Engineered flooring

   / Engineered flooring #1  

HRSx2

Bronze Member
Joined
Dec 22, 2007
Messages
54
OK, I looked and talked with you about laminates. I have one I like. But while at Lowes on a return trip today to look things over again, I spied 3/8 engineered hardwoods, this one made by Bruce, that does not require glue, nails, staples, etc. etc. You simply snap it together and it floats, just like the laminates. It also has a 25year finish warranty, very close to the top laminates. Have any of you used this? It looks interesting. I played with an open box and snapped several pieces together. Each board is 3" wide. It seems to me that it would take some time for each of these pieces to seat themselves as they are small and do not have an attached underlay. It lookes like roofing felt etc. is used for this much like the 3/4 board. Interesting concept.
 
   / Engineered flooring #2  
I double checked our laminate floor. It is Wilsonart Estate Plus carry a "Lifetime" warranty. We liked it over hardwood or engineered wood floors. Here is the web site Wilsonart Flooring - Homeowner
 
   / Engineered flooring
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Thanks for the link.
 
   / Engineered flooring #4  
I've no personal experience with the "engineered" stuff myself, but I saw some of the material that my son-in-law was installing for a client. It looked good and he said one advantage is that you can even sand and re-finish it if you want to in the future.
 
   / Engineered flooring #5  
HRSx2 Come on ya almost there go for the 3/4 prefinished 50yr wear warranty hardwood flooring. BTW if you go for that bolivian rosewood (absolutely beautiful) use a airnailer for install. I have a hand nailer and that wood was so dense that if I didn't drive the nail home on the first shot it would bend in place. -Ed
 
   / Engineered flooring
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Not there yet. Just ripped the old cheap wood out of the foyer and dinning. Dang staples are a pain to get out. Two rooms to go before I'm ready. One more with carpent and the kitchen with wood. Tile will go in the kitchen so that old wood is going too. I got some kind of workout today.
 
   / Engineered flooring #7  
HRSx2,

I put down some eng 3/8" flooring from Lowes. It was not Bruces but a cheep China Knock off. Mine is toung and groove. The instructions stated glue OR nail. I did both. Feels soild. I think the glue is critical if you want a soild feeling floor. The "floating" floors sound holow. One thing to note about eng floors, the ply backing is a soft Asian wood. Droping soming heavey will leave a dent. The stuff I got was on sale for $1.30 sq-ft. I'm selling the house so I went cheep. But if I was looking for a perminant floor, go solid 3/4". If you are tring to save money, go with Rustic oak. This has a lot of color varriations and comes in short lengths and is not pre-finished. But in the end, you get just as tough floor. Stay away from the laminates...

Patrick T
 
   / Engineered flooring #8  
I have Pergo laminate in my kitchen, living, dining and the hallway in our ranch house. It is the glue together kind. I don't recall that the snap together style was available in 1998 when I put it down.

Other than a few dents that are hard to see unless you are down on your hands and knees cleaning it, it has held up well. In fact, we are in the process of selling and the buyer had a home inspection. The inspector felt that it looked very good.

We have dogs and "live" in our house, ie; we don't treat it like a museum. One problem with dogs is that the floor is very slippery and we end up using throw rugs everywhere. Perhaps that is why it is still in good condition.

With laminates, you need to use the best underlayment available to minimize the "hollow" sound.

I would never use it in the kitchen again either. I would go with something like the embossed Perelli tiles that have some give to them.
 
   / Engineered flooring #9  
I'd be skeptical about non-nailed 3/8" wood.
I have used 3/8" engineered stapled-down hardwood over radiant floors - VERY nice indeed. No issues with seasonal expansion/contraction. And they are supposed to tolerate one or two sandings over their life.

I have used laminate non-glued and glued floors in some rental houses that I used to own - they wore very well. But over time you will find little chips and dings along the edges. But it is imperitive to install floating floors over a fully flat plane, else you will have movement and flexing. So if your floors have lots of dips you may need to use some floor leveler and/or more drastic measures.

~Paul
 
   / Engineered flooring
  • Thread Starter
#10  
Well, I went floor shopping today and found a five inch wide engineered board by Robin Wood. Looks great and is available with the V lock system as they call it. Snaps together quite nicely. I've got a box coming to try out. So the laminate is on hold. Still haven't taken it back yet. Will probably keep one box of the laminate and set it out side-by-side with this engineered wood before I decide. But its been fun. I'm excited. As stated earlier. Either that I go with will be an improvement over carpet. I lived with the ugly rug for the past ten years, and I'm glad it will soon be replaced. Can't wait till next week.
 

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