Laminate Flooring or Engineered Wood Flooring? Which one is better?

This question has often been dawned upon the flooring contractors almost everyday from their customers. Laminate or engineered wood? Which one is better?

In fact, both are equally good in their own ways, in terms of usage, design and durability.

Both are also at a reasonably and relatively much lower pricing than that of a solid piece of wooden flooring. Hence, the only way to look into the difference will be examining the pros and the cons of having either one of the flooring.

What is engineered wood flooring?

Imagined it is a compressed sandwich of wood, with a real wood on its top layer and layers of plywood below. The core layer is the strongest layer of the floorboard which is usually made up of different wood materials depending on the flooring brand.

Some of the benefits of engineered wood flooring are:

Due to its structural pattern, some engineered wood flooring has relatively higher resistance to moisture and temperature changes in the surrounding. Quality floorboard that uses Hevea core layer will have the lowest tendency to expand and contract with frequent changes in the surrounding climate especially in tropical humid countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.

Engineered wood flooring can last longer in terms of durability. Depend on the thickness of the top wood layer; the floorboard can be re-sanded at least 2 times. Hence, say after 10 years, you can give your engineered wood floor a “new life” again by re-varnishing and coating.

No one can tell easily from the naked eye whether your flooring is engineered or solid wood. This is because engineered wood flooring is also made from real wood too. Quality engineered wood installation will make the entire flooring intact leaving no gaps in between. Hence, one will enjoy luxurious wooden flooring at the comfort of their homes without having to “burn their pockets.”

However,

Just like solid wood flooring, engineered wood is prone to scratches. Especially, if the home owner has pets, scratches on the wood surface will be unavoidable. Some say this is the beauty of real wood as it will leave some memories behind for your beloved pets.

What is laminate flooring?

Laminate flooring usually has a layer of photographed design on its surface while it laid on top of many compressed layers of plywood.

Some of its benefits are:

It is highly scratch resistant due to its aluminum oxide coating, the fourth strongest material in the world. Hence, this is good for pet lovers.

Secondly, it is the most cost effective flooring design for your home. Moreover, with laminate flooring, you can have almost any kind of “wood species” or designs you can ever imagine. This gives the home owner and designers a wide variety of home décor options.

Today, new laminate flooring installation requires zero glue. They are using a patented interlocking or clicking system, which simply clicks 2 floorboards together. This makes laminate flooring installation fast and easy. The home owner can have beautiful laminate floors in no time.

However,

Laminate flooring cannot be re-varnished or re-sanded. After some time, the owner will need to change the whole flooring again. On the other hand, laminate flooring is still laminate flooring. It is not real wood at all. Therefore, till now, real wood “go-getters” are still not willing to appreciate the beauty of laminate flooring.

In Summary

On an objective point of view, both engineered wood floor and laminate flooring are perfect in the own unique ways. Both have its own pros and it cons. If you are a die-hard wood lover without a very high renovation budget, engineered wood will be a better option for you. However, if you are one who likes colorful designer flooring, laminate flooring is good.