Engineered hardwood flooring is the greatest innovation in modern flooring, and is the ideal alternative to solid hardwood where subfloors are newly laid or under floor hearting is in mind.

Though it looks nearly identical to solid wood, engineered wood flooring is built differently than solid wood flooring. Instead of one solid piece of wood, there are several layers all stacked and glued or laminated together with heat & high pressure making a sub-base for the veneer wood to be glued to creating a product with similar performance to solid hardwood floors.

Engineered hardwood has less of a tendency to expand and contract with changes in humidity and temperature than compared to hardwood this is due to it having only a small layer of solid wood and a ply base which does not have the same motions as solid wood floors. Because they contain a variety of materials and use a variety of inputs, engineered wood floors can be just as green—if not greener—than other flooring options, but the scale can tip toward un-green, too. Read on to learn how to tell the difference.