Fitting - Solid wood floor vs Engineering wood floor

[Daphne]

Hi

I have a query on cost of fitting solid vs engineered wood floors. Our house is currently being refurbished. When the drawings were completed by the architect the floor finish was incorrectly specced as being an engineered wood floor rather than the solid wood floor we intend putting down - we should have picked it up earlier however what's done is done.

We will be supplying the floor, not the builder. His cost was to fit the floor by glueing over plywood nailed to the original floor joists. My question is should we expect to have to pay more to have solid wood put down rather than the engineered floor ?

Many thanks.

 

[mick1960]

Yes there is more work to do and more knowledge involved.You should be looking for a tradesman who can give you references for floors he has done in the past, that his customers are still happy with.

 

[Daphne]

Thanks Mick - I figured as much. Would you mind elaborating on the extra work so that I am a bit informed when talking to the fitter ? The solid wood we are going for has been sawn so that it is "tongue & groove".

 

[mick1960]

Hi, On an engineered flooring the board is completely finished so it can put straight down on the floor and is more stable. On a solid wood floor the boards come in various stages of finish from bare wood ,with the extra work involved, sanding staining and varnish.Solid boards also are made pre finished. For a good job in your situation whatever solid board is used it should be nailed down (secret nailing), which makes the work slower and more equipment is used therefore more costly.The main trick is to get the right Tradesman.

 

[Snapon]

The good engineered stuff will cost at least the same possibly more than solid. It's not a 'the cheap option' Engineered timber is less prone to shrinkage and warping and save valuable hard wood resources. It is also essential if using underfloor heating. Once glued to the ply it will be rock solid and noone can tell. The good stuff can still be sanded and refinished 2 - 3 times.

The sales people will tell you that the solid can be refinished more times bu that is rubbish as by the time you've sanded the surface off the engineered timber you're down to the tongue and groove on the solid anyway.

My concern in your case would be from a noise point of view, if you glue the floor to ply that structure will be very stiff and noisy. You would want at least sound proofing (reducing) strips over the joists. There are alternatives such as junckers clip system, gluring the tongue and groove, and adhesive mats that allow you to float over a sound damping underlay. These methods also allow the floor to be lifted and replaced (with varying degrees of difficulty) in the event of work neeeding to be done ..

Trunk flooring have an interesting article re: underfloor and engineered flooring
[broken link removed]

You should be able to drive a hard bargain in the current climate, when I was last looking the prices were better north of border. Woodmarket Irl. and trunk were nice to deal with local places were complacent about their prices and are now closed.

 

[mick1960]

I presumed from your original post that In your case you will not need to worry about underfloor heating if the boards are on joists,Gluing a engineered board to a plywood as you said was the architects spec is one job,any other way cost more time and money.You can lay solid boards straight on the joists without ply if you wish,but it sounds to me like the ply is all ready laid,so its best to chose a few possibility's and ask your fitter for the pro,s and cons of each.It is also worth ,as the previous poster touched on is to check that the timber comes from managed sustainable forests.