Welcome back, ya’ll! We are excited to be diving into this blog series with you all about the benefits and disadvantages of traditional hardwood versus engineered hardwood flooring. When it comes to flooring your Fort Worth home, it is beneficial to be educated and understand which species is going to be right for your home.
At Texas Hardwood Flooring, we want to help you make the decision for your family. There are advantages to hardwood such as you can refinish and re-sand it many times before you would need to replace it. However, on the flip side of things, engineered flooring is better for basements, over concrete, and doesn’t expand as much. Check out even more reasons why one may be better than the other for your home.
Advantages of Hardwood Flooring Vs. Engineered
Hardwood Can Be Maintained
When you have a solid hardwood floor, it is known to last for many many years. One of the reasons for its longevity is that it can be repaired, refinished, and sanded many times. If you get a nasty scratch or have a family that is hard on your floor, sanding and refinishing may be necessary to keep your floor looking pristine.
It Can Be Matched
If you are moving into a new home in Fort Worth, odds are it might already have some hardwood flooring. If you like the way this flooring appears and want to continue it throughout other rooms in the house, this should be possible, as this floor should still be solid. Solid hardwood floor can be easily matched up by height and color.
Easily Repaired
While we touched on this when we discussed maintaining your floor, being able to repair your floor when mishaps happen may be important. If your home has, unfortunately, been involved in a flood, a pet had an accident that was not cleaned up in a timely manner, or your washer broke and leaked water everywhere, it will be much more beneficial to be able to fix the hardwood than replacing it entirely. Our flooring team is capable of matching the flooring as closely as possible and then sanding and refinishing it so it looks brand new once again.
More Options
Hardwood flooring has the capability of coming in finished and prefinished varieties. If you are looking for fewer steps and a faster installation, going with pre-finished floors may be your best bet. If you have more time and want to match other flooring or test different colors, you can go with an untreated hardwood floor.
Benefits of Engineered Flooring
No Sub-floor
When you go with engineered hardwood you don’t need to put a subfloor down, which can make installation in your home much easier. Also, this type of flooring can be placed on materials such as concrete. You won’t have to take the extra step of making sure plywood is laid down before you supply the hardwood.
Fewer Height Issues
When you install your engineered hardwood on top of a concrete floor, there should be less of hassle when it comes to the height of the floor meeting the wall and other areas in the right manner. This is important to remember because of interior and exterior doors, cabinets and appliances, as traditional hardwood floor may prohibit entrance and trap these areas. The reason being is when you add a subfloor and then hardwood flooring you are adding over an inch of height, which creates difficulty throughout the entire area.
Install Anywhere
Before, we discussed that solid hardwood flooring can only be placed on the upper levels of your Fort Worth home, due to moisture issues. When you have engineered flooring instead, this is not the case. Engineered flooring is perfectly sound in the basement of the home. If you believe your home has a moisture concern, it is a great idea to implement engineered floors into your Fort Worth home.
Versatile Install
While hardwood flooring only has one proper way to install, engineered has multiple that you can take advantage of. Engineered hardwood flooring can be installed by nailing it in place if you do have a subfloor present, preferably made of plywood. It can also be stapled, glued, or made to float on top. Our team of experts will be able to help you decide which was is going to be most beneficial for you in Fort Worth.
More Stability
Most of you are aware that hardwood flooring expands and contracts throughout the year due to moisture increases and decreases. Sometimes, this can buckle the floor and ultimately cause repair or possible replacement. Engineered flooring is a good option because it has far less expansion and contractions, so it tends to stay in place for a longer period of time. Additionally, because of its perpendicular layers, it tends to be more durable and stronger than hardwood.
While engineered and solid hardwood looks similar, they are actually quite different. If you are still struggling on how to choose which flooring is going to be the correct option for your home, call up the experts at Texas Hardwood Flooring. Our team is professional, kind, and knowledgeable when it comes to all things flooring. Our flooring team will be able to assist you in making an educated and informed decision when it comes to your Fort Worth home. If you want to learn more about our engineered wood, click here, and stay tuned for a final blog in this series where we discuss the disadvantages of both hardwood and engineered hardwood flooring.
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