How Durable is Engineered Hardwood Floor?

The floor you like looks amazing in the show room, and on display at that home show you went to a couple weekends ago. And even more you are pretty sure it will look great in your home for all of about 30 minutes until your family gets home and starts doing what they do every day: living in your home. There is no disputing the fact that you want a floor that looks great, after all that is exactly why you installed new floors, but you need a floor that will stand up to the wear your family will put it through while continuing to look as great as the day it was installed. So now that you know how you want your floor to look and you know you are installing engineered flooring, you need to ask the following: how durable is it? Here is some information about the durability of engineered flooring.

Life of the Floor

How long until, realistically, you have to redo this kind of floor? There have been studies done that found the lifespan of this particular kind of floor can be between 40 and 80 years. That is a really, really long time to get out of a floor; are you going to own your home for, at the least, 40 years? Probably not. So the life of this floor is going to last, at least, for the time you own your home and well into the span of the next owner’s time there. Outside of solid hardwood floor, you are very unlikely to find this kind of lifespan from any other flooring type out there.

Scratches, Dents and Other Small Marks

Due to the fact that engineered flooring has a top layer of solid wood it is actually susceptible to the same drawbacks of having solid hardwood floors such as easily being scratched and dented. If you do not mind a few marks of character on your floor then it probably will not be a big deal, but if you want your floors to stay pristine then you may not feel like these floors are very durable. However it is important to keep in mind that if you are, at all, living on your floors you are probably going to notice a mark eventually on them. The benefit of engineered flooring is that you can fix it with a wax repair kit, or based on who the manufacturer is, refinish these floors once or twice.

Moisture

Perhaps one of the best things about engineered flooring is that it takes the best of solid hardwood and the best of laminate wood floor and combines it into this durable, robust product. Engineered flooring looks exactly like solid hardwood, but it can be installed in basements or other areas prone to moisture. Provided a proper subfloor with a moisture barrier is installed under the floor it is an incredibly durable flooring product. By ensuring these are installed under the floor, the floor itself can actually take a lot of moisture. This does not mean spill something on it and leave it indefinitely, but if you home tends to be humid the floor is probably not going to warp or bubble.

Overall this flooring gets top marks for its durability. When compared to other types of flooring and normal, daily traffic this type of flooring stands up exceptionally well with very little competition. Despite the fact that they will scratch and dent similar to solid hardwood flooring but you can either consider this as adding character to the floors, or you can fix the scratches or refinish the floors; so you get the benefits of various flooring types. This flooring type can also be installed in legitimately any room of your house because it tolerates moisture without showing damage or warping. No matter how you look at it: the return on investment for these floors is incomparable to anything else. It will cost you more to install than something like laminate flooring but if you simply look at the lifespan of the floor it will, without question, pay for itself in compliments and enjoyment for the time you own your home.