The Different Types of Engineered Flooring

Engineered wood flooring is a hugely popular way to achieve a solid wood flooring finish. With the exception of North America, it is the most common real wood floor covering around the world. This is due to the stability and versatility of this type of flooring.

Lamella

This is the decorative surface of the wood. An attractive timber is cut, bonded and finished to give the flooring the appearance of a solid piece of wood.

Finger Core Construction

In this type of engineered wood flooring, the strength of the floor comes from small milled blocks of wood that run at right angles to each other and the lamella. Normally it will be made up of 2 or 3 play layers depending on the intended use. This type of board gains stability through the grains running perpendicular to each other and doesn’t suffer much from expansion problems which can cause gapping or cupping.

Wood Ply Construction

Multiple layers of thin ply are sandwiched together in this type of construction. The ply layers run perpendicular to each other, which greatly reduces any reaction to climatic change. Some thicker ply engineered wood floors can even be used straight over joists due to the stability of the construction.

Fibreboard

The wood is made up of Medium or high-density fibreboard. It is very stable in regards to expanding and contracting and is less prone to denting. However, water will cause this board to lose form if exposed. One advantage of fibreboard is that the boards will benefit from superior technology normally found in laminate floorings. Such as the Berry Noble with it’s unique fitting system.

Tongue and Groove

Many engineered wood floorings are fitted using a tongue and groove system. The wood is milled to have a protruding tongue along one long side and one short side, and a groove along the remaining long and short sides. These are often glued in place using wood glue and held in place until the glue goes off. This type of floor can be laid floating and glued (As above) glued down to the sub floor or nailed down. (This method is mostly used for solid wood flooring).

Click Systems

Click systems are fairly easy to install as they don’t require glue and ratchet clamps. The tongue and groove in this type of flooring is shaped so that the boards can be tapped together rather than glued. This type of flooring is nearly always laid floating and is ideal for the DIY market due to it’s ease of use.

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