I'm in the process of purchasing a house that I had hoped had wood under the carpet, but unfortunately, does not. The first floor is hardwood. I'm coming from a house with hardwood floors throughout - huge, wide plank, awesome farmhouse flooring (it's an old country home).
For the sake of saving money, I was considering doing a self install, rather than go with lumber liquidators and saw that engineered wood has a click install system, as does Pergo laminates.
It is impossible to get a read on anything from the samples in store. What do these feel like? Obviously it won't feel like walking on hardwood, and we plan on having area rugs on top, but does it feel like cheap crap? Does it vary from brand to brand?
My current house has natural hard woods and they scratch easier, are harder to maintain, they are less slippery, but also look great.
As mentioned there are different level with varying qualities and prices.
I would personally go would hardwood unless you want it somewhere you can’t use real hardwood, such as a basement or over concrete.
With that said we have real hardwood downstairs and you can tell the difference, but again I liked this better than the vinyl alternatives, for something cheaper than real hardwood.
I'm hesitant to do real hardwood because that's a next level install, versus a floating install.
I'm trying to determine what is considered premium engineered versus cheap? Price doesn't always tell the whole story. These companies make so many different types, like Pergo, that it starts to seem like one type to the next is a lateral move versus a true hierarchy of quality versus el cheapo.
With that said we have real hardwood downstairs and you can tell the difference, but again I liked this better than the vinyl alternatives, for something cheaper than real hardwood.
I'm sure it doesn't completely compare and having real hardwood downstairs will obviously be different, but then again downstairs will be free of area rugs and upstairs is bedrooms, hallways. So that provides an additional layer of camouflage :)
Engineered hardwood bonds a thin layer of real hardwood to a plywood base. Laminate, like Pergo, bonds a photo of hardwood (or stone, tile, you name it) to a fiberboard or cork base. It’s then covered in a durable plastic top layer.
Engineered hardwood bonds a thin layer of real hardwood to a plywood base. Laminate, like Pergo, bonds a photo of hardwood (or stone, tile, you name it) to a fiberboard or cork base. It’s then covered in a durable plastic top layer.
I think they may have a small line of hardwoods - but I'm not sure XP falls within that. I'll need to look around the Hudson Valley (New York) for a place to shop around. I don't think I want to go the Home Depot/Lowes route.
Engineered hardwood bonds a thin layer of real hardwood to a plywood base. Laminate, like Pergo, bonds a photo of hardwood (or stone, tile, you name it) to a fiberboard or cork base. It’s then covered in a durable plastic top layer.
Jesse mentioned Pergo (and highlighted it as a laminate) in his OP.
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Since Pj brought up Pergo, it should be noted that it’s not engineered hardwood. It’s laminate.
Engineered hardwood bonds a thin layer of real hardwood to a plywood base. Laminate, like Pergo, bonds a photo of hardwood (or stone, tile, you name it) to a fiberboard or cork base. It’s then covered in a durable plastic top layer.
Jesse mentioned Pergo (and highlighted it as a laminate) in his OP.
Missed that. Just trying to make sure everyone was on the same page.
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Since Pj brought up Pergo, it should be noted that it’s not engineered hardwood. It’s laminate.
Engineered hardwood bonds a thin layer of real hardwood to a plywood base. Laminate, like Pergo, bonds a photo of hardwood (or stone, tile, you name it) to a fiberboard or cork base. It’s then covered in a durable plastic top layer.
Jesse mentioned Pergo (and highlighted it as a laminate) in his OP.
How does the Pergo laminate feel underfoot?
Last room - ( New Window )
It looks really nice!
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In comment 13994601 Jim in Fairfax said:
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Since Pj brought up Pergo, it should be noted that it’s not engineered hardwood. It’s laminate.
Engineered hardwood bonds a thin layer of real hardwood to a plywood base. Laminate, like Pergo, bonds a photo of hardwood (or stone, tile, you name it) to a fiberboard or cork base. It’s then covered in a durable plastic top layer.
Jesse mentioned Pergo (and highlighted it as a laminate) in his OP.
How does the Pergo laminate feel underfoot?
Ours was very slippery. But I've read things you can do to make it less slippery, but we never did them.
I actually really like it if you spend the $ to get a good product (say a 3/16" wear layer and a 5/8" thickness) - you get access to widths, species and finishes that are simply out of most people's price ranges in solid wood. In most cases you'll get all long planks so you can get a more controlled layout and not have a busy look with raking light because off all the joints. It also moves less with fluctuations in temp/humidity which is a big deal in the NE since we go from Antarctica to African Rain Forrest in matter of minutes. It's being more and more widely used in higher end building -especially in more modern designs and by builders who value sustainability in their material choices.
The install isn't really markedly different as I probably wouldn't go the click and lock route. Most can be stapled down which is what I would do (and many installers like to glue as well). The benefit is the easier layout and the pieces will generally fit together easier than solid wood.
I recently put 6 1/2" wide pre-finished solid oak through my downstairs and have a little buyers remorse. It's just getting harder and harder to get a good product in solid wood across a number of species when you want a wide plank, as you end up with a lot of short pieces, which looks lousy and makes layout a pain. In my case most of the shorter stuff was also milled a bit narrower than the longer boards which was disappointing and took some strategizing when I was laying it down to hide the problems.
If I had to do it over again I would have gotten an unfinished white oak directly from a mill or a good engineered product.
I found a product with a thick wear layer, so that it can be sanded 2 or 3 times. Many of the engineered products have a thin wear layer that can only be sanded once. So far, I haven't had a need to sand it.
It's on top of a cement slab on the first floor of a 2 story townhouse. It is bonded with glue, so it goes; cement slab, vapor barrier, and the engineered wood bonded with glue.
The advice from most floor installers is, where you have a wooden base that can be nailed into, use regular wood. The benefit is you can get many sandings out of it over the course of it's life. On top of cement, use engineered hardwood bonded with glue.
Personally, I don't care for floating installations. They have some 'give' to the floor that doesn't feel right.
My wife initially wanted to do laminate, but I hated it. It looked fake, and I knew she would have hated it within a year. Engineered wood is more expensive, but definitely worth it, IMO.