One of those once-mysterious materials that have come to dominate the market in relatively short order, engineered wood is an excellent solution to the occasional difficulties that solid wood flooring can surface. In essence, it recreates the look of solid oak, using layers of compressed timber ply to create a solid board, but is considerably more affordable than its counterpart. On top of these compressed layers is a decorative and solid wood veneer, which both gives it a more beautiful appearance and also makes it very, very durable, ensuring engineered wood is useful in heavily used areas of a house or indeed a commercial space, but cheaper.
Over the course of a career more than 40 years in the making, says Philip Hooper, “one of the biggest changes I have seen is the passion for wooden floors.” Hooper is joint managing director of Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler, and noticed a broad shift in tastes among clients and the interior design ecosystem at large in recent decades. “As a simpler, more pared-back look took hold of the decorating world and a growing number of companies offered beautifully finished flooring in a variety of woods, it became an obvious choice for a crafted interior.” Engineered floors were central to this transition: “No unsightly planks, nail holes and splinters, however. Instead, we had engineered boards – veneered, not solid – suitable for use with underfloor heating and in both traditional and modern rooms.”
Philip’s observation aptly touches on the versatility of engineered boards. This sort of wood can suit a room which might be subject to changing temperatures, whether daily or throughout the year – hence the material’s suitability for underfloor heating. “A solid oak floor would be prone to movement and expansion,” says Natalie Mudd, co-founder of engineered wood specialists Knot & Grain. “Whereas the way that the engineered core is built, it sits at right angles to the top surface, so it is a lot more stable. It’ll stay in place and it won’t change in the summer months.” In variable rooms like conservatories or even bathrooms, this can make a world of difference to the stability of the floor.
Likewise, engineered wood flooring can also be more environmentally friendly. Underneath the oak veneer, explains Natalie, the reconstituted layer of multi-ply wood tends to be made from faster-growing species of tree (in Knot & Grain’s case, this is eucalyptus, but pine is also popular). That means that the floor requires significantly less slow-growth timber; pine trees can grow to maturity in less than three years, an oak typically takes about 20, though both species continue growing for decades after that.
One undeniable benefit to a solid oak floor is the ability to sand out any scuffs and marks in the material, though Natalie emphasises that this is certainly just as possible with the veneer on an engineered floor. Knot & Grain generally offer three thicknesses of veneer, at three, five and six millimetres. Each sanding might take off 0.05mm of the veneer, and it doesn’t have to be done very often at all; in reality, it could be decades before the thickness of the floor’s top layer even remotely mattered. These veneers can also be finished with particular treatments according to taste.
Engineered wood flooring is not without its opponents, however. Patrick Williams of Berdoulat calls them “a pet hate” and has told House & Garden that they “inevitably result in characterless, flat, pancake-like expanses of floor. You will never be able to make a floor look aesthetically correct in a period building if using an engineered product.” It’s certainly a valid criticism – one would be much less likely to lay engineered flooring in a Tudor or Jacobean house, say – and there can be a real charm in a lack of uniformity. “The cracks between the boards on a traditional floor, coupled with the pairs of nail heads, provide a rhythm, a visual cadence across the surface.”
Instead, says Patrick, oak and Douglas fir planks from Dinesen and kiln-dried oak planks bonded to ply would be his go-to flooring for those who wanted underfloor heating. They work on the “same principle as engineered, but [are] put together on-site with lovely long boards. These boards can be spaced so header joints are visually accurate, and they can make nosings in the same material for steps, et cetera, enabling you to get the right look, so you’d never know it’s not an original floor.” In other words, they avoid the visual uniformity that makes some engineered flooring stick out in older buildings. Will Fisher and Charlotte Freemantle of Jamb agree, as does Rita Konig. “Antique, reclaimed floorboards are a must,” say the Jamb founders. “The homogeneity of factory-engineered planks undermine a room and, ironically, throw it into disarray.” Rita prefers wide oak boards, which are “hard to beat. I have been working with Freeman Attwood quite a bit recently. Its boards are left to dry for three years before they are laid, which means they have minimal movement once installed and can be laid on underfloor heating.”
Perhaps the most basic argument in favour of engineered wood floors is the cost. Even the difference between the 3mm and 6mm oak veneers can be significant, says Natalie Mudd, and so the proportional cost of an entirely solid oak floor is massive in comparison. Sometimes, though, people just want to have solid wood underfoot. “There are people that definitely want a solid wood floor. They just think it feels more substantial. But from a practical and cost perspective, and obviously the ecological perspective as well, I think engineered does make a lot of sense.”
