How to choose engineered wood flooring
by Chancelier Wood Flooring
1 choose the suitable type
there are two types of engineered wood flooring, 3 layer engineered wood flooring & mutiply engineered wood flooring.
Usually, mutiply engineered wood flooring have better performance in stability due to the structure of plywood base. On the other hand, 3 layer engineered wood flooring is comparatively cheaper and more environmental friendly.
we should choose the most suitable type for us based on our situations, such as the weather, the moisture of local area,etc.
2 Choose the favorable wood species for top layer of engineered flooring
engineered wood floorings are also named with the wood species of its top layer, such as oak engineered wood flooring, teak engineered wood flooring, Brazilian cherry engineered wood flooring, doussie engineered wood flooring, even rosewood engineered wood flooring.
the wood species of flooring top layer is different, there is huge difference in price, wood color and wood grain for the different timber woods. those valuable and rare timber woods are very expensive, such as wenge wood, ebony,palo santos wood, rosewood, even teak wood and walnut wood.
Before deciding the best engineered wood flooring for ourselves, we need to consider the wood color, the wood grain and the size of engineered flooring, and then finally figure out the price of the
favorable wood species to us.
3 Check the moisture content of engineered wood flooring
the moisture content of engineered flooring is very critical to the stability of the flooring boards. We must keep an eye on this factor before determining the engineered flooring supplier for our homes: the moisture content of engineered flooring has to be from 8%-12%.
If Moisture of flooring is higher than this rate, the flooring boards will definitely bend.
4 Check the precision of process technic on the products
We introduce a very simple way to check the flooring process technic, which would present the supplier’s production quality control standard:
To install the engineered flooring boards for around 10-15 pieces on the floor, then we could check these installed flooring boards with our eyes and hands:
whether these engineered wood floorings are all smooth without defect in lacquer;
all the joints are smooth and connected well;
all the bevels are clean and smooth between the joints;
below is the international standard for the flooring board details:
the gap between two adjacent flooring boards is less than 0.15mm in average,
the height difference between two adjacent flooring boards is less than 0.10mm in average.
5 check the grade of top layer wood veneer
the quality of wood veneer determines the grades of engineered wood flooring, such as A grade, AB grade, ABC grade, ABCD grade, CD grade and CDE grade.
we need to figure out the supplier’s grading standard for wood veneer, as price is very different for its different grades,
firstly, we need to check if all the wood veneers of engineered floorings are of one wood species, such as burma teak engineered flooring is with burma teak wood lamella, not with indonesian teak lamell, or oak engineered flooring is with oak veneer, not with ash veneer;
secodnly, we need to check the knots, the cracks in the wood veneer based on the grading we choose for our flooring, A grade is A grade, not including AB grade; ABC grade is ABC grade only, never including ABCD grade;
thirdly, we also need to check the quality of UV lacquer on top, to make sure whether it is all smooth, clean and feels fine. There would be no crack, no small bubble , no dot in lacquer.
finally, we shall check if the wearing layer of UV lacquer is strong enough for scratching. this is a very important factor of the engineered wood flooring performance after installation.
6 Choose the ECO engineered wood flooring
The production of engineered wood flooring involves urea-formaldehyde resin. as a result, formaldehyde will be unavoidable in engineered flooring. As we know, formaldehyde is poisonous to human body if people absorb over amount of formaldehyde. If the content of formaldehyde is kept with a certain little amount in the air, people will not find any danger of this material to the bodies.
Based on the international standard for formaldehyde emission, the engineered wood flooring is qualified as ECO product or GREEN product with formaldehyde emission less than 1.5g/ML.
7 Check the bonding strength
The bonding strength is a very important quality indicator to the engineered wood flooring, having a direct influence on the usage and lifespan of this product.
The bonding strength test is very easy: put a small sample of engineered flooring into water and boil the water along with the sample in 70℃ for 2 hours and check the plywood layer is still bonding together or debonding. Only those engineered flooring passing this boding strength test, are qualified products.
We, Chancelier Wood Flooring,only use the qualified plywood with E1 grade as the material for our engineered wood flooring.
