Solid Wood (or) Engineered Wood for your next Wooden Sports Floor?

Many of them are often confused while choosing a Wooden Floor for their sports surface. Let us explain you the differences of Engineered & Solid Wood which will let you make the informed decision.

Specifications:

- Solid Wood:  Typically 22mm thick made from narrow staves of timber joined by a double dovetail joint which is typically no more than 4mm below the surface of the board.

- Engineered Wood:  Manufactured to combine a Solid Maple Wood wear layer with a high-density multi-layer plywood core. The high-density multi-layer core provides superior indentation resistance and high dimensional stability.

Sanding & Refinishing: (This is typically done when the wooden floor loses the shine/polish/)

- Solid Wood:  Solid Wood boards cup and curl at the board edges, as they expand and contract, therefore you need to sand of the peaks to get to the scratches in the hollows. A consequence of this is that a typical sand and reseal on a solid timber floor will be more frequent and will actually bite into and consume more of the hardwood.

- Engineered Wood:   Engineered wood boards when compared to solid timber boards are 7 times more dimensionally stable when exposed to changes in temperature and humidity. They do not cup and curl therefore you only need to abrade the surface to remove scratches and consume little, if any, of the hardwood.

Consequently, the average life of a floor with an engineered wood board will be significantly longer.

Appearance & Maintenance:

- Solid Wood:  Solid wood floor suffers greater expansion and contraction, a typical installation needs to include ‘washer gaps’ every 4 boards to take up some of the expansion and contraction.

- Engineered Wood: These floors only require a perimeter expansion gap. 

Environmental Impact:

An engineered hardwood board typically uses 80% less precious hardwood than a solid timber board.

Floor Loadings: 

The construction of an engineered hardwood board incorporating a plywood core layer increases the elasticity of the floor. 

When coupled with a plywood undercarriage over an elastic layer such as our system distributed floor loadings of up to 2000kg/ m2 can be achieved – far in excess of any loadings that a solid timber board laid over battens can achieve.

Performance:

- Solid Wood:  These surfaces only offer elasticity from the sub-construction as the surface boards are very rigid,

- Engineered Wood: On these surfaces both the surface and the sub-construction combine to give high levels of performance and comfort.

Life Cycle Costs:

The cost of maintaining a typical 600m2 solid timber floor to the manufacturer’s instructions is in the region of Rs. 75 lakhs over a 25 year period, the cost for a comparable engineered hardwood floor is significantly less, being in the region of Rs. 40 lakhs.

Conclusion:

Wooden surfaces have evolved such that if your preference is for a hardwood finish then an engineered floor should be the obvious choice – superior sports performance and lower life-cycle costs come as standard.

Made your mind?

Now contact us for the installation.

Chaitanya Venkat Anne
+91-8885857700, 8686689741