Hardwood Flooring vs. Engineered Wood Flooring vs. Laminate Flooring vs. LVP/LVT

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Hardwood flooring is a solid wood plank typically about ½” – 9/16” thick. It can be sanded and refiinished many times and can generally be dried and saved on category 1 water losses if cupped, but not buckled. Whereas engineeredwood flooring is a thin veneer layer of real hardwood, glued to a plywood or MDF or HDF core. It typically can’t be sanded and refinished and can only be dried on category 1 water losses when still in good condition, not coming up, and the planks have the plywood core. MDF or HDF cores typically can’t be saved if wet significantly or perhaps significantly wet. Laminate flooring is a picture of wood on paper glued to MDF or HDF core. It can’t be saved if significantly wet for it swells up very easily. Luxury Vinyl Plank or Luxury Vinyl Tile are vinyl planks or tiles made to look like wood or ceramic tile or stone. Since they are vinyl they represent a vapor barrier. The are very water resistent and can withstand water well, but if water penetrates underneath they must be taken up to dry subfloor below.

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See photos below to help tell the difference for many times it is mis-diagnosed by the onsite technician. Need a good close-up photo of an edge to tell the difference.

Engineered Wood Flooring vs. Laminate Flooring

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Look at the top edge of a plank in a close-up photo (see below) and look for how thin that edge is. On engineered wood with a MDF, HDF or plywood core it will be about 3-4 mm thick depending on quality, but you can see the edge, whereas with laminate is only a picture of wood glued to MDF, so has a very thin edge, if any at all.

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Typically, engineered wood flooring with plywood core is the only one that can be restored if significantly wet. *see Getting EDucated Article – Engineered Wood Flooring, To Dry or Not To Dry?