Number of Plies
In the picture above you will see a cross-section of an 8-ply floor. If we are only talking plies, more plies are always better. The absolute most important goal for your engineered hardwood floor is stability. Each ply, or layer, will be turned 90 degrees, or perpendicular to the ply above and below it. This limits the amount of dimensional movement that the floor will experience in less-than-perfect environments. The greater the number of plies, the more stable the floor will be.
Why Does This Matter to You?
The reason most people buy engineered floors over a solid hardwood floor is because of the lack of stability, or propensity for movement due to moisture that is common in solid wood flooring, especially in south Florida. Either your subfloor is cement, or you want a wide plank hardwood floor, or your home experiences big swings or large amounts of humidity. Any of these reasons mean that stability is a huge deal to you.
Overall Thickness
Thickness isn?t as important in most applications as the number of plies, but it is still something that we want to look at. The thickness will contribute to stability due to environmental concerns, as well as offer additional stability on an uneven surface that may be experienced in your home. Maybe there are low spots in your concrete or uneven joists in your wooden subfloor. Thicker flooring, as well as longer boards, will help to alleviate that problem. Thicker floors also allow the manufacturer to pack more material into your floor, so you can always consider a thicker floor to be better if the other attributes are the same.
Veneer Thickness
This one can be tricky! Thickness can be important but when comparing floors, it is important to know what kind of material is used in the veneer. The veneer is the layer of hardwood on top of the plywood plies.
If you will purchase a high-quality engineered hardwood floor with lots of plies and other great characteristics, the chances of your floor ever needing to be sanded are minimal. Will it get dents and other imperfections? It will but that does not have to be something that determines the lifetime of your floor. What you can do to refresh your floor is to refinish it. When a floor gets refinished, it is first scuffed with some sort of abrasive, then cleaned and a new coat or 2 of finish is applied. This will make the finish look brand new.
What the Big-Box Store Doesn?t Want You to Know
One of the problems we face in the US is the imported wood floors that are offered, especially in big box stores. These flooring options may feature a species that is often unknown to the American consumer. The foreign wood floor is typically given a domestic-sounding name. Like Asian walnut or Asian oak. These cheap floors give quality engineered hardwoods a bad name. Some of these woods are so soft, you can dent them by looking at them. Another trick used by these manufacturers is including many short planks in the box. Too many short planks will ruin the aesthetics of the wood floor. The old adage certainly applies here, if it?s too cheap?
Here to Serve
Quantum Floors is the largest specialty flooring retailer in South Florida with 5 state-of-the-art showrooms. Quantum Floors is known for their tremendous, curated selection of high-quality flooring materials, as well as in-house installation teams, which provides their clients a single point of accountability for their flooring projects. Quantum Floors maintains an A+ rating with the better Business Bureau and has amassed nearly 700 verified, 5-star reviews.
