Engineered timber flooring

8 years ago

We are building and still undecided on our flooring. We love the look of engineered timber flooring and the one we have been looking at can be sanded back 6 times. We are after some opinions and experiences please. The price is much better than solid timber flooring. We are a young family in Brisbane so any recommendations would be great too. Thanks in advance.

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jbantick

8 years ago

Either engineered or solid timber will work ok. Most (all) engineered floors are imported from overseas with the majority being Chinese and the like. Hence the cheaper initial costs.

I would support local manufacturing and use a local solid timber flooring. Its also a lot more sustainable due obviously being local but also our quite strict industry and manufacturing laws. Theres also a limited (if any) issue of the product failing unlike some imported products. Cheaper is not really better, in particular when you are to live with a major well seen item for years to come.

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Comments (9)

jbantick
8 years ago
Going over a concrete slab?
0
stella_bella_boo
Original Author
8 years ago
Yes it is
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stella_bella_boo
Original Author
8 years ago
Ok thanks but there is a huge difference in price from engineered to solid timber so was hoping to get some recommendations for that =)
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Chanop
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
There are some solid Australian species timer floor that are pre-finished from factories. They cost about the same as 15mm/4mm oak layer board I just installed, i.e. around low 100 per squared meter. It is a good option for solid timber as far as I understand. Being pre-finished, it saves labour cost during installation.
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stella_bella_boo
Original Author
8 years ago
Hubby is going to install so after just supply. Who do you recommend?
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jbantick
8 years ago
Shop around as suppliers prices vary significantly....even for the same product....factor in installation as this varies with the product chosen and the square metres to be laid. Have a chat with some installers as they will soon tell you which product is better or has pitfalls that only an installer will know. It may look nice on the shelf but that could be where it all stops.

Start at the end of completion and work back from there. Choose a good installer that knows the products and follow their recommendations as they're the ones who get called back to jobs if a client has complaints or problems.

Keep us posted on your choices and the outcome.
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PRO
Tongue n Groove
7 years ago
Hi there, We are an engineered timber flooring company that has just opened up our new showroom in Fortitude Valley. We specialise in European Oak boards. Let me know if I can help you. I am also more than happy to have a chat about other species if Oak is not what you are looking for.

Regards,

Kevin
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PRO
User
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Hello Stella

In the flooring industry this type of flooring was called a floating floor, because it sits on an underlay. Now it is called an engineered floor (and stops the first question being about the noise underfoot).... but the noise remains depending on the level of the floor and the type of underlay.

Engineered floors have a number of layers of timber/ply at right angles to allow the expansion/contraction of the grain to be controlled. The top layer is the prefinished or raw timber species that you want with the other layers in various ply.

There are cheaper alternatives again that have particle board (chipboard) or mdf backing with a laminate printed pattern. These are, in my humble opinion not worth opening the box.

A solid timber floor can be laid a multitude of ways. Over concrete, I waterproof the slab, level it and glue and nail a plywood sheet. The timber is then laid over it, sanded and flooded (gaps filled) then sealed with a finish being either oil or water/oil based polyurethane. It can also be stained before sealing.

With the engineered floors, they come from all over the world. Some are made in China, some are made in Indonesia, some are made in Europe and so on.

A major supplier to a lot of the flooring companies is a company called Premium Floors. They supply products to eg carpet shops inc Quick-step and have done for many many years. Their website is worth a look before you go out into retail outlets.

As to your original question, when I built my first family home I installed a readyflor (premium floors as it happened) floating floor. The floor withstood some almighty parties (before kids) and still looks amazing 18 years later (it hasn't been sanded at all).

Today, I only install solid timber floors in our work purely because of personal preference and the type of renovations we are doing, and when requested by a client we have sourced from Europe.

Cheers
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Engineered timber flooring

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Engineered timber flooring

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