About wood flooring – engineered, solid wood, laminate

here is so much to learn about when you are selecting home finishes on your own. You’re suddenly the designer (I’m used to this) and you start to get educated about the products. I had shared flooring on my Instagram a while back and got so many DMs with questions so I went into it on stories.

Here it is if you want to catch up:

There are few types of wood flooring –

• Solid wood (expensive)
• Engineered hardwood (real wood just the first 3mm-6mm layers are the real wood, they snap together)
• Laminate (not real wood, but looks like it and it has come a long way!!)

Note I did not put wood tile in that list. Wood tile is not wood and will never look like wood, it just looks like tile with grout lines. If I were to pick a tile, I’d pick actual tile, not wood tile. Not trying to upset anyone here as many have it in their home, but it just doesn’t and will never look like real wood. tThe interior designers on podcasts have said the same and I’m just saying what they reaffirmed and hoping if you are redoing your flooring you go for either of the three above.

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Solid wood, engineered or laminate flooring?

Solid wood has perks, like the ability to be sanded down and stained again and again like the old days. When homes were built with quality items. It’s expensive and some climates don’t do well with it expanding and shrinking due to heat. Your flooring company would be the best to tell you what works in your location.

Engineered hardwood is still wood, but you probably can’t sand them down to refinish or stain because there is a thin layer of it. So if you want to redo your flooring like restain it, you will have to replace it all. Sometimes you can’t even tell if it’s solid wood or engineered but honestly, it looks good, it’s still wood.

Laminate is easy to clean and looks really good. Use it in kitchens, laundry rooms, mud rooms, places where things might get wet, leak water, durable so if there is a leak it won’t mean replacing your entire home. It’s also good if you have pets, and you should check them out if you can’t afford an entire engineered hardwood home, try laminate. Really. Laminate > wood tile.

 

Additional tips –

• Don’t get wood with scratches in them, the dirt collects in there.
• Avoid dark wood floors if you live in a dusty area or you wear shoes in the house. Like a black car, you will see the dust.

These tips come from friends who have shared their choices with me and what they would change.

Above is engineered hardwood and it can come in herringbone! They are mainly oak finishes sand I wanted to match my current maple which does not come in herringbone. If I wanted it, it would cost us an extra $8k. Um, pass.

I picked the straight oak as you can see above. It will sort of match our current home which is probably solid wood floors (but no one knows, even the floor guy came and said he couldn’t tell and would assume solid). It doesn’t matter to me what it is, but I just think this will make me happy.

Oak grains are busy. And with herringbone it makes it even more busy so I decided it wasn’t for me right now. I love it, but it’s not right for the current space I’m needing the floors.

See how maple is a little easier on the eye with grain? Some won’t like the warm tone but I do!

If I were to redo my entire floors I would probably pick something else, and my friend Amber suggested I select something I would pick today but I don’t plan to replace the other floors anytime soon, and if I did, the chances of the same flooring being around I just picked for my closet…well… you know?

So there it is, and looks like I need to get those flagstone floors cleaned again. Another thing to do after the closet is done.

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Diana Elizabeth has a long to do list before the holidays but she has the window cleaning booked already! Yay!