Engineered Wooden Flooring comes in a large range of finishes, styles and structures. It’s important to understand how the boards are manufactured in order to appreciate them properly.

Finishes can range from antique, hand-distressed to natural-brushed boards and those that can be used with underfloor heating. 

There are three basic structures of engineered floors:

  •  Cross ply birch plywood back
  •  Sandwich Board 
  •  Poplar back 

Solid Wood & Engineered boards

Good quality engineered floor boards have a minimum top layer thickness of 5-6mm.

Solid boards are normally 18mm thick and good-quality engineered wood flooring is 20-21mm thick.

How Are Engineered Floor Boards Made?

  • Top quality plywood boards are the foundation for any quality engineered flooring.
  • The plywood is made of several layers of birch, the top layer has a hard surface on which to adhere.
  • You should always look for 100% birch plywood back to give extra stability. A mixture of woods is not good for the long-term stability of any engineered wooden floor.
  • The best engineered boards have a 14-15mm thick plywood back.
  • The top of hardwood flooring is then bonded to the plywood base with a high-pressure press and allowed to cure.
  • Once this is done, the boards are then put in a drying chamber (similar to a kiln) to balance the moisture content.