Engineered flooring

[GarthH]

I just made the big purchase 800 ft of Torly's engineer hardwood. It has the clic locking system. I had a posting about a month ago on whether the locking system would hold up and generally whether it would be a worthwhile decision. I visited three retailers - one knocked the clic locking system but did have an engineered product that had a simple lap joinery which needed to be glued. The boards had more hardwood although in our application I had concerns that the expansion / contraction would be too much.

The other two retailers both recommended Torly's even though they had a number of other engineered products to recommend.

The floating floor has been around for a while. I was told by several retailers that the ones that are having trouble are the ones that the poorer grade MDF as part of backing material. The better flooring will have a treated HDF that will prevent spills from being absorbed into the wood.

In my instance real wood was not a great option as I will be having radiant heat under the floor.

I asked the mfg about the Clic joinery system and was referred onto the Clic company itself. The've been around since 96 and appears are still gaining market share. There guarentee is pretty agressive - guarenteed not to separate more than 1/100 of an inch - for the life of the first owner. The famous question can millions be wrong - yes but hopefully in this case there not.

We ordered the Teak - a very nice looking product. If it was 100% Teak I doubt if I could afford the costs.

Garth

 

[Cottonhawk]

Sounds like whatever you decide will be an improvement over the old carpet.
Good luck to your new project.

 

[HRSx2]

Couldn't help myself today, I just had to play. Here's what I did. Took all the Pergo back. I found a 5 inch plank laminate at lowes, Swiftlock (Seems like each time I go, I find something new.) I purchased a box of that since I really want the broad plank look over the more narrow look. While I was at it, I went ahead and picked up a box of the Bruce fold-and-lock 3/8 engineered. Both were natural in color. The laminate had a underlayment fastened to it, the natural did not, so I picked up a roll of 2-1 underlayment for it.

Once home I started with the Swiftlock. It all went together by hand rather easily. I "Installed" (whole 1 box) in the living room. Stepped away from it and thought, Wow! that's as pretty a floor as I ever seen. Stepped on it, tapped on it, racked my nails across it. It felt just firm and sounded fine.

Then I rolled out two ten foot runs of the underlayment for the engineered right beside the laminate. An extra step. At this point I'm thinking this hardwood had better be good for this. Then I layed it out and snapped it together. Now this board is not as wide as I want, just 3 inches, but I wanted to see in the natural was actually "warmer". It's probably about $1 more per square foot for the engineered over the laminate.

Nice! Very nice. I thought after snapping all the "wood" together. Both are simply beautiful! I'd be happy with either. The engineered does, of course, have the "real wood" look a little better mastered than the laminate. But this is side by side. Remove either and the other will have you saying, That looks great!

Then I went and brought the little sample of the Robin Wood over that the floor company had let me borrow. Remember, they did not have a box of it. Will be sometime next week. I was shocked by the difference in the two "woods". The Robin actually measured by tape at 1/2 inch wide. The Bruce was a true 3/8. Looking at the layered construction, the Robin looked to have at least 2 additional in its ply construction. Maybe this is why it was advertised at nearly a $1.25 at this store over the engineered I'm playing with. Yet another example of the old saying you get what you pay for. Increased quality cost extra $$. So now I'm really interested in getting my hands on a sample box to play with. Hate having to wait.

In conclusion. I Will be thrilled with either of the products. They are all beautiful. They each have the look of quality. So it is just a matter of how much money I'm willing to spend.

 

[GarthH]

Maybe try spilling some water over each and leaving it for an hour. It would be interesting to know if the laminated backing material will absorb the water. The sales people I was talking to indicated that this was a big issue with the laminate flooring - the cheaper ones started to have waves in the boards caused by the water.

I did a basement floor - about 800 ft with a laminate from Costco. We recently sold the house but after 5 years the floor looked the same as in day 1. I did not know whether it was good laminate or not it just worked out.

Garth