The difference between solid wood flooring and engineered wood flooring

The natural and beautiful wood grain, warm touch, and environmentally friendly characteristics make wood flooring popular with many people. Many people mistakenly believe that wood flooring equals solid wood flooring.

Therefore, today we will learn about the classification and characteristics of wood flooring, so that everyone can have a better understanding of wood flooring and choose the most suitable wood flooring for their home when decorating.

Types of wood flooring

Wood flooring is mainly divided into six categories: solid wood flooring, multi-layer engineered wood flooring, laminate flooring, bamboo flooring, cork flooring, and wood-plastic composite flooring.

The most common types of wood flooring on the market are solid wood flooring, engineered wood flooring, and laminate flooring. Among them, engineered wood flooring can be further divided into three-layer engineered wood flooring and multi-layer engineered wood flooring.

Today we'll be introducing these three common types of wood flooring.

Features of wood flooring

First, let's learn about solid wood flooring.

01. Solid wood flooring

Solid wood flooring is a floor covering material made by cutting natural trees into raw wood blocks and then processing them through drying and other methods. It is also known as hardwood flooring.

advantage

The biggest advantage of solid wood flooring is that it is made from natural wood, is pollution-free, contains no substances harmful to human health, and boasts beautiful grain, a delicate and varied texture, and elegant colors. Secondly, it also offers some advantages such as regulating indoor temperature, moisture retention, heat insulation, and sound insulation.

shortcoming

Due to the anisotropic properties of wood (see note at the end of the text), it is prone to moisture absorption and expansion, and shrinkage when drying, making it susceptible to cracking, deformation, and paint peeling.

Its installation requires building a keel frame on the ground, which also increases the labor and time costs.

Of course, friends who love solid wood flooring should not be deterred by this. Solid wood flooring is divided into four grades: A, B, C, and D, based on the raw material. Grade A solid wood flooring is less likely to crack, deform, or have paint peeling, and its service life can be as long as several decades.

Solid wood flooring is made from precious native wood trees that are over 30 years old. It features nano-level scratch and wear resistance, extremely high hardness of the lacquer film, superior penetration and adhesion, strong wear resistance, and no paint peeling.

02. Multi-layer engineered wood flooring

Multi-layer engineered wood flooring can be divided into two types based on its core material: three-layer engineered wood flooring and multi-layer engineered wood flooring.

Three-layer engineered wood flooring

Taking multi-layer solid wood flooring as an example: Three-layer solid wood flooring is a composite flooring made of high-quality solid wood such as teak and oak as the veneer and stable wood such as lauan and birch as the core. The materials used are not much different from solid wood flooring, but its stability and cost performance are better than solid wood flooring.

▲Cross-section of three-layer engineered wood flooring

During installation, only ground leveling is required; there is no need to install a ground joist frame, resulting in lower costs.

Multi-layer engineered wood flooring

If there is already three-layer engineered wood flooring, why is there also multi-layer engineered wood flooring? Actually, both use the same solid wood veneer and core material, and multi-layer engineered wood flooring also has the same high-quality properties as three-layer engineered wood flooring. Its emergence is simply to improve resource utilization and reduce waste.

▲Cross-section of multi-layer solid wood composite flooring

Furthermore, multi-layer solid wood is made by pressing multiple layers of board cores together horizontally and vertically. This structure allows the wood flooring to be stressed more evenly during use, greatly reducing the possibility of cracking and deformation.

03. Laminate Flooring

Because consumers lack understanding of engineered wood flooring, they believe that its lower price compared to solid wood and multi-layer engineered wood flooring is due to its lower quality, which is not the case.

Laminate flooring consists of a wear-resistant layer, wood grain paper, high-density fiberboard, and balancing paper.

The wear-resistant layer makes laminate flooring more wear-resistant than solid wood and multi-layer solid wood flooring; the wood grain paper is responsible for its appearance, while the high-density fiberboard and balancing paper are responsible for the stability of the flooring.

▲The modern series of engineered wood flooring features a wood-look finish that is so realistic it's almost indistinguishable from real wood flooring. If you hadn't read this, would you have thought it was solid wood flooring?

The presence of wood grain paper gives engineered wood flooring a diverse appearance, not just a single wood grain finish, but also novel and unique color-blocked flooring, which better suits the aesthetics of young people.

▲Aesthetic Series Laminate Flooring

Consumers prioritize three main aspects: product quality, aesthetics, and after-sales service. Therefore, when choosing engineered wood flooring, consider these three points: 1. Check if the product has a valid quality inspection report; 2. Examine the simulation level of the wood grain finish; 3. Consider the brand's history and scale.

▲Test report and honors received for engineered wood flooring

With qualified product quality inspection reports, a highly realistic wood grain finish, a 26-year company history, and a market presence of thousands of stores, engineered wood flooring meets all your requirements. Moreover, it's economical, offering a more affordable price compared to other flooring options without compromising performance.

Formaldehyde-removing and antibacterial functional flooring

If you want more environmentally friendly wood flooring, you might consider formaldehyde-free and antibacterial wood flooring.

▲National Patent for Formaldehyde-Removing and Antibacterial Functional Flooring

Formaldehyde-removing and antibacterial functional flooring combines the advantages of wood flooring with the following features: wear resistance, burn resistance, water resistance, and UV aging resistance. It also decomposes formaldehyde, purifies the air, and resists bacterial invasion.

▲Formaldehyde-removing and antibacterial functional flooring - Authoritative testing report

Whether you want high-performance engineered wood flooring or more natural multi-layer engineered wood flooring, formaldehyde-free and antibacterial functional flooring can meet your needs.

That concludes our introduction to the types and characteristics of wood flooring. Does this information make things clearer? Then hurry up and make your purchase!

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Anisotropic materials

If a material has the same mechanical properties (tensile strength, elongation, etc.) in all directions, we say that the material is isotropic; otherwise, we say that the material is anisotropic.

Wood fibers are arranged in a very regular pattern. The tensile strength is relatively high when parallel to the fiber direction and very low when perpendicular to the fiber direction, so it is an anisotropic material.