Types of Wood Floors

There are 3 mainstream types of wood floors in Canada: solid hardwood, engineered hardwood, and hard laminate.

Solid Hardwood Flooring

Solid wood floors are a traditional type of flooring, usually 0.75 inches thick, made from a solid piece of natural solid wood, most of which could have a durable service life of more than 30 years. Even if the surface is damaged, it can return to its original luster simply from sanding and repainting or oiling. Because they are made of natural hard wood logs, this type of floors are generally the most expensive while also being difficult to install since they require nail-fixing. The most common wood flooring materials in Canada include red maple, maple, and cherry. Floors made from Burmese or African teak have even higher price tags.

Engineered Hardwood Flooring

Laminate floors are made of a variety of solid woods (hardwood, cork, plywood, fiberboard) with a hardwood surface. This type of floors can be further divided into three-layer solid wood composite floor, multi-layer solid wood composite floor, and new solid wood composite floor based on different manufacturing methods. Although it is composite, the solid wood surface still provides a decent look. At the same time, the price is more affordable than solid wood floors because of the cheaper materials. In addition, the installation process is much simpler without the need of nails.

Laminate Flooring

The laminate floor is composed of three layers of materials: the middle layer is high density fiber, the bottom layer is a balance layer, and the surface layer is made of wear-resistant decorative paper with paint. It is bonded together by glue and high pressure through multiple processes, and after cutting, it becomes our common composite floor. The reason why we usually see many styles of laminate floors is that the decorative stickers in the middle are really just specially treated “printing paper”. Because of its low price, easy installation, and high wear-resistance, laminate floors are used in many public or crowded places. However, it should be noted that a lot of chemical components are used in the production process of composite wood, making it not an ideal option for families with children.