Pine Engineered Flooring: As Basic As It Gets

Often confused with interlocking laminate flooring, engineered wood flooring is a design product that is quite different. While laminate flooring is made of various materials, including fiberboard, engineered wood floors are made entirely from wood. You can get them in a variety of finishes to match your style and preference, including pine, oak, and maple.

Yet Another Twist: Engineered Pine Flooring

Pine engineered flooring is topped with a veneer of real pine. All engineered wood floors are made from stacked layers of wood (2-, 3- or 5-ply), topped off with a particular wood finish. The reason why it’s often mistaken for laminate flooring systems is because both products bond or laminate layers of material together to achieve a certain thickness and durability.

Both systems are also much easier to clean than traditional hardwood floors. For instance, pine engineered flooring comes straight from the factory prefinished. Thus the messiness, vapors, and time needed to finish a solid wood floor, are already taken care of when the boards arrive. All that remains is the installation, which can easily be done by a confident do-it-yourselfer.

Rustic and Chic: It’s Pine

Bursting with character, a pinewood engineered floor can make any home feel warmer. Evocative of a cozy cabin or an artist’s studio, pine can be as rustic as you want or as chic. It’s a versatile wood prized by architects, interior designers, and homeowners alike.

Pine engineered flooring offers this same effect; only it takes less time to install and also comes with fewer restrictions compared to hardwood flooring. These include:

1. Engineered flooring boards can be applied over radiant systems.
2. Engineered floor doesn’t expand or contract like solid wood flooring does, thanks to its plywood foundation. As a result, it can be installed in most all areas of the home, including cellars or greenhouses.
3. Engineered flooring is ready to walk on immediately after installation.
4. The flooring is thick, cost-effective, and visually comparable to solid wood floors.
5. Engineered floors can be installed as floating systems.

Engineered Pine Vs. Laminate Flooring Systems

While the technology behind tongue-and-groove laminate flooring has made them remarkable alternatives to wood, ceramic and stone floors, engineered flooring remains a preferred choice for anyone who wants the “feel” of real wood, such as Southern or Heart Pine.

Indeed pine laminate flooring made from an engineered system will still possess the feel of pinewood. Though laminate flooring is able to instill a textured grainy feel to its top layer, it’s not quite the same as the real thing. For some consumers, this touch of realism is the deciding factor.