What a great video! Thanks for that. You didn’t waste anybody’s time, you kept it interesting and informative. We are buying a house in SK and wanting to upgrade floors. Thanks for all the tips!

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Thank you!

great video and passion!

Great video! Thanks for the info

@GRFlooring

4 жыл бұрын

My pleasure! Thank you for watching!

I would have like to hear about a cost comparison. But all other information was great. Thank you

Thanks for the video it helped me as I am looking into a hardwood floors

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Glad I could help

Great presentation

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it

I hear a lot of installers dismissing solid wood stating that engineered wood floors have near enough the same thickness of wearable layer as solid. I’ve got a Junckers solid oak floor that needs replacing due to water damage and I’m looking at a high-end engineered oak floor that has a 6mm wear layer of high quality oak. I’ve just measured an offcut for our Junckers solid floor and the thickness between surface and tongue or groove is 10mm. That’s still a big difference (> 40%), so all floors are definitely not made equal and you should check what you’re actually comparing. And for reference, I’ve completely sanded my solid oak floor twice in the past 25 years.

Just adding some info I have learned shopping around as a consumer: 1) Price: as mentioned in the video, engineered allows wider planks. So smaller width planks of timber are cheaper. The wider you go the more expensive. We have quotes for the local native Marri hardwood. It comes in 2 styles, “featured” which means more imperfections and variations in texture which = more character. “Featured” is cheaper due to the imperfections. “Standard+” is more consistent in colour and texture but more expensive. Engineered finish is somewhere between “featured” and “standard”. For 130mm planks covering 150sqm, the estimates are $31k AUD standard, $28.5k for Featured or $27k engineered all inclusive of delivery, laying, skirting, and cleanup. 2) resanding: as mentioned in the video the engineered top layer is crucial in being able to resand. The Marri example above has 6mm top layer so the resanding capability is almost the same as timber. What is often overlooked in the comparison is than timber can only be sanded down to the tongue and groove anyway so a thicker top layer on engineered will be pretty close to timber for maintenance. Ultimately it shouldn’t matter. If you have ever been in any historical buildings with hardwood floors that are 100+ years old I’ll bet they have been resanded very few times over their life. 3) Finish: a lot of engineered boards come pre-finished. This means less choice in the finish (glossed, satin, etc.) but results in a dramatic reduction in installation time. For installation of the 150sqm Marri timber above we have been told it may be over a 3 week period for installation and double sanding. Engineered you can walk on next day so maybe a week in total for 150sqm. 4) availability: natural hardwood is getting harder to come by. With the current COVID surge in demand and the reduction in logging quotas of native forests to get $150sqm of Marri is 9-12 months maybe. Quantities and delivery times are largely unknown with long queues for the next several deliveries. Engineered they can almost guarantee in 4 months. Personally I would prefer fully “ featured” native Marri but we have opted for engineered mainly due to the uncertainty of delivery and installation/ finishing timeframe of native timber.

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Great work! Thank you for sharing.

Great video - thank you!

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it!

What's a more natural finish you can buy on pre finished boards? I was wanting to get solid and finish it with tung oil.

Thanks for this video. My spouse and i are debating whether we should go with engineered or solid. We live in south Florida however we run our air conditioner 9-10 months out of the year (24/7) depending on the weather. We also live on the 5th floor of a condo that has a concrete base floor. If you had $4-5 USD/sq ft (not including underlay, glues etc) which would you purchase? I am afraid at our cost level, the engineered will not give us the same durability as the solid. The reason i am asking is every installer/contractors etc are pushing us towards vinyl/LVP or laminate. Neither of us like the look or feel of that option. So we settle on hardwood. Any insight is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Michael

@GRFlooring

3 жыл бұрын

Unfortunately your neck of the woods is very different than ours (our big issue is lack of humidity for most flooring, and cold winters). I would recommend talking to a local flooring store - find someone who has both installed and sold (not part of a chain where they are told what to say).

Thank you. This is very informative. Can you really sand the wood floor going through all the finish? I mean is it realistic to assume to refinish the floors several times without damaging?

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Absolutely. Of course anyone doing it themselves would take more of the wood as the sanding wouldn't be as precise as a professional - but as per the National Wood Flooring Association, you can get about 7 sands out of a solid wood floor before you hit the tongue.

What type of wood flooring would you recommend for a house with 2 Black Labs (about 70lbs each). We are leaning towards Hickory, but wanted to know if solid would be better over engineered?

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Tile that looks like hardwood! But seriously - the lighter the color, the more variation in the grain, and the lower the sheen. All those will help - but be aware that the floor will get marked to heck and back, no matter what specie or technology you go with. That being said - Hickory is hard and usually has lots of variation. Solid vs Engineered - solid would allow you to refinish more times if you were unhappy with the wear. Engineered would allow you to go to wider boards without too many worries.

@davidminton2661

2 жыл бұрын

What would I use on a concrete floor for hardwood glue ?

Thank you for a very informative video. I was told that engineered wood has a humidity factor tolerance up to 80%. Can you speak to humidity tolerance between wood and engineered wood?

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

I will definitely put a video out on this soon. As in my part of the world, the air is getting cooler and the humidity levels are already starting to drop! The challenge though with engineered is that not all engineered hardwoods are created equal. So while some better lines will guarantee up to 80% - many don't. So I will make sure to address that!

Is it safe to install solid wood flooring on a concrete slab it's for my house.?

@GRFlooring

3 жыл бұрын

Rule of thumb - no. The only right way to glue down a hardwood floor is to use engineered. They are made to handle the hydrostatic pressure from the concrete.

Regarding humidity, is there an "ideal" time of the year to install a hardwood floor living here in Pennsylvania?

@GRFlooring

5 ай бұрын

We have found that it's far more important that the hardwood be properly acclimatized to the home prior to install. The season doesn't matter as much (other than you don't want to be delivering hardwood when it's raining or extremely wet!

I have engineered flooring in my home,not sure if it's because of the bad work or something else,I have gaps between pieces🤔

@GRFlooring

3 жыл бұрын

Hi Lisa. Without knowing what floor you have, where you purchased it, or who installed it. It's very difficult to diagnose something like this without being on site to see it ourselves. It could be a number of potential issues but we recommend that you contact the company you dealt with initially. And if that's us, then please call the store (306-569-3422) and we'll do what we can to help.

What are good brands of engineered hardwood?

@GRFlooring

3 жыл бұрын

The two brands we have consistently carried in the showroom are Mirage and Lauzon.

Can you recommend a good brand for engineered floors?

@GRFlooring

Жыл бұрын

Two of the best are Mirage and Lauzon

Should we put hardwood floor in the kitchen?

@GRFlooring

2 жыл бұрын

Different opinions on that. If you’re afraid of marks, dents and dings - no. If you accept that they are a part of life and add character to the floor - go ahead! I’ve just renovated a place at the lake. And the entire main floor (less bathroom) is hardwood. And with my two young boys, it’s going to take a beating. But it looks amazing, and I know that it will continue to do so for many many years.

I suggest you do some back to back drop testing with both types of wood. You will be surprised what you find.

Solid wood it is. Thanks

Solid wooden floor is good fore

You never mentioned the difference between engineered floors that use hardwood vs. softwood base layers.

Can I put solid wood over tile?

@GRFlooring

3 жыл бұрын

Nooooo! ;) Depending on well the tile is adhered down, and how much patch you’re willing to use to smooth it out - you could use a glue down or floating engineered hardwood.

No mention of how much further we stretch our resources using engineered wood. In solid flooring 1 board 1 piece of flooring in engineered depending on wear layer you can get 3 or more pieces of flooring out of the same board. The manufacturing of engineered wood is a very exacting labor-intensive process as opposed to strip solid flooring production. Most solid producers can manufacture in 1 day more footage than an engineered plant can make all week. Why most engineered is out of more expensive harder to produce grades and you don't normally find engineered with heavy wear layers out of 2 1/4"- 3 1/4" the plywood and labor costs are too high to compete with solid pricing.

Not watching your video just commenting on the topic engineer works great with wide boards as it more stable for wider boards on the other hand top layer is very thin my house is 110 years old I'm still walking on original Hardwood that's the difference between solid and engineered

@GRFlooring

3 жыл бұрын

Great point - and as the wood ages, it gets more durable, harder - and more stable! Can’t beat a well installed and cared for hardwood floor!

Nothing beats Engineered flooring

@timbermannh

11 ай бұрын

Unless it delaminates :(

@BbBb-hw5pq

11 ай бұрын

​@@timbermannh you are right . But the technology has come a long way now it's very rare for it to delaminate .