Engineered wood flooring is timber which consists of more than one layer. By placing each layer so that the grain runs at 90° it becomes virtually impossible for the wood to swell or shrink with changes in humidity and so dramatically increases its stability.
The top layer of an engineered board (the lamella) is solid wood, usually hardwood, and may be anything from 2 to 6mm thick; obviously the thicker the surface layer the more times it can be sanded and refinished to remove the ravages of wear; the thickest wear layers are equivalent to those on solid timber boards. The lamella is securely bonded to one or two further layers – this may be a multi-layered plywood or a sandwich with either a softwood or hardwood core.
Engineered boards should not be confused with laminate or veneer. Laminate uses an image of wood on its surface whilst veneer uses only a very thin layer of wood over a core of some type of composite wood product, usually fibreboard.
Solid Wood is just what its name suggests, wood flooring that is made from solid wood. No matter what species or grade of wood you can think of, it is likely that you’ll be able to track it down in a solid wood flooring option.