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Laminate Engineered and Solid Floorings

Laminate

A laminate floor is made up of a high density core and a picture layer, and the wear layers. The core is what gives the flooring its strength and flexibility, the picture layer is the design that you see, and the wear layers are what gives this type of floor its durability. As with most things, you get what you pay for, and the more expensive laminate floors have thicker cores, more realistic picture layers and more durable wear layers. The many and varied click systems are also used in laminate floors and it’s always better to find a product which has a good strong jointing system. Laminates are floated over an underlay. Acclimatise for 48 hours.

Engineered

Engineered flooring is a board which is made up of a few layers. In the middle is the soft core, at the bottom is the stabilising layer and on the top is a layer of real wood, usually a hard wood like oak or beech. These floors can be prone to denting and a lot of the time cannot be re-sanded. They are however,   generally cheaper than solid woods and benefit from the fact that they are floated like a laminate floor over underlay and some have click systems. Acclimatise for 1 week.

Solid

Solid flooring is exactly that. One piece of solid wood machined into planks, normally with a tongue and groove joint. These types of floors can dent and scratch more easily than say a laminate would but it is these imperfections which give the flooring character over time. A solid floor can normally be sanded 2-3 times depending on the thickness of it, and therefore look like new after being sealed. A solid wood floor is quite a major investment as the sub-floor needs to be well prepared, so that the planks can be either glued or nailed down, but by getting it right you will have a floor that can be enjoyed for many years.