Tag: hardwood anatomy

The Anatomy of Chocolate Cake and Hardware Floors, part 2

Plywood is an engineered wood. It’s made up of layers of cross-laminated wood veneer or layers of lumber with a central multi-layered core lumber strip. Engineered means that we added our own mix of science and material design principles to the original wood source to create our own form of “wood” – many people will refer to any manufactured wood product, even fiberboard, as “engineered wood.” Wood veneer over plywood is another type of engineered hardwood. However, wood veneer flooring can refer to fiberboard layered with wood veneer and kraft paper, or it can refer to wood veneer over plywood. Veneer is simply a thin sheet of wood. “Lamina” means a thin sheet or plate. “Laminated construction” implies that layering is a part of the process.

Laminate and engineered flooring are made from layers. Design, construction and manufacturing companies struggle to agree upon distinctions in terms. “Engineered” and “Laminate” define a process, but they are also often used to define material. Unfortunately, the terms are sometimes used to deceive consumers into thinking they’re buying a higher-quality product than they actually are. Make sure you identify the materials and layers of your flooring choice. Laminate flooring uses a printing process (or a sheet of wood veneer), wood chips or/or synthetic materials, along with some glue and heat to give you the look of finished hardwood. It’s similar to using artificial chocolate to create a surprisingly scrumptious chocolate cake.

Laminate flooring comes about 6-9 millimeters thick. The number of layers vary, but it’s usually between four and six layers. The layers generally include a top protective layer, the décor paper or wood veneer layer for the “look” of the hardwood, the baseboard and edging, and a stabilizing layer on the bottom that also works as a moisture barrier. The material used in laminate flooring is not consistent through manufacturers, so make sure you are buying a quality product. Accepted international standards rate A-1 for bedroom use to A-4 for commercial use.

It’s a lot easier to eat a piece of chocolate cake than it is to choose a hardwood floor, but by exploring the layers of hardwood flooring types you’ll better understand your hardwood floor plans. Then you can focus on the more delicious layers of a chocolate cake.

The Anatomy of Chocolate Cake and Hardware Floors, part 1

Unless you’re a termite, chocolate cake tastes better than a hardwood floor. But “Hardwood Flooring” describes flooring about as precisely as “Chocolate Cake” can describe the precise ingredients for a chocolate cake. One ingredient is common in every chocolate cake – and that’s chocolate. One ingredient is common in every hardwood floor – and that’s hardwood.

Chocolate cake ingredients can consist of pure chocolate, a mix of chocolates, artificial chocolate, or any one of 100 different percentages of chocolate as a part of the whole chocolate cake. It’s still called a chocolate cake. Hardwood floors can have pure hardwood, a mix of hardwood, a percentage of hardwood, or just look like hardwood. A cake can be one or many layers. A hardwood floor can be one or many layers. The differences will change quality, properties, texture and taste. (In most cases, a cake will always taste better than a floor. But there are always exceptions.)

Solid hardwood flooring is always 100% of one type of timber. Engineered hardwood flooring can be all wood, but it will have different types of timber. Wood veneer flooring has a thin wood layer frosted on top of another wood or non-wood layer. Laminate floors can be wood-laminate or plastic-laminate, and they may or may not contain natural hardwood. Not only do these flooring types contain different concentrations of wood, they are also all manufactured differently.

Solid hardwood floors are cut whole from a trunk of a tree. The wood is dried first, cut and planed down to size, then milled to precision so the strips, pieces or blocks can lock into place.

Engineered hardwood flooring is made from wood layers of (usually) different timbers. It goes through a longer manufacturing process than solid hardwood, and a special drying process tightens the sealed layers to restrict wood movement. Heat and pressure create the seal. Engineered floors with a layered 90-degree composition contribute to the floor’s steadfastness during temperature changes because the layers counteract each other. At temperature changes where solid hardwood floors contract and expand, engineered hardwood floors remain steadfast and true.