave for hardwood.  However, hardwood is hard to get and they are very expensive.  You will also find it extremely difficult to install it on your own.  You will require the services of expert professional installers to install hardwood materials.  It is also highly vulnerable to moisture and atmospheric pressures.  Hardwood has the tendency to expand and contract due to effects of change in the temperature and humidity outside.  Due to all these difficulties people are now turning towards engineered wood flooring. Of course laminate is also an inexpensive substitute for hardwood but they are not simply hardwood.  Engineered materials on the other hand are the closest to the real hardwood.

Best features of engineered wood flooring are that it is real wood.  Laminate is melamine and photographic paper on top of some material.  Engineered wood on the other hand is 1/16” to 1/8” inches finished wood that is placed as the top layer with the non-finish plywood underneath.  These are pre-finished products.  They are already sanded and sealed.  You can walk on engineered material as soon as it is laid. On the other hand you cannot walk on the unfinished hard wood as it requires some time before use.

Another basic advantage of engineered wood flooring is that it can be sanded which is just like the real wood materials.  Laminate flooring cannot be sanded after it develops scratch and dings.  You can only change the entire laminate surface when it gets scratched or dinged.  Of course even for the engineered materials there are a couple of limitations.  You can not sand the material more than three times since it may cause irreparable damages to them.  Secondly the sanding of engineered materials should be carried out only by the expert professional.

There are certain places in your home or office that are not at all suitable for the hardwood flooring.  Basements and kitchen with light moisture presence are not suitable for wood.  However you can install engineered wood flooring in areas that are exposed to light moisture. Of course like real wood they are not good for the extremely moist areas or areas that are constantly exposed to water flow like the bathrooms, but compared to both real hardwood and laminate, engineered material is better option for you.

Tags: advantages of, Engineered Flooring, Hardwood Flooring, Laminate Flooring

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 6:22 am and is filed under Engineered Wood Floors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.