What’s Engineered Oak Flooring?
Typically, oak flooring is produced by processing an oak tree into wide slices roughly 100mm thick.
These layered planks are allowed to season over numerous several days or most are, sometimes, then kiln dried.
The layers are sliced again to produce thinner board blanks (around 25mm thick) which are then planned, cut and grooved to produce finished oak floor boards.
Engineered flooring follows the identical process but instead in the finished floor boards being 20mm thick, a thinner veneer is cut, between 4mm and 6mm thick.
This oak veneer is going to be glued with a softwood ply board, while using thickness in the finished board watch out onto around 20mm.
This process is great out of your environmental perspective, as growing figures of floor boards are created within the same tree, many the board includes wood from fast growing, sustainable softwood trees.
Where & Why To Utilize Engineered Oak Flooring
Natural advantages of engineered oak flooring result from the marrying from the hardwood placed on layer with a softwood ply backing board.
Oak features a natural inclination to change shape when its moisture content changes – shrinking if the dries and swelling if the can get moist.
Ply board is produced by connecting strips of softwood in layers with each and every layer being vertical with respect for the previous layer.
This gives incredible strength and torsional rigidity i.e. it does not change shape as readily just like a wood plank.
By connecting hard wearing and interesting oak veneer or placed on layer for the dimensionally stable plywood base, the resulting board is effective, stable and seems great.
Engineered flooring is going to be perfect for use where moisture may present trouble for example in bathrooms and kitchens, but may also be perfect for where a constant drying can happen for instance over underfloor heating systems.
The minimal expansion and contraction from the flooring also lends it to being glued with a subfloor rather of nailed and enables for wider boards to get glued than possible with oak flooring.
Factors To Consider When Choosing Engineered Oak Flooring
Generally, an oak floor is selected based on its appearance.
If you are ambitious with a traditional searching oak floor, you will need the oak boards to exhibit the kind of the classic oak floor.
Due to this, it is vital that any knots, shakes, or cracks inside the oak remain unfilled.
Sadly, much engineered oak in the marketplace is destroyed with the filling of natural features with plastic polymers and resins, which while they decrease the ground, render it unattractive and abnormal.
They important components to consider when choosing an engineered oak floor are:
Could be the softwood ply board backing of fine quality – can it be even and dense with handful of splinters, dents and missing strips?
Could be the oak placed on layer thick enough (it must be no less than 6mm thick) allowing sanding no less than three occasions afterwards, should fashions change as well as the floor colour need to change together?
Will be the boards grain finish matched to complement longer runs of board?
Will be the boards accessible in lengths over 1800mm?
Could be the flooring provided getting a memory coating or left incomplete at the discretion round the colour and handle?
Selecting an oak floor is certainly a good investment and getting minimal costly available is not always the simplest way to go.
The Best Way To Lay Engineered Oak Flooring
Engineered oak flooring might be laid in a couple of ways: traditional hidden nail/screw or by gluing employing a wood floor adhesive.
The selection regarding which method of employ is generally based on factors for instance room heights, levels of adjacent floors as well as the nature and condition in the subfloor.
Engineered boards lend themselves perfectly to gluing because of their natural stability in which the ground is required to become laid over under floor heating, a glue based method is essential.
The engineered boards needs to be tongue and grooved and therefore, if fixing to battens or possibly a wood sub-floor, it’s might be secret nailed or screwed using the tongues.
Summary
Engineered oak is certainly an increasingly popular choice in relation to flooring and will be offering a number of advantages over oak both form an environmental and practical perspective.
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