In the hardwood industry today, there are basically two types of REAL hardwood floors - Solid and Engineered. Many different companies are pushing solid, whereas many other are pushing engineered - what are the differences?

Solid hardwood flooring is just that - solid hardwood. the image above shows a side view of the flooring and how it looks. It can range anywhere from 3/8" to 33/32" although the most popular by far is the 3/4".

Engineered hardwood flooring is a wear layer (not a picture like laminated flooring) of real wood overtop of a base of plywood (usually ranging from 3 to 5 ply) or High Density Fiberboard. The plywood is used to create a more stable product. It is ideal as a stabilizer because of the alternating directions of the ply.

Different manufactures all have different rules and regulations for installing their floors. We will attempt to cover the more popular methods in this page. Solid - it is installed with either nails or cleats, the length of which depends on the thickness of the board (i.e. 3/4" uses a 2" fastener).

As you can see, the nail will be covered by the next row of hardwood. Solid wood can ONLY be nailed to the subfloor, therefore it requires a wood subfloor*.

Engineered hardwood is available in two types - panels and strips. The panels are typically 7" wide and 36" long, and they are meant to be 'floating floors'. That is where you glue the tongue and the groove on the panels, and just let them rest on top of the subfloor - as they are not directly attached. This allows a very fast DIY and professional installation. The other type, the strips are just like solid wood, only they can be nailed or glued directly to the subfloor. By being able to glue the strips down, we are able to place the floor overtop of radiant heating systems, basements, and anywhere else where there is concrete.

The main differences between solid and engineered once they are installed and we don't see the side views anymore, is stability. Of course, we all know that wood is a living product - i.e. it will move depending on the humidity in the house. Since solid wood is just that - solid, it moves without restriction. The engineered, however, is a different story - it is controlled by the plywood that it is attached to. Since the plies are all trying to move in different directions (they are placed perpendicular to each other) the floor cannot move as much as the solid. Because the floor is wood, so it will move and be affected by moisture as well, only not as significantly as the solid.

Bear in mind, while both products look very similar, the engineered is more stable. The solid can be installed only over a wooden subfloor, whereas the engineered can be installed anywhere. The engineered is allowed over radiant heating installations, whereas the solid cannot be installed over the in floor heat.

*There are now some floating solid hardwoods flooring products available now. This is something that in our opinion is a horrible idea that will cause nothing but problems (see the section on dimensional stability). Buyers beware.