woodenfloors – All About Wooden Floors

When it comes to engineered hardwood floors, two common methods of installation are floating and glue-down. The following is a rundown of all the basics you need to know about these two installation methods. The Con’s A floating wood floor can sound hollow or give an echo when walked on. This is due to the impact noise absorption being greatly reduced as it is easier for the sound vibrations to travel between the underlay and wood floor. This hollow sound can be reduced with better quality underlays but a floating floor, regardless of underlay quality, will never have the firm solid sound of a permanently fixed wood floor. As a floating floor is not fixed to the sub-floor, any slight undulations in the sub-floor can result in movement when the floating floor is walked on. It is not uncommon to see furniture move as it is walked past. This phenomenon can also be a result of the slight compression properties of an underlay. Leading...

How do you choose a wood floor?The style choice is bewildering; take your pick from ash, bamboo, beech, cherry, iroko, maple, merbau, oak, walnut and many others. The next choice is between laminate, engineered and solid wood. Beware cheap laminates; they are to this decade what swirly carpets were to the 1970s - a design disaster that will reduce the value of your home and will be instantly ripped out by new owners. Laminate vs engineered vs solid: A laminate is a piece of plastic with a photographic image of wood grain, mounted on MDF. They cost as little as £5 a square metre and although scratch-resistant, once damaged are non-repairable. Engineered flooring has a veneer of real wood, usually 3-7mm thick, that can be sanded up to five times. It is particularly suitable for use over concrete floors and in kitchens. Solid wood is one piece of wood from top to bottom. As it needs to be nailed to a permanent floor,...

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FLOATING VS. GLUE-DOWN WOOD FLOORING

Solid-Engineered-Laminate