Engineered vs. Solid Wood - The Pros and Cons

As a floor pro, you tend to start taking certain information for granted, and assuming the typical homeowner just knows the same as you. Sometimes you have to take a step back and refocus on your approach to educating the customer.

I’ve had several conversations lately where a customer wants a wide solid plank in their home. My thought process has evolved to the point where if they want anything wider than 5”, I’ll suggest an engineered product.

I get met with immediate resistance - the typical objection is “I don’t want that cheap plastic in my house” to “I’ve read it soaks up water like a sponge if there’s a spill”.

While doing thier own dilligence, homeowners often confuse engineered wood products with LVT(P) and Laminate flooring, which - depending on where you’re sourcing your material - can be a fair comparison. Here’s why:

Engineered wood was meant to be a more stable version of solid wood - the idea being that you adhere a wear layer that would be equivalent to the wear layer of a solid floor (4.5mm to 5mm wear layer for a 3/4” thick engineered product) to a plywood substrate with a high grade adhesive - that way you’d have a more stable floor product less susceptable to expansion and contraction (gaps) than you would a solid floor.

For commercial applications, this also meant a manufactuter could deliver a quality cut wood floor as an engineered wood, and make it economically feasible to produce as you could make a 3/8” thick product that would perform great, save material, and save freight/logistics costs.

However over the years and as new manufacturers entered the market, products started being manufactered with less quality and corners cut to “save” money. Lower grade adhesive holding ply and wear layer would frequently fail causing delamination (where the surface of an engineered wood literarlly peels off the plywood substrate), and the cuts of wood became of poorer quality.

If you go to a Home Depot or Lowes this will be evident - look at a piece of their “Engineered Wood” product, look at the overall thickness, and the thickness of the wear layer. You’re getting a wood floor by name only, and that’s the modern day association with an engineered wood floor.

Back to the customer - my immediate objective is to dispell the engineered myth. I’m not pushing a cheaper product to my customer to make more money. I’m simply looking after my, and their, interests long term. An engineered wood floor from a respectable manufacturer, with the same thickness as a solid wood prodict, will offer more long term durability, useability, and performance.

Both are installed in a same manner - greater than 5” you’d glue assist with a staple (or nail in solid hardwood), both have the same requirements for installation. One key difference maker, especially in new construction, could be the acclimation time. I always allow for engineered wood floors to acclimate at least 48 hours on sites with functioning HVAC and proper humidity levels (35-55%), but many engineered manufacturers say there’s no acclimation time,

Compare that to solid wood - you want to install that product, by rule, when the moisture content is within 2% MC of the existing wood on site. Lets say you deliver the wood on site, and you take the initial moisture readings and get an average of 8%, but the plywood and trim are @ 12% - you need to wait until the wood falls into equilibrium (2%) of the wood on site. Sometimes in extreme conditions this could take months.

So, when shopping for new floors that should be an investment that lasts a lifetime, and your design intent is to get some beautiful wide planks, please keep engineered wood in mind as a top option - You’ll get the greatest performance, and equally if not greater lifespan out of the floors, but the key ingredient is to dispell the commonplace myth of what an engineered wood floor is.