Engineered Hardwood Is Susceptible to Water Damage and Moisture
As we simply referred to, engineered hardwood is prone to moisture and water harm. Not handiest does this suggest you want to dry up mopped regions fast, but it also limits wherein you can effectively deploy it.
For example, kitchens and engineered hardwood usually aren’t a very good mix. If you do lots of dishes through hand and tend to splash water at the floors across the sink area, this can also lead to problems in case you don’t dry it up immediately. Young kids may also want to spill meals or drink for a laugh on wood floors as well.
What’s extra, you have to also suppose cautiously approximately the climate you are dwelling in and the humidity levels in your own home. For example, many house owners in Florida steer clean of solid wooden and engineered wood floors way to the humid weather situations.
Additionally, if you have a room that’s commonly damper than the rest of your private home along with a basement installing engineered timber in those regions might not be a sensible desire long time.
There’s a Limit to How Many Times You Can Refinish Engineered Hardwood
One of the blessings of wooden floors is that unlike tiling and vinyl they may be refinished. After refinishing, traditional wood flooring can appearance as good as new, and you may try this a number of instances at some point of the life of a fine solid hardwood floor.
This additionally offers you the chance to switch up the shade and aesthetic of your Engineered Wood Flooring. For example, if you have an previous darkish stain in your wooden flooring, with refinishing you is probably capable of convert it to a blonde hardwood look, an choice that’s surprisingly famous with designers in the meanwhile.
The solid hardwood middle photograph above suggests that sanding it down for a refinish will expose the identical fabric. Unfortunately, engineered hardwood floors can’t be refinished numerous instances. In truth, less expensive variations can’t deal with one refinish activity at all.
Due to the engineered floor’s separate strong timber veneer pinnacle, you could’t take an excessive amount of off this deposit earlier than walking into problems. Low exceptional engineered timber flooring normally has top veneers which can be most effective 1mm in thickness.
These forms of engineered wooden flooring products can’t be refinished. If you try to refinish them, you may grow to be breaking through the veneer into the laminate wood underneath.
Higher grades of engineered wooden floors regularly come with veneer layers that are round 3mm thick. These may be refinished. However, there’s a restricted amount of times you could do that earlier than the pinnacle layer will put on thin.
In widespread, you can assume which will refinish top-quality engineered wood floors with thicker veneers a maximum of 2-3 instances.
Susceptibility to Dents and Scratches
If you are considering having engineered wooden flooring set up, you should additionally hold in thoughts that it could be less durable than other non timber options like luxury vinyl plank.
For one, all wood flooring is prone to scratches. With strong wooden floors, if you enjoy a variety of scratching and wear, you could constantly choose to clean up and refinish your ground. As noted above, this isn’t constantly an option with engineered wood floors.
Cheaply made engineered timber flooring is normally comprised of thin and few layers under their veneers which cause them to greater susceptible to dents. If you drop a heavy object on a cheap engineered Hybrid Flooring, it could create a dent in the timber.
Although this can also show up with solid hardwood floors, they’re typically denser which means the dents won’t be as deep or reported.
Some Engineered Hardwood Products Can off Gas Chemicals
One of the in addition risks of low great engineered floors is that it could off gasoline doubtlessly risky chemical compounds and VOCs.
Engineered wood floors cores are made of layers of timber and composites. The core layers are sure together via adhesives. Cheap engineered floors made in China can release formaldehyde.
A lot of engineered wood flooring is safe. However, no longer all engineered timber products are created equal. According to a observe from Consumer Reports, many engineered wood flooring merchandise launch unsafe tiers of formaldehyde emissions.
Unfortunately, although formaldehyde does off gasoline over time, the emissions could be highest within the months after installing the product. This way that whilst you’re enjoying your new flooring, it can be secretly emitting formaldehyde gasoline or different VOCs.
If you would like to keep away from the danger of off gassing completely, then you may want to opt for installing wooden flooring the use of solid hardwood planks.
If as an alternative, you will choose to have engineered wooden floors installed, then you should make certain you choose a great engineered timber floor from a good distributor.
The purpose for that is that well known producers and vendors are some distance less likely to promote engineered floors that hasn’t handed the nationally required protection assessments.
Ask and make certain any engineered floor you buy is a low or no VOC. All of our engineered products are low VOC products and are safe to install in all houses.
Low Quality Engineered Wood Flooring Can Be Hollow Sounding Underfoot
The final access in our list of negative aspects of engineered hardwood flooring is that it could be hole-sounding underfoot. There are a few motives for this.
For one, engineered timber floors is normally thinner than solid floors planks. Cheap engineered wooden floors are usually lighter and less dense due to the fact they may be made from timber veneers and composites.
Finally, engineered hardwood is typically installed as a floating ground. This method it isn’t glued or nailed down inside the manner that maximum stable timber floors are. Because of this, floating engineered hardwood installations can from time to time sound clunky.
Low grade engineered timber flooring merchandise are much more likely to produce a hole sound while walked on. Denser, thicker, and greater high quality engineered flooring received’t suffer from sounds underfoot.
