Engineered Wood Flooring

Lemlin

I've been offered an engineered board at a good price that is 189mm wide by 14mm thick. The wear layer is 3mm on top.

However, a few people have mentioned that engineered boards that are 14mm are not 'proper' engineered boards and are more like a semi solid board. Some shops have said that any engineered board should be 18mm to 21mm.

I've had a look at the board in question and got a sample and it looks like an engineered board in that you can see the different layers underneath the veneer whereas a semi solid board has just one thick layer.

I've got two prices for my quantity (one semi solid, one engineered) and the actual semi solid board is coming in at 1k cheaper for my quantity than this engineered board.

What's the opinion of people on 14mm thick engineered boards?

The other thing I didn't like about the engineered board is that there was a large colour variation in 3 boards when the rep put them on the floor. 2 looked fine but the third was very dark, almost like it had a smoked finish. The rep said to me that this will come out of the board and that you always get a variation but this seems like a very marked variation and my carpenter thinks its the sign of a cheap board.

Lemlin

Nobody?

Gulliver

I was told something similar by a supplier in this area. He said that engineered should be 18-22mm with at least a 5mm wear layer. He also said semi solid should have three layers and engineered would look like many layered plywood with a solid top layer.

Do you have underfloor heating? Another thing they mentioned was that a 2mm cork underlay should be used for underfloor, not the foam stuff, no matter how thin.

I didn't see a huge colour variation in the engineered stuff, but then it wasn't very cheap either.

gman2k

My biggest concern with your flooring would be the thickness of the wearing layer.
Personally I think anything less than 5-6mm is a waste of money.