I will never forget last year's monsoon season and the bad luck that it brought to a former client for whom my company made a custom kitchen. Their home in Phoenix was being completely remodeled, gutted and rebuilt with an addition. The square footage doubled in size and their interior designer, who unfortunately for them, was not me, had specified an exotic hardwood floor for their home. All 4,000 square feet, including the bathroom was done in this hardwood. The client, who was residing somewhere else during the renovation, came by to look at the home. They just loved their floors, worshiped their uneducated designer for suggesting them. I'd been watching this guy's work for months. This magazine published designer sadly enough can't use a tape measure. He just happens to have a nice, tiny little showroom in a high end part of Scottsdale, so one would assume he knows what he's doing. Little did the clients know who would typically repair his messes, before they saw them. (but that's besides the point!)
Three weeks past during the month of July and August had come. So did our installation of the kitchen. As we walked across the rooms to the kitchen, each had gaps and skips between the rows of hardwood planks. WHY? Because it's hardwood, number 1. Arizona's climate is way too dry and then, suddenly way too humid during monsoon season. We just do not have a steady controlled climate to allow a solid wood to naturally expand and contract. Number 2, it was glued to the concrete subfloor, another AZ no no. His massive solid wood floor did exactly what a living breathing wood is suppose to do, it twisted, warped and moved with the moisture, just like a 2x4 would do if you left it sitting in a damp basement. (Most of us should remember what a real basement is like, we're not all native!)
Sure, you can sometimes get a really good deal at those liquidation places on these overstock hardwood floors, but there's a reason that they're overstock here. Any good floor installer will tell you to stay away from them. An engineered wood floor can be superior to a solid floor because it can be glued down directly to a slab, although I generally prefer that my installers float my floors. (This is where an installer attached the floor to itself rather than the subfloor, allowing for even the slightest bit of expansion and contraction.)
Let me explain to you what an engineered wood floor is. There are far too many misconceptions among the hardwood lovers. First off, an engineered floor is not a laminate or fake wood floor. Engineered wood is a strong product, superior to a chunk of wood, as it contains several pressurized layers stacked in opposite directions to build up the product and the top layer is your natural hardwood, just in a thinner layer. These built up layers offer strength, durability and a quality product that can withstand moisture, twisting and warping and many other conditions that your standard plank cannot.
You can find this product at any retail store where you will purchase a hardwood, in fact most good establishments will sell mostly engineered woods. They will typically cost the same as your hardwood and they should due to their benefits. They look exactly the same, once installed and wear the same as a standard wood floor.
I happen to have an excellent source for any species of wood floor that you desire. (If you are local) Come see me when you are ready to put some in! Anyone who mentions this blog will get 10% off your floors. Hey, gotta advertise somewhere! Next time, we'll talk about natural stone floors.
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