Wood Flooring Buyer's Guide

Build.com carries several different types and styles of ooring. The three most common hardwood ooring types are Solid
Hardwood, Engineered Hardwood, and Laminate. There are also two relative newcomers to the hardwood ooring matrix,
within in the past ten years, Cork ooring and Bamboo ooring.
Solid Hardwood
This is usually the most expensive option, since the entire panel is made from
solid wood. Solid hardwood also must be allowed to ‘oat’ around the edges
of the room, since it is prone to expansion and it could warp if the wood does
not have room to expand.
Engineered Hardwood
Engineered hardwood ooring is essentially a plywood, that
resists warping, with 3-5 layers of lower-grade base hardwood topped by a
decorative hardwood wear layer. The thickness of the wear layer determines
how many times the ooring can be renished before it needs replacement.
Laminate (Hardwood look)
Laminate ooring consists of a moisture-resistant bottom layer, an HDF
(high-density berboard) center layer, and a thin acrylic design layer topped
by a clear wear layer.
Laminate ooring cannot be renished, but replacement is simple, since the
panels interlock and don’t need nailing or gluing.
Cork and Bamboo
Cork and Bamboo are both multi-layer engineered ooring types. Bamboo
ooring tends to have several alternating bamboo layers, whereas Cork, due
to its softness, has an HDF layer for rigidity. These types of ooring use a
oating interlock installation, and do not require nailing or gluing.
Solid Hardwood (cross-section)
Engineered Hardwood (cross-section)
Laminate (cross-section)
Cork Hardwood (cross-section)
Bamboo Hardwood (cross-section)
Hardwood ooring needs to be protected from temperature and humidity extremes in order to last.
With many hardwood oor installations an additional underlayment layer, called a vapor barrier, is
laid down rst to protect against moisture.
Refer to your ooring installation guide, or your contractor, for the correct underlayment type.
ooring types
acclimation
accessories
underlayment
One thing to keep in mind about Hardwood
Flooring is that it needs to acclimate to the
room it is to be installed in. This is an easy
process, and all you need to do is place
the ooring in the room for a few days in
advance of the installation.
This will allow the wood to swell or shrink
before installation, so that it will not buckle
or warp after installation.
Once your hardwood ooring has been
installed, you will need to add baseboards,
transitions, stairnoses, and edge moldings
to any area where the Hardwood ooring
transitions into another material type.
Build.com carries a wide variety of
these moldings so you can nish out your
new Hardwood oor in style.
T-Molding
Transition
Quarter Round
Overlap Stairnose