What is the difference between solid wood, engineered wood, and laminate?

Solid wood is made from a single piece of natural wood. It can be oak, maple, ash or any other number of tree species. The main benefit of a solid wood floor being that it can be sanded and refinished multiple times over the course of the lifetime of the floor.

Engineered wood is made from natural wood but rather than being a single piece of wood from top to bottom, engineered wood is made by joining layers of material together. Engineered wood is typically made up of two or three layers – the surface or ‘wear-layer’ is often made from hardwood, with the base layers being made from other raw materials, commonly pine / spruce / douglas fir. This process of clever manufacturing creates a product that is both more environmentally friendly and more mechanically stable than solid wood, without compromising on the beauty of a natural hardwood floor. Engineered wood can typically be sanded and refinished just like a solid floor, but the number of times that this is possible is dependent on the thickness of the surface or ‘wear layer’ of the floor.

Solid engineered wood is a variant of engineered wood flooring. Like engineered wood, solid engineered wood is also made from natural wood, but rather than having hardwood on the surface and layers of softwood below – solid engineered wood is comprised of three layers of the surface material, most commonly oak. This process of clever manufacturing creates a product that is more mechanically stable than solid wood, without compromising on the beauty and longevity of a solid wood floor. Solid engineered wood floors can typically be sanded the same number of times as a solid wood floor.

Laminate flooring is also comprised of multiple layers. Laminate flooring has a highly resistant, transparent wear layer on the surface, a design layer below which creates the pattern of the floor i.e. grain, colour etc. and a base layer made of sturdy HDF (High Density Fibreboard).